Graduate research that makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of Open Space: A Grounded Theory Study On The Value Associated With Using Open Space Technology by Rich Norris
This gem on the first page, even before the introduction: “The prime value noted is OST’s ability to help people move below the surface of their personal or organizational facade by uncovering what is already in existence but unseen.”
This to the OSLIST recently from Birgitt Williams…
The client opens the space in the organization for the facilitator to then do his/her thing with facilitating an OST meeting. Sometimes the space that the client chooses to open is quite big, sometimes it is very small. The key in the prep work and working with the “givens” is whether the space is stated truly, is authentic.
I have never found an organization that couldn’t open a little space for some conversation. For example, in the military, it was not about the whole military, it was only about a master plan for the landscape of the military college, however it was truly open space for the OST meeting to take place. One of the givens, stated by the Brigadier General who was also the commandant was ‘democracy ends on Thursday at 5pm’.
He didn’t pretend that the space was more open than it was. It was very specific to get a specific job done. And it got done well. Follow up even years later is that the whole plan was financed and has been implemented.
The client matters. Openness matters. Clarity matters. Truth matters. And each one is reinforced by the next.
…and how can anyone use it to address crisis situations? Doug Germann and I are beginning to draft a “guide” for use in such situations. Something short and sweet, light enough to stick in a backpack and useful enough help in New Orleans or Indonesia, and wherever the next big bumps show up. This description of OS emerged from that work:
Open Space Technology is a method of organizing meetings (immediately) and leading movements (longer term) so that ordinary people can accomplish extraordinary things, in record time. This simple and powerful approach will help you:
1. Organize a meeting of 5-500 (or more!) people, to quickly, cheaply and effectively address any issue or situation of real importance or immediate concern.
2. Focus on the issues and opportunities that are most important, the assets and resources already on hand (even if they are few), and the people who can and must be involved in any successful outcome(s) or resolution(s).
3. Support the movement and connection of people, information, resources and ideas that are related or required by the main issue or situation — to create (or renew) a genuine sense of community and collaboration.
4. Identify and execute responsible, informed and immediate next steps, in many directions, on many levels, and by many different kinds of people, all at once — and to sustain this sort of action as long as is needed to address or resolve the issue or situation.
Open Space Technology will not help you take or maintain control of people, pacify the masses with the illusions of participation, or work very well when you already know what needs to be done and how to do it.
If, however, you find yourself in a situation that is overwhelming (or nearly so) in its complexity of tasks, diversity of people and needs, importance and potential for conflict, and undeniable urgency, then it is likely the best possible way to bring people together, focus on what matters, make essential connections, and do what must be done.
If you have ideas or suggestions about what should go into such a “crisis” guide to Open Space, please email me.
The Australian Open Space Institute is hosting an Open Space on Open Space in Melbourne on February 21 and 22. They’d love to see you there.
This is an opportunity for users of Open Space Technology to explore the depth and edges of Open Space Technology, share experiences, challenge and be challenged. Some of Australia’s and New Zealand’s most experienced Open Space facilitators will be attending. You will get the most out of this OSonOS if you have used/participated in Open Space Technology.
If you are new to Open Space Technology you might be interested in Introductory Training May 17 & 18.
For more information about either event, contact Viv McWaters.
Michael Herman recently posted the latest iteration of his thinking on the Four Practices of Open Space: opening, inviting, holding, and grounding. Here’s an excerpt:
opening heart – in open space, it is the themes and purposes that arise in the hearts of leaders that we turn into invitations. by opening heart, we discover or rediscover the thing(s) we love.
inviting attention – in open space, the invitation comes from listening and then goes out to invite more conversation. to invite attention we almost always need to ask questions and tell stories, about what was, what is now, and what is next.
supporting connection – by supporting connection we make conversation, decision-making, and commitment possible. to support connection, we almost always need to open and hold spaces for people, work, and information to move.
grounding the energy – to ground the energy we almost always have to take responsibility, for recognizing, creating and/or securing value.
For the full text click here.
You are invited to Building Communities Worth Having, an Open Space Conference, February 3-5, 2006, in Portland Oregon.
Co-conveners include Ted Ernst, Brandon Sanders, Mark Dilley, John Abbe, Raymond King, Michael Sparks and others, and our facilitator is Michael Herman. This is a must for those of us who attended the Opening Space for Giving to Flourish Conference, Chicago 2004, and for anyone who is currently engaged in “The Movement” (place-based, cyber-space and/or face-to-face) for building a better world.
· What kinds of community do you dream of?
· What do you need to build them?
· What projects would you work on if you could?
· What skills, resources, gifts and connections do you have to share with other community builders?
· What would happen if you could get what you need and contribute what you have?
This event is being sponsored by IBESI, OSDL, ICANNWiki, SocialText, ATLASSIAN
Register (and see who else is coming) at: http://recentchangescamp.org
Please join us for the 5th International OpenSpace-Online® Real-time Network Conference for Change Facilitators!
Political and economical crises, new diseases, and the growing ecological unbalance on earth greatly influence us and next generations. Change Facilitators from around the world are invited to meet in an OpenSpace-Online® real-time conference with the title:
Change Facilitation: Issues and Opportunities of Economic Globalization, Ecological Challenges and other worldwide Change Processes
Date: January 28th/29th, 2006 (depending on your time zone)
Where: In the comfort of your own home or office
Duration: 3,5 hours (real real-time event)
Costs: Euro 28,00
Registration deadline: January 22nd, 2006 !
The virtually-facilitated and text-based internet methodology takes participants in real-time through successive phases of shared agenda creation, multiple discussions and cafe talks, summarizing results, prioritizing, action planning. At the end each participant receives an extensive documentation about the meeting at the press of a button.
Complete invitation and online registration
This is a great way to meet Open Space practitioners online, get a taste for the spirit and method of Open Space, and also to test-drive what could be a valuable tool (this online version) for your business or community organization. Please join us!
This paper is a journey that explores the complexity and optimism of community/higher education partnerships to support youth. It provides an analysis of the dynamics and history of power and racism. It raises critical questions regarding the role and approach of higher education and America’s Promise, the national alliance for youth. Ultimately, it offers an opportunity to view our communities differently and engage in a process that provides the potential for authentic democratic solution generating, inclusive of the grassroots voice.
The paper includes a discussion of Open Space Technology and it’s application in the above contexts.
edit to fix link, unfortunately, it’s only a library entry, not the full paper
Lisa Heft is a valuable member of the Open Space learning community. In addition to working with business leaders, faith communities, peacemakers, young people, violence survivors, educators, scientists, prisoners, union and management representatives, conference organizers, researchers, activists and government representatives, she also maintains a website which provides a plethora of resources about Open Space and other related topics. Below are some papers that she has compiled from conversations in the OSLIST archive.
Phelim McDermott, co-artistic director of Improbable in London, offered this recently on the OSLIST…
In preparation for next weekend when I also facilitate my first open space event(!) I put together an invitation which was about how to make things better in our theatre community. It was because I felt passionately that things weren’t as good as they could be in theatreland and I was fed up of hearing myself moan and not doing something about it. The invite was called “devoted and disgruntled.” It’s had an extraordinary response and we have gone beyond the capacity of our space, with 200 people signed up and fifty on a waiting list.
This is a great example of what I always coach clients to do in their invitations: tell the truth. I am devoted to this thing AND I’m disgruntled. That last part is the tough one, and I’m guessing it’s the part of Phelim’s invitation that really makes it sing to others who want something more. I’ve no doubt that they’ll create that “more” when he opens the space for that next weekend.
UPDATE: Phelim published in The Guardian in London… On the surface, British theatre is in its healthiest state in years. But is this buzz of activity hiding a creative slump, in which celebrity and ‘ticking boxes’ are prized over innovation? Here, four writer-directors argue that the theatre is in trouble – and offer their visions for the future. —The Guardian (click and scroll down for Phelim’s section of the story.
WHAT HAPPENED: In short, lots of good things. Reported here and here and here.
Harrison Owen shared a story from Bill Cleveland, of the Center for the Study of Art and Community, who facilitates numerous OST events addressing the question:
How can those involved in the arts and community development work together to create caring and capable communities?
Bill says that:
One interesting aspect has been the increasing space that has emerged within the OST process for the use of the arts themselves as tools for communication and making meaning.
One event that I have facilitated for the past eight years is a gathering of 150-200 artists and educators called the Minnesota Artist/Educator Institute. This gathering has a rotating cast of returnees and newcomers who come prepared not only to discuss and debate the best practices in arts education, but also to MAKE ART using OST… We take over all the arts facilities on campus. Theaters, dance studios, print making studios, welding studios, clay studios, computer graphics suites …. for FIVE DAYS of 24 hour, OST driven creative insanity…
…I am thinking that these arts-infused OST practices might be an interesting addition to your evolving peace program…
Read the rest here.
The first one of these reminds me of Mickki Langston. From Peggy Holman via Michael Herman:
…[some] aspects I think are making a difference for me:
1. Defining the Law of Two Feet as “taking responsibility for what you loveâ€. I no longer talk about the Law of Two Feet as passion and responsibility. While basically equivalent, there’s something very powerful about this framing — it is highly actionable for both individuals and groups.
2. Using silence in the plenary. Morning announcements, evening news, I always begin with silence. This is really subtle and yet I know it matters. It seems to connect people with themselves, each other, and the whole.
3. Time and diversity. These old friends really matter. Two and a half days or more. Time to cook is so vital when dealing with complexity. PLUS bringing together unlikely mixes of people — the whole system — prepares the soil for the unexpected. The more creative the definition of the system the better!
4. Setting bold intention. The more ambitious the purpose, the more the potential energy to transform it contains. It may seem obvious, but I often find myself coaching sponsors to be daring.
I think these aspects bring qualities to the work of creating a fertile field that up the likelihood for good things to happen.
How are these working for you?
Chris Corrigan reminds us of a resource that grew when
…in 2001, 37 practitioners unwittingly contributed to an astounding conversation on the OSLIST that begged to be made into a book. And so, in January of 2002, Michael Herman and I edited the conversation into Open Space Technology: A User’s NON-Guide, which is a collection of voices all musing on the Spirit of OST. It won’t tell you how to do one, but it talks alot about why it works.
For your copy as a .pdf, download it here
You have probably noticed the ever rotating set of photos to the right. These are photos of Open Space events posted at Flickr using the tag “openspacetech.” Amazingly, in the space of only a couple of weeks the number of photos with that tag has grown from a few dozen to 428. You can see them all at the Flickr openspacetech page. It provides a wonderful visual feast of the process with which we work.
You too can take part, by starting a Flickr account, uploading your photos and tagging away.
Between Mystery and Mastery , thesis by Theo Groot, Kampala, Uganda, May 2003
In September 2001 I had the privilege to take a one-year sabbatical to embark on a course in organization development and consultancy at Sheffield Hallam University in the U.K. One of the characteristics of the above mentioned OD course is the harmonious integration of academics, practical skills and personal development. This dissertation is a reflection of my learning journey.
As development workers we are by the very nature of our work focussed on bringing about deliberate change in communities and organisations. During my course I became increasingly interested in complexity theory and its implications for development work and I consider Open Space Technology to be a practical way of dealing with change from a complexity perspective. Further more Open Space is very close to Central and Eastern Bantu approaches to change as I explain in this research thesis.
I can be contacted on: bduganda@afsat.com
Harrison Owen, originator and author-in-chief of the Open Space approach, recently announced…
Every now and again, I receive requests for my earlier books, all of which are now out of print. I suppose there are collectors of antiques of all sorts, and those books probably qualify. However, if you are interested in the journey of Open Space, or at least my part in that journey, I suppose these books could be helpful and for those of you interested in a little ancient history (some of which might be quite contemporary).
…and made available for download the PDF copies of the original versions of many of his books.
Palestinians meeting in Ramallah used the real deep meaning of Peace all over the training, they brought it up in nearly every small discussion group they created, peace within themselves, peace at work, peace with their children and later on passed to the causes of non inner peace: sexual frustration, challenges of education today, ways to raise their children to become more open and keen and so on. I personally never witnessed such openness within my fellow Palestinians and more amazingly between men and women. Until that minute I wasn’t sure about the power of the Open Space spirit and its immediate influence on people. Today … they email each other on a regular basis — they also have set up an “OST Palestine” Yahoo group. –Carol Daniel kasbari carol@crosswinds.net
OSlist members define Open Space Technology with 25 words or less (having fun and getting creative!):
Open Space Technology is surprisingly simple high performance system, bounding passion with responsibility. ~Mikk Sarv
Do you like to be in conversations in this community where you feel alive, inspired, connected, surprised, engaged, and empowered? Well, that’s what happens in open space. ~Jack Ricchiuto
Do you yearn to be in conversations about questions that matter where you feel alive, inspired, connected, surprised, engaged, empowered, responsible and open to possibility? Well, that’s what happens in open space. ~Alan Stewart
Open Space enables groups of any size to organize themselves to deal with complex, important issues and accomplish something meaningful by inviting people to take repsonsibility for what they love. ~Peggy Holman
Open Space combines the rigor of a great board meeting with the energy of conversation around a coffee pot. ~John Rapp
Open space is a lot like tofu, which can be used in countless ways
because it readily absorbs the flavors and spices of anything. ~ Tree Fitzpatrick
Getting people to work on stuff that really matters.
Creating and immediately implementing high performance work teams.
Harnessing the power of Spirit to bring meaningful work to our community.
Discerning what’s most important and taking responsibility for it.
Onion Skin Technology…peel back the layers and it makes you cry…but cook it up and it gets sweet and juicy. ~Chris Corrigan
Open Space is the WD-40 of group work. One shot will loosen up just about anything. (For those not in the know – WD-40 is a marvelous universal solvent.) ~Harrison Owen
Open Space can do more than a personal development training, a creativity workshop and a big company party altogether: people evolve, they really connect with each other and they create great results ~ all at the same time, naturally coming from within. ~Marei Kiele
OST puts the human being in the center, enables result-oriented
self-organization, leads individuals and groups to phenomenal transformation
processes, which can be experienced in all kinds of application fields. ~Gabriela Ender
Would you like to find a method for turning frustration into action? For accessing the wisdom of individuals and groups? Try Open Space Technology! ~ Glory Ressler
Open Space is a great method for real people with real issues to create real results in real-time. ~Karen Sella
Galina Tsarkova and Mikhail Pronin shared this story of a short 5 hours OST meeting that took place in oil-rich Kazan, Tatarstan, about 12 hours by train from Moscow.
There were 385 participants from 69 regions (!) of Russia (Russia has some 88 or 89 provinces). The participants included regional directors of Student Work Brigade organizations, university level directors, and students themselves, and others.
The OST meeting was sponsored by the Russian Ministry of Education and the Tatarstan Ministry for Youth Affairs. For us it is significant that a federal-level ministry sponsored an OST meeting.
So, the more we can refer to a (positive) body of experience in working with government in using OST, the better.
The OST meeting was on the topic of: The Development of Student Work Brigades: Issues and Opportunities. Read more about what happened here.
If you are looking for an opportunity to support an Open Space event, and you live in or near New York city, Holger Nauheimer wants to hear from you:
“For a client in New York, we are going to organize a series of consultation workshops between end January and April 2006. Two of them will be probably in an Appreciative Inquiry format, while one will be an Open Space workshop.
We are looking for a workshop assistant, who will help us in all logistical matters before, during and after the workshops.
Experience, particularly in assisting Open Space Technology workshops would be an asset. The person should be based in NY city because we need to avoid additional travel costs.
We are however not looking for facilitators.”
Contact Holger at holger@change-management-toolbook.com
Judy Gast writes this week, “…the Open Space Institute of Canada is planning an OS Online event on February 3rd and encourage anyone who is interested (from anywhere) to register by January 27th.”
See CanadianInvitation and OpenSpace-Online for details.
OpenSpaceWorld.ORG is a global community asset, maintained by personal giving. Please support it’s maintenance and development if you can!
In the last seven years, we have invited and incorporated resource contributions in 18 languages. Thank you to the many friends and colleagues who’ve helped along the way!
This year, we expect to spend $350 for hosting and other fees and perhaps 200+ hours of webmaster time and attention. Much of this time has already been spent in the complete redevelopment of the site. We hope you like the new look and functions!
We’ve chosen a somewhat arbitrary target of $2500. If you like what is happening here, please consider making a contribution to help me pay the bills. We’ll accept any addtional contributions as personal thanks and encouragement.
This is also an experiment in raising active community support for personal projects and initiatives. Your contribution here will help open a space for others to step forward and start other community-backed Initiatives.
UPDATE: OpenSpaceWorld.ORG is grateful for contributions of $1,945 toward total goal of $2,500 through 2007. Thank you! And if you find this site helpful, please consider commenting and contributing.
In the next few weeks, this space will spring to life with posts by Open Space friends and practitioners. Please have a look around the rest of the site, while we’re putting the final touches on the new look and format here.
If you have stories, resources, invitations to events or trainings, or any other news you’d like to share with the Open Space World, please mailto:webmaster@openspaceworld.org. Thank you!
