OpenSpace Technology
Invented by Harrison Owen in 1985, OpenSpace Technology (OST) is an event format used in meetings of 5 to 2,000 people where the participants create the agenda for themselves and facilitators lead and record the resulting discussions.
- To tackle a large number of the most important/difficult issues facing a large group of people.
- Complexity (hard problems to solve)
- Diversity (lots of different types of people needed)
- Conflict (people really care about the issue)
- Urgency (it has to be fixed as soon as possible)
- To achieve shared ownership of not only the outcomes but also the process and the event itself.
Outcomes
- All the most important issues to those attending are included in the agenda.
- All the issues raised and worked on are addressed by the participants best capable of getting something done about them.
- All the most important ideas, recommendations, discussions, and next steps are documented in a resulting report.
- When the purpose requires, and time allows for it, the group can prioritize the issues addressed in the report.
- When the purpose requires, and time allows for it, the group can draft action plans for the highest priority issues.
When not to use OST
- When the problems aren’t complex enough. Easy-to-solve problems rarely invoke enough passion in participants and when you have large numbers of people not caring enough your event can fall flat.
- When management has decided (or is close to deciding) the way forward. Almost anything can come out of an OpenSpace session and leadership must be willing to embrace whatever happens otherwise participants will feel their time has been wasted.
- When the organization has a top-down autocratic culture. OpenSpace is extremely democratic by nature but for it to work well the participants need to feel their views are being taken seriously.
Pre-event Process
This first phase is different from the traditional OpenSpace Technology process. If you want to go traditional just ignore this part.
- Email all your participants at least 2 weeks before the event by asking them what burning questions they would like answered.
- Collate and categorize your responses as they come in.
- Identify a short list of questions that you plan to tackle on the day remembering they should contain high levels of complexity, diversity, conflict, and urgency for them to be effective (see the When Would You Use It section).
- Plot your questions into a schedule spanning your event. Each question should have at least a 1-hour slot allocated.
- Leave a few slots towards the end of the day free.
Start-of-the-day Process
Do this step only if you’ve done the Pre-Event Process first.
- Gather your participants and briefly explain how OpenSpace events work using Harrison Owen’s 1 Law and the Guiding Principles as appropriate. Traditionally you should do this with everyone in a circle around you but you don’t necessarily have to.
- Present the schedule for the event so participants can see which issues are being discussed and when.
- Ask participants to spend 10 minutes thinking through if they have any other issues they’d like to raise.
- You then invite participants with extra/new issues to briefly explain them to the group.
- If there is a general agreement that the issue has enough support and passion invite the issue owner for adding the issue to the schedule.
- Once all new issues have been discussed and added invite the participants to sign-up for the sessions they’re planning on attending (they are free to change their minds later if they want to).
- Your sessions start.
Start-of-the-day Process
If you’re following the traditional OpenSpace Process.
- Gather your participants and briefly explain how OpenSpace events work using Harrison Owen’s 1 Law and the Guiding Principles as appropriate. Traditionally you should do this with everyone in a circle around you but you don’t necessarily have to.
- Ask participants to spend 10 minutes thinking through if they have any issues they’d like to raise.
- You then invite participants to briefly explain their issues explain to the group.
- If there is a general agreement that the issue has enough support and passion behind it invite the
- issue owner to add the issue to the schedule. Once all issues have been added invite the participants to sign-up for the sessions they’re planning on attending (they are free to change their minds later if they want to).
- Your sessions start.
Process for a Session
- Each session should be a round group of chairs (no table in the middle) with preferably one facilitator to lead the discussion and a scribe on the flipchart.
- A session starts with the issue owner welcoming and thanking the group for coming and then giving a brief description of the issue as they see it.
- The facilitator then leads the discussion inviting people to give their input at their request.
- The scribe records the discussion on flip chart paper making sure to mark Issues, Ideas, Questions (that can’t be answered today) & Actions. When a flip is finished they should tear it off and put it in the center of the circle or on a nearby wall for people in the group to see.
- Allow people to leave and arrive as they see fit though don’t allow them to interrupt or slow down your progress. It is a new arrival’s responsibility to catch up with the discussion using the flip chart outputs no matter how high up or important they are.
- When the issue looks like it has been covered and there are no more inputs coming from your group thank them for their time and invite them to join other groups if the session time is not over.
Harrison Owen’s 1 Law
If at any time during your time here you find yourself in any situation where you are neither learning nor contributing, use your two feet, and go somewhere else.
Guiding Principles
- Whoever comes is the right person. This is to remind participants they don’t need top management or lots of people to get things done. The only people it’s important to have are those who feel passionately about the issue. And if they don’t come then they’re not passionate enough.
- Whenever it starts is the right time. This is to remind participants that you are not late (or early for that matter) in discussing the issue at hand. Removing the feeling of anxiety allows the group to focus better.
- Whatever happens, is the only thing that could have. This is to remind participants that whatever comes out of the discussion is the right thing. Once it’s done, it’s done and the only direction to move now is forward.
- When it's over, it's over (in this session). This is to remind participants that once they feel the issue has been resolved they should move on to the next one. There’s no need to keep talking about the same topic just because there’s still time left in the session.
Hints for Sessions
- You should stress to issue owners that they are expected to have lots of passion for their topic.
- Each issue owner must take responsibility for creating a report after the discussion has taken place so that all other participants can access the content at any time (otherwise you’ll be left with carrying the responsibility).
- If the issue owner is the only one who shows up for their session that person can either use the session to think it through on their own, join another discussion, see if someone else who is running a session would like to join together, or drop the topic altogether.
- Try your best to have small groups of no more than 12 so those who want to speak are given plenty of opportunity.
- No single person should be allowed to dominate a session whether they are a facilitator or participant.
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