Open Space Examples

  • In 1991, US West used OST for a 3-day, 175-person labor-management summit meeting to resolve escalating contract conflicts, avert a major strike, recover from a damaging flood, and prepare themselves for telecom mergers and the buildout of the internet. Labor pushed for the meeting, but both sides were well-served by the results. –HarrisonOwen and Peggy Holman, (video now available on YouTube)
  • AT&T fast-tracked 10-months of design and planning work into ONE 2-day contractor summit when they were offered the opportunity to build their pavillion in the center of the 1996 Olympic Village in Atlanta. Twenty-five contractors came into the meeting with lots of difficult history and a blank page to design from. They produced a superb design, a full set of working drawings, and managed to have quite a bit of fun in the process. –Harrison Owen
  • Some years ago, TransNet?, the national transportation company of South Africa used OST to help build community connections and lay the groundwork for cooperative business activities in the midst of post-apartheid confusion. One meeting brought 300 senior transportation executives together. Another gathered 80 community choir leaders. –Harrison Owen
  • At a time of similarly-intense confusion and conflict, peace activists and organizers in Jerusalem and Palestine are working together to bring people together in Open Space. –Harrison Owen
  • Rockport Shoes held a 3-day, 300-person company-wide strategy conference in one of their warehouses and stumbled onto a couple of brand new product lines that netted $18 million in their first year of sales. The idea came from the security guard and made the previously quite skeptical CFO very happy. –Harrison Owen
  • The Agile Software and Extreme Programming movement is encouraging a whole new way of software development that looks very much like OST. The marketplace wall becomes a table top with 3×5 cards, breakout groups become pairs of programmers, and morning and evening news sessions become ‘stand-up’ meetings between programming iterations. This new approach delivers working software every two weeks instead of every two years! –Michael Herman
  • Wesley Urban Ministries in Hamilton, Ontario, adopted OST as the basis for organizing and managing their whole, 100-person staff. Over the next 3 years, they increased services delivered by 50%, with no added resources. On top of that, they had turnover of exactly 0%, in an environment known for high stress and burnout. –Birgitt Williams
  • In one of many OST events at Boeing, engineers used OST to streamline operations and simplify communications across the myriad groups responsible for designing and building pressurized airplane doors. The conference was run simultaneously in Seattle and Wichita, it’s two major door-assembly sites. Another conference brought the full array of human resources functions together to synergize efforts on “people issues.”
  • In Racine, Wisconsin, 35 young people (ages 12-20) gathered for one 4-hour, afterschool conference in Open Space. As a result of that meeting they initiated a youth art newsletter, a downtown, lakefront skateboarding park, and the largest YMCA Earth Service Corps chapter in the country. They called themselves ‘Youth Action,‘ used OST at all their meetings, and eventually ended up introducing OST to young leaders from all over the USA. Youth Action Racine Wisconsin | Michael Herman
  • In the midst of post-911 budget cuts and other major change issues, Peoria School District 150 held a 3-evening, 200-person summit meeting to create a community-wide vision and set new priorities for revitalizing their inner-city schools. The meeting was well-covered by local broadcast and print media, the 100-page proceedings was publicly available via the District’s website, and the top priorities identified on the third evening became the working agenda for their new superintendent and school board. –Michael Herman
  • The school district in Fairbanks, Alaska (covering an area the size of the entire state of Connecticut) held a 2-day, 250-person conference on ‘Becoming a Peacemaker.’ Half the participants were students in the middle and high schools (ages 13-18) and all participants had some experience with mediation and conflict resolution. The kids did exceptionally well in Open Space and one high school student led a series of four breakout sessions to create an entire suicide prevention program for the middle school students. The statewide suicide prevention hotline was up and running within weeks of the conference. Becoming Peacemakers Fairbanks Alaska | mailto:jsmith@mosquitonet.net
  • The ‘Peacemakers’ conference in Fairbanks was followed by a 2-day OST training and practice workshop, attended by about 60 youth and adults. Six months later, they reported that they were holding 1-3 OST meetings per week, in and around Fairbanks. Michael Herman, Chris Corrigan, Judi Richardson, Julie Smith, Dan Chay
  • At Ridgeview Medical Center in Minnesota, a physician administrator has been leading a series of OST meetings, attracting 30-50 people to each session, in order to catalyze and support a hospital-wide, cultural and operational shift to ‘patient-centered care.’ The series started with one meeting organized to find 50 days of working cash. Dr. Robert Welch is opening these spaces with coaching by Michael Herman
  • One year after it’s founding, The Crossroads Church, in Kansas City, Missouri, invited their entire congregation into Open Space in order to establish strategic direction and set operational priorities for the coming year. They now run an annual ‘direction-setting’ retreat which is attended by almost all parishoners and in which they dissolve, review, re-establish and re-populate their entire operating committee structure. –Michael Herman
  • In 1993, my colleague and I launched an organizational experiment. Our intention was to create two organizations–one in Haiti and one in the US–which would work together to promote justice and peace by fostering transformative learning among Haitians and N.Americans. We chose a non-hierarchical structure at a staff level with hopes of avoiding paternalistic tendencies which frequently characterize international development efforts, and lead to disempowerment and ineffectiveness. After nine years in Open Space, Beyond Borders and Limye Lavi Fondation continue to function without a hierarchy and have become models to other organizations working in Haiti. http://www.beyondborders.net | John Engle
  • In January 2000, 175 people gathered in Open Space from the poorest urban neighborhood in Canada to Discuss “Improving the Lives of Aboriginal people in Vancouver: Let’s stop talking about it and let’s start doing it!” In one day the group convened 47 discussion groups that led to an agenda for action that was still in place 3 years later. Homelessness, addictions treatment, improved child welfare practices, increased community governance over services and fighting child prostitution have all been issues that have been at the centre of the activity that has taken place since then. –Chris Corrigan
  • In northern British Columbia in March 2002, two career fairs were held in Open Space with nearly 100 First Nations youth. The youth posted topics about issues that impact their future, and invited mentors from a wide variety of fields posted offerings introducing youth to careers in the military, social services, law, resource industries, information technology and post secondary education among others. –Chris Corrigan
  • In October 2001, 250 Aboriginal youth gathered in Open Space together with federal and provincial senior officials from every province in Canada to update the National Aboriginal Youth Strategy. They proposed 45 discussion groups and prioritized six areas for action. The recommendations were presented by the youth the the federal and provincial ministers responsible for youth and were accepted as the basis for a renewed strategy. –Chris Corrigan
  • A Health Services office at a major Canadian university used Open Space Technology to bring together faculty members and leaders from a variety of disciplines including medicine, dentistry, social work, nursing and physiotherapy to discuss the future of health services education focussing on patient needs rather than disciplinary distinctions. The gathering helped to clarify a number of issues and led to a great cooperation between faculties as they pursued a scenario of creating a joint faculty of health services. –Chris Corrigan
  • On Bowen Island, a small island near Vancouver, Canada, an Open Space event looking at the future of Bowen in the year 2042 attracted 30 community members who discussed what they valuied so much about their island and what it would take to live sustainably well into the future. Within a month of the meeting a Trust had been set up to lobby and raise money for the protection of the last parcel of undeveloped and privately held wilderness on the Island, a piece of land teeming with unique ecosystems and valued by islanders for it’s role as a place to renew the spirit. –Chris Corrigan
  • In 1998 Parks Canada used Open Space to bring together its entire administrative staff in a retreat to discuss issues and opportunities related to transition from being a government department to becoming a government agency. 120 people gathered in a park centre in central Manitoba and hashed out dozens of issues related to the transition, preparing them for the upheaval that was to envelop the department March 1999 when the transition took place. The retreat dealt with immediate issues but also took the long view, and several years later issues that were dealt with in the retreat were only beginning to arise, and yet none of these were surprises to those who had anticipated them in Open Space. –Chris Corrigan
  • In January 2002, the traditional governing body of the Wet’suwet’en Nation gathered in Open Space for two days in Prince George. About 50 staff, Hereditary Chiefs, and community members identified and discussed 43 issues and opportunities around the future of the Office of the Wet’suwet’en. Unsettled matters related to the relationship of the Office to Band Councils, Clarifying cultural practices related to the feast system, creating a healthy nation and finances were actively worked on. Considerable goodwill, mutual respect for differing opinions and collective decision making among all the participants characterized the sessions. There was high participation in all the working groups and solid attendance for the two days. As one hereditary chief observed, “The way we did this was like our way. The respect and the positive treatment that we showed and gave each other. We demonstrated that we could work and pull together, despite our differences. Just like the way the elders work together.” –Chris Robertson
  • In Tsartlip BC, participants representing the Aboriginal Sports and Recreation Association of B.C., Aboriginal Sports Development Centre, BC Sports and Community Capital Branch of the Province of BC and Heritage Canada attended a two-day Open Space session on “Delivering Standards of Excellence: Issues and Opportunities for Aboriginal Sports in BC”. The Open Space was organized in response to changing Federal and Provincial government priorities related to funding and accountability. The Open Space process helped, in the words of one participant, “put aside assumptions and learn from others about what people are really doing” For others, it helped catalyze a number of complicated issues that needed to be worked through and acted on. “Having these discussions encouraged me knowing that we are all beginning to understand each others circumstances.” –Chris Robertson
  • In October 2001, the Interior Indian Friendship Centre board of directors met in Open Space in Kamloops BC for a strategic planning session. Key issues relating to Financial Management, Program evaluation, Economic Activities and the IIFC Organizational Structure were identified and priorized. The Board’s convergence of the priorities served as the basis for their action plan for the remainder of the fiscal year.–Chris Robertson
  • Approximately forty-five (45) participants representing Native American and Canadian Aboriginal Sports Organizations from across North America attended an Open Space session in Ottawa in January 2001. The purpose of the Open Space was to chart the future of the North American Indigenous Games (NAIG) Movement and to come together to address issues that were important to the success of the Games. Although the diversity of representatives at NAIG contributed to its strength, the organization was often tasked with the challenge of accommodating differences between First Nations and between Countries. The OS dialogue process helped participants overcome those challenges. In the words of one participant. “There has been a ‘healthy airing of different perspectives here. This is the beginning of something very major for us. For the first time in a long time we are all thinking together. It’s healthy to recognize differences, and its good to see us addressing common issues and concerns.” –Chris Robertson
  • 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 mailto:carol@crosswinds.net [blogged]
  • It might interest you to know that Pragati Foundation, an India based NGO, and the Foundation for Human and Economic Development of the USA successfully used Open Space Technology for an Indo Pakistan People to People Dialogue for Peace and Prosperity…This was the first time in the history of the Indian subcontinent that people from Pakistan(including former adversary generals), Kashmir (Hindus and Moslems), other parts of India and USA sat down together and came to a shared understanding…Encouraged by the miraculous success of the first conference…[we are]…now organizing another conference only for the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Again we are using Open Space Technology. I am convinced that OST can go a long way in restoring peace and prosperity to Jammu and Kashmir, the Indian subcontinent and the rest of the world. –Arun Wakhlu and The Pragati Foundation mailto:pragatifoundation@vsnl.net
  • Our participants in the Estonian workshop from Russia are spreading the message of POP [Practice of Peace] now, two weeks later here in the Kola Peninsula of Russia. I arrived with my friends from the Estonian Fund for Nature to Murmansk and held one day OS for Saami economical communities network. About forty representatives from different communities gathered from all peninsula, some of them arrived by boat hundreds of kilometres away. They have been conflicting between each other more than ten years and were much suspicious for the seminar we were to hold. The space was opened, working groups got started, -bees- and -butterflies- made their duties and after three sessions the peace was re-established! Conflicting counterparts made several proposals for co-operation and for building up some common body for further co-operation. The international Open Space event “Earth and People” was agreed to be called together on the 27-29 of June this year, to be held out in nature in the middle of Kola Peninsula under topic: -How to live in Peace with Earth?- All participants are invited to take with some delicatessen foods from their home place to offer for the common consuming. After the event, the communities are inviting participants in small groups of 5-10 persons to follow for a week to the persons to follow for a week to their places to learn more about their ways of life, their stories and traditions. –from an Open Space event in Estonia and Russia facilitated by Mikk Sarv, mailto:mikk@elfond.ee
  • A team used OST in response to notification of funding decreases to their program. The intent was to find ways to save $$$ in order to retain their program/jobs. One result was a decision to cease offering one type of service altogether and the group made its own HR adjustments (job and time-sharing if I recall). Both management and the funder saw the logic and appreciated the work – although they were shocked as could be! A staff person came to me mid-way through the meeting and excitedly said, ‘I get it! All my life I have waited for someone else to fix ‘it’. Now I know that, if I care, I can do something!’. —[Glory Ressler]
  • A small town branch of a national organization serving kids decided, after experiencing OST, to pursue partnering with the other local city branches – in order to improve effectiveness and efficiency. This was a major shift as traditionally there had been much animosity/competitiveness between these branches. This has now been completed and there is a regional body that coordinates fundraising for all branches. This has resulted in a significant increase in the number of children served across the region. —[Glory Ressler]
  • The headquarters of a national organization serving individuals with mental health challenges forced the merger of two branches and decided to use OST to figure out how… During the meeting, the senior mgmt from both branches negotiated the new leadership arrangement. One Executive Director chose to move on to a new position. Other senior managers made equally astonishingly self-less decisions and cooperative arrangements in service of the people they serve. That amalgamated branch is now nationally recognized for its innovative programs and services and excellent advocacy work vis a vis national policy on mental health. —[Glory Ressler]
  • An OST meeting focusing on issues and opportunities for youth in a small, historic town resulted in a group of the participating youth requesting that the Town Council establish a Youth Advisory Committee (YAC), which they did. Since then, that YAC has been the driving force behind some of the town’s decisions and developments, including building a skate park and limiting the number of fast food chains allowed to set up shop within the city limits. —[Glory Ressler]