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!

An Approach to Community-University Partnerships: Discoveries on the Road to America’s Promise by Nancie Biver

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.

“How Do Facilitators Describe Open Space Technology?”
“What Clients and Facilitators Say”
”Convergence – A Conversation”
“Convergence Approaches”
“Group and Personal Action Plans”
”Behavior Change and Organizational Change”
“Change, Grief and the Transformation Cycle”
“Opening Space for Collaboration and Communication” (in English)
“Abriendo Espacio para la Comunicación y la Colaboración A través de la Metodología Espacio Abierto” (in Spanish)
“Att öppna upp för samarbete och kommunikation med Open Space Technology (en beskrivning av ett Open Space möte)” (in Swedish)

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.

From Thomas Herrmann in Sweden:

The Swedish OS-institute was founded the 24th of November 2001 when we had a gathering of Swedish collegues and our friend Koos from Holland!

The purpose of OSI-S is to develop and spread knowledge about Open Space Technology and to work for mutual support and learning between OS-facilitators in Sweden and in the world. We have a board where I was the chairman for 2,5 years, now our friend Agneta Setterwall has taken that role.

So far the Institute has arranged one Scandinavian OSonOS two Swedish online OSonOS´s and co-sponsored the International OSonOS XI. And we have had annual meetings of the board, often during or after the yearly Scandinavian OSonOS.

There are also local groups meeting regularily in south Sweden, west-Sweden and Uppsala which are not “formally” meetings of OSI-S but which are initiatives by members of OSI-S. But then – we are not very formal.

We also started a smartgroups forum where there are about 40 people connected. It was transformed to an Scandinavian forum a couple of years ago. Not very active but a good way to get in touch with like-minded in Scandinavia.

See Open Space Institutes for how to contact Thomas, Agneta and other Institute groups around the world.

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 love”. 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.

More than ever, Open Space World is inviting and supporting your active participation in this Open Online Space. Here is how to join in on the learning and contribution that is giving shape to this new space.

Welcome to the NEW Open Space World website!

There are still a few things to do to clean the place up, especially with some of the non-English and bookstore pages, but that will be done soon enough.

What do you think of what’s been done so far? Your comments and suggestions are much appreciated. What do you like? What needs fixing? (It’s all so new, and plenty of bugs around, I’m sure.)

Please help too with funding our expenses here, if you can!

UPDATE: Bookstore pages are finished now.

UPDATE: Languages done, too. woohoo!

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!