Open Space Technology is a meeting methodology that helps individuals and groups become more effective in work environments that are rapidly and constantly changing by developing their skills as lifelong learners and collaborative problem solvers. It creates the conditions so that the maximum potential of the individual and the organization to be realized. Open Space Technology captures the knowledge, experience and innovation in the organization that is not captured through less open processes.

• Breakthrough learning
• Appropriate structure
• Genuine community
• Spirited performance
• Playful involvement
• High efficiency
• High productivity
• Shared leadership
• Growth from within
• Elimination of barriers to doing a job quickly with excellence and pride

Almost any business issue including strategic direction setting, envisioning the future, identifying the issues and opportunities to realize the desired future, conflict resolution, morale building, organizational transformation to a high performing and high learning organization.

Any organizational situation in which there is:

• A real issue of concern
• Diversity of players
• Complexity of elements
• Presence of passion (conflict is an element of passion)
• Decision time is now

1. Review some of the articles about the use of Open Space around the world. These can be found on the website that is currently under construction for the Global Open Space Institute at geocities.com/Athens/Oracle (note that this is the location of the site until initial construction is completed at which time it will be located at www.tmn.com/openspace replacing the site that is currently there. I refer you to the one under construction because it has over 200 articles and is content rich).
2. Go through Harrison Owen’s Open Space Technology, A User’s Guide (Berrett-Koehler, 1997) to give you some insight into the basic principles of Open Space and how it has worked in a number of settings.
3. Read the appendices attached to this document. They have been carefully selected from the available materials to give you a quick overview of why large systems interventions are critical as the means for achieving organizational change in these times; description of Open Space Technology; and selected articles giving you examples of the successful use of Open Space Technology.

    4. Determine whether Open Space is appropriate. (Consider Critical Success Factors 1 and 2.)

    5. Create the conditions for success (Plan your strategy for meeting Critical Success Factors 3-10)

(developed by Diane Blair, Manager of Meta Learning, Bank of Montreal, Institute for Learning. Diane developed this for circulation at the Bank, where Open Space Technology has been used both at senior levels and across entire divisions. Diane has put this together with a large organization in mind. As well as her role at the Bank, Diane is an active member of the Open Space Institute of Canada. Diane can be reached at dblair@ifl.bmo.ca)

• Avoid limiting your invitation list by position or role, invite the right community of interest for the topic.
• The invitation should include: a brief explanation of the issue; the question that will be addressed; a clear message that the meeting is only for individuals who have a passion about this issue and a willingness to take responsibility. ( Note: you can still set a limit on the total number of participants, in fact, this often heightens the enthusiasm and commitment to attend. )

1. The longer the Open Space the greater the discussion and more focused the resolutions. Open Space is a learning process. Discovering, reflecting and resolving issues needs time. The general rule is: One day of Open Space produces good conversation;

• Plan on the appropriate number of days to match your expectations for results.
• When time is short, narrow the scope of your topic to match the outcomes you expect OR break the issue into several meetings and tackle it in stages. (E.g. The first stage could be a small Open Space for the leaders or champions of the issue. The "Small Space" could focus on the issue with respect to the challenges and opportunities for leadership)

4. THE "RIGHT" QUESTION: How well does your topic match your target audience?

• Prepare Stakeholders by involving them in a small Open Space to plan future Open Spaces
• Ensure you have the understanding and commitment of each leader with an interest in the

• Identifying Mentors?
• Adopt an executive?
• Other open space forums? Or mini-forums?
• Adopting open space principles in regular meetings
• Building outcomes into personal and business plans

9. COMMUNICATION: Keep up the communication.

In Open Space, even though the meeting comes to an end the issues continue to evolve. The on-going
learning and discovery are important benefits that need to be nurtured.

• Create opportunities for sharing stories and discussing new issues and concerns.
• There is no one answer to the most appropriate way to keep the learning alive. Any approach is best supported by helping key leaders understand the importance of encouraging ongoing, informal links and being prepared to support opportunities as they emerge.

By having the freedom and capacity to think about issues differently and work differently,
opportunities will emerge in different ways and at different times. Some issues will take shape and be
ready to happen right away , others may percolate for even a year or two before taking shape. Still
others may never take a concrete form but will impact the way groups begin to think and work together
in many ways. The impact of Open Space is best measured with a long term approach that can take
into account the on-going learning and activity generated by the Open Space.

Preparing Stakeholders:

If Open Space is new to the audience, it is important to prepare them to be successful. Hold a Small Open Space to introduce the technology and to help the stakeholders discover how they can best provide support. Focus the small space on the role of leadership in moving forward with the issue.

When possible, all stake holders should actively participate in the Open Space meeting. Open Space is a much more powerful learning tool and change agent when it is truly a "round-table" meeting where the whole community is represented and all idea and concerns are valued equally.

If you are a stakeholder you should plan on participating in the open space rather than facilitating. It is generally advantageous to have an objective facilitator so you can focus on the issue and they can focus entirely on the process and on coaching the stakeholders without bias.

Note: above section reproduced with permission; Diane Blair, Bank of Montreal, 1997

Open Space Technology was originally created to enable better meetings and to capture the potential of individuals and the organization. Over the last five years, as well as being used for meetings, it has been used as an ongoing way of organizational life with great success. The "givens" or "non-negotiables" in the organization need to be well attended to and clearly understood throughout the organization and not just by a few people at the top. Givens are to be authentic and kept to a minimum. The givens provide the boundary within which there is room for innovation, creativity, spirit, high play, genuine ongoing community. The formal leadership in the organization "holds the space" or ensures the conditions continue for this means of staying highly productive, highly creative, and inspired. If this is what you would like to create in your organization, you will create a leading edge organization that is able to maximize the potential of all involved and to ensure that the organization sustains itself as a learning organization. This cannot be achieved if there is a high desire to "control" the organization. In today’s times, we know that control does not achieve the type of organization that is leading edge, on the forefront for success in the world. The role of the senior leader in the organization is the critical role in seeing the organization through the transformation to operating in this highly spirited way. There is a great deal of resistance to the transformation which Harrison Owen calls "freedom shock". No other large organization has yet made the decision to become an ongoing open space organization, although many large organizations use Open Space Technology to do critical components of their business. A number of small organizations (up to 100 employees) are operating in ongoing open space with successes that are greater than their original aspirations. Interestingly, all leaders who have taken the risk to try operating in a different way have been women. The risk is high; the payoff is high; but it does require a totally different way of managing than our business schools have taught us. The role of the external consultant/facilitator is to develop the plan for implementation; to focus on executive coaching with the formal leader; to train the internal organizational development team and senior management in leading open space events and in managing the open space organization; and to conduct the initial open space meetings. Total external consultant time is about 40 days. Beyond that, the senior staff and organizational development team can continue with both developing the new organization and creating the conditions to sustain it at peak performance.

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