Routine use of OS in organisations: stories, experiences and where to.
Convenor: Henri Lipmanowicz
Participants: Many
Discussion: Routine use was defined as a situation where an entire organisation would use Open Space as the standard process for the majority of meetings that are taking place on a daily basis.
Several examples of regular use of OS-like processes were described by participants. They covered the following settings:
All of the examples are better described as “periodic” use rather than “routine” since the vast majority of day-to-day meetings continue to be organised in traditional ways: preset agenda and schedule decided by one or a small number of participants, pre-determined attendance, standard presentation+discussion formats, etc. Some felt that routine use could not develop without in an organisation without the support of both the CEO and of a critical mass of senior managers. Reference was made to several examples of organisations where top people would never support OS because of their desire to prevent problematic information from surfacing or becoming public.
In spite of this the group did not see a limit for the routine use of OS but how such a practice could develop and what it would look like was less than clear.
As I reflected this morning on our conversation my own thoughts went in the following direction. I believe that everyone at any level in an organisation already has the power and the freedom to initiate Open Space meetings. At the minimum this can consist of inviting some people for lunch (or a few beers at the bar, or barbecue on Sunday, etc.) to talk about an important issue. Probably most people can do a lot more than that without stepping outside the framework of their official responsibilities. I then asked myself “what would be in the way of me doing this if I imagine myself in the middle of some organisation in a non-executive role?” What came to mind are things like: fear of failure, lack of confidence in the value/effectiveness of the process, fear of ridicule, lack of confidence that others will respond, lack of confidence that it will make a difference, etc. I concluded that, for myself at least, fear of retribution or of being fired would be very far down the list and not likely to come into play. I also did not feel that any such move would require any particular approvals from higher up.
Those thoughts help reinforce my commitment to help people I know at all levels become more conscious of the power they have, of what they already know how to do and to help them build their comfort level with OS so that they lose their fear of making the first attempts. Thereafter I trust that the results will create a momentum of their own. I continue to believe that top management approval/support while highly desirable is not a pre-condition for starting the use of OS at some lower level in an organisation. Otherwise nothing would ever change that would not come from the top…
Those are my thoughts. Other participants need to add their own views.