Open Space creating inspired organizations and communities

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Open Spacecreating inspired organizations and
communities
Vital Clarity Kathleen Osta 828-253-8343 15
Hunters Way, Asheville, NC, 28804,
USA kathleen_at_vitalclarity.com
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What Will Happen?

• We never know exactly what will happen when we
  "open the space" for people to do their most
  important work, but you can anticipate the
  following kinds of results when any group gets
  into Open Space, even for a few hours
• Experiential, breakthrough learning
• Appropriate structure and control
• Open communication and genuine
• sense of community
• High play, creativity,
• efficiency, and productivity

• Shared leadership and personal responsibility
• Inspired performance and growth from within
• Elimination of barriers to quickness, excellence
  
• and pride

• On Top of That, Youll See...
• Communication expandedideas move
• more quickly within the organization
• Informal networks developedspeed of
• dispersion
• Events reviewedlearning reinforced
• Patterns and relationships
• identifiedopportunities recognized
• Experiences analyzedshared learning
• Theories critiqued
• Observations shared
• Futures envisionedpossibilities
• explored

• Scenarios sharpenedclarity realized
• Assumptions testedgrowth of ideas
• Issues explored
• Experiments attempted
• Products re-designed
• Plans drafted
• Possibilities discovered
• New ways to work invented and practiced
• Actions taken
• Ongoing invitations issued
• Responsible, intentional, self-organization
• practiced actively and productively

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A Tour Through Open Space
Open Space is one way to enable all kinds of
people, in any kind of organization, to create
inspired meetings and events. It then goes on to
create inspired organizations where ordinary
people work together to create extraordinary
results with regularity. In Open Space, your
audience creates and manages their own agenda
around the central theme set by your speaker or
meeting planning team. An invitation is extended
to begin conversations based on what people care
most deeply about. Its a way to engage the
thoughts and ideas to new levels in a very short
period of time. The Open Space portion of your
meeting can last from 3 hours to the rest of
the day, dependent on yourdesired results. Open
Space has been called passion bounded by
responsibility, the energy of a good coffee
break, spirit at work, chaos and creativity, and
a simple, powerful way to get people and
organizations moving when it's needed most.
Lets go through a sample Open Space Event...
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The Invitation
The commitment to passion and responsibility
begins with an invitation. What is the theme of
your meeting? Why are you having it? What is your
desired outcome? To further the possibility of a
successful outcome, you invite people to give
their thoughts, ideas, challenges and passions
that stem from your meeting purpose and your
speakers topic. Do you want higher sales,
better customer attention, a more inspired team?
Together we write an invitation, that goes out
before the meeting that lets everyone know this
meeting is intended to go beyond the downloading
of information. This meeting is for real
responsibility, real learning, real action on the
issue(s) at hand.

• Youre Invitedand the Invitation is this
• What ideas, thoughts, knowledge, challenges or
  passions do you have around these questions
• What is the strategy that all stakeholders in
  the organization can support and work together to
  create?
• How can we re-ignite passion in our company and
  look forward to building a future that engages
  all?
• What special knowledge, experience and expertise
  do you hold? How can your knowledge be enriched
  by your connection to others?
• This organization is not about hierarchy. We all
  have an ability to generate more knowledge and
  opportunity than ever before through a meeting
  process youre invited to take part in on
  Thursday. Its called Open Space. Open Space is
  recognized internationally as an innovative
  approach to more productive meetings. Groups
  large and small (5-1000) regularly demonstrate
  the capacity to rapidly create effective meeting
  agendas and deal with highly conflicted and
  complex strategies. More remarkably, the meeting
  once created, is completely self-managed by the
  group. The observable role of the facilitator
  appears to be invisible. And that is just the
  beginning. (New York Times).
• Our team is comprised of remarkable individuals,
  each maintaining a storehouse of knowledge and
  ideas. With business beginning to look more like
  the systems thinking of biology than the
  traditional mechanistic view weve been brought
  up on, were in the midst of a fierce transition
  thats both exciting and challenging. When our
  knowledge is shared, the very act of sharing
  multiplies it exponentially. Lets make use of
  whats here to the nth degree using Open Space.
• Youre invited to take the lead

...What ideas, thoughts, knowledge, challenges or
passions do you have around these questions
What is the strategy that all stakeholders in
the organization can support and work together to
create? How can we re-ignite passion in our
group and look forward to building a future that
engages all?
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Welcome and Invitation
To begin the Open space portion of your meeting,
you restate the Invitation written and sent
prior to the Open Space Eventwhich tells your
meeting purpose and objective and asks for
peoples thoughts.
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Opening the Space
The Open Space Facilitator then opens the space
by describing how the process works and sharing
the Principles and Law of Open Space. The chairs
are set up in concentric circles so there is not
the hierarchical head and foot of theater style
seating. Open Space works because it deletes
hierarchy and has everyone doing the Dance of
Leader and Follower in every conversation.
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The 4 Principles and The Law of Two Feet
These are the guiding principles that make Open
Space work. The Law of Two Feet says If youre
not learning or contributing in any conversation
youre in MOVE ON! Unlike most meetings, its
rude to stay if you dont want to be there or
youre not interested.
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Posting Topics
Based on the overall Invitation topic,
participants post any thoughts, ideas, questions
or passions as conversation topics that, in
minutes, become the Open Space agenda. Thus,
people talk about what theyre most passionate
about and willing to take responsibility for once
they leave the session.
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Marketplace of Ideas
Topics are posted on the wall titled The
Marketplace of Ideas and everyone checks it out
to decide what is of interest to them. A Post-It
Note is placed on each topic which tells where
and when the topic will take place. (The larger
room is broken into smaller sections.) This way
people know where and when to find the topics
theyre most passionate about.
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Conveners Notes
Open Space
When you post a topic and you can post more than
oneyou are considered the Convener. This means
you open the conversation and let whom-ever comes
join in. Could be two people, could be fifty.
As the Convener, youre responsible for the
meeting Notes. These notes ensure that those who
didnt sit in, but are interested, can see what
happened and talk to other participants about it
later.
Conveners Notes Page
Topic Conveners Name Participants Names
(pass around the circle) Summary
Notes Please hand in/type up
when youre done.
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Small Group Topics
Because of limited time, several topics are
convened simultaneously, each lasting from 1/2
hour to 45 minutes. This is where The Law of
Two Feet comes inonly you know where you
can learn and contribute the most. Go
where the spirit moves you.
When people talk about what they want to talk
about, when they want to talk about it, with
others who are as passionate as they are, they
will move mountains.
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Notes and Newsroom
After each session of small group conversations,
the convener types the summary notes into a
computer. At the end of the day all session notes
are printed and a copy is handed to every
participant. Notes can then be placed on a
website or emailed as well.
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Evening News
At the end of the day, participants gather back
in the full circle to share a few words on what
the process brought for them, and where they want
to take it from here. It gives a clear sense of
how the day went. People are ALWAYS energized and
ready to take action.
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ActionKeeping Momentum
After the closing circle, participants re-post
new topics that are purely action oriented in
other words, what are you willing to take
responsibility for setting into motion.
One last round of conversations take place,
lasting only about 15 minutes. The wheres and
whens of follow-up meetings are discussed.
These quick conversations address who else
should be invited going forward and what needs to
happen before then. This ensures ongoing action
after the day and brings Open Space principles
into the group or organization.
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The Report
All Conveners Notes are gathered, and in most
cases, typed in and printed onsite. (Although in
smaller groups, the handwritten notes are
photocopied.) In a short time, the most important
ideas, recommendations, data, questions
discussions, conclusions, for further study, and
plans for immediate action are documented in one
comprehensive report which is given to every
participant. These Notes pages come together to
give you the fastest, most comprehensive report
on where your organization is, where it wants to
go and the ways for it to be accomplished by the
entire group.
Results from the comprehensive report can be made
available to an entire organization or community
within days of an event, so every stakeholder is
invited to take action immediately.
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Open Space Sound Bites

• Rockport Shoes held a company-wide Open Space
  meeting based on the invitation Where does our
  company aspire to for the future and how do we
  get there in ways that are inspired and
  fulfilling? That day they ended up discovering a
  new product idea from a very unlikely
  sourcetheir security guard. The product line
  netted 18 million the first year.
• Wesley Urban Ministries in Hamilton, Ontario,
  adopted Open Space as the basis for organizing
  and managing their 200-person staff. With Open
  Space, they increased services delivered by 50,
  with no added resources while turnover measured
  exactly 0, in an environment known for high
  stress and burnout.
• Astra Zeneca Pharmaceutical used a 1-day Open
  Space to energize a high performing
  teamseriously impacting the bottom line of a top
  customer.
• ATT fast-tracked 10-months of design and
  planning work into ONE 2-day contractor summit
  when they were offered the opportunity to build
  their pavilion in the center of the Olympic
  Village in Atlanta. With only 6 months before
  opening day, a diverse group of contractors (with
  lots of difficult history) entered Open Space.
  They emerged two days later with a new design,
  and a full set of working drawings, and managed
  to have quite a bit of fun in the process. The
  ATT executive in charge of the project called it
  "magic."

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• Many Thanks to
• Michaël Molenaar, Tilburg - NetherlandsFor the
  excellent photos E-Mail michael_at_syst.nl
• Michael Herman, ChicagoFriend and Open Space
  Man Extraordinaire E-Mail mherman_at_globalchicago.
  net
• Larry Petersen, TorontoLarry Petersen and
  Assoc. E-Mail larry_at_spiritedorg.com
• Harrison Owen, MarylandOpen Space Founder
  E-Mail owenhh_at_mindspring.com
• And to all the phenomenal Open Space colleagues
  around the world who are creating inspired
  organizations and communities with open hearts
  and open minds. Thank you for the ongoing
  conversations on the OS List www.openspaceworld.o
  rg

Vital Clarity Kathleen Osta 828-253-8343 15
Hunters Way, Asheville, NC, 28804,
USA kathleen_at_vitalclarity.com