This booklet gives an overview of Open Space Technology, a change strategy which enables high levels of group interaction and productivity to provide a basis for enhanced organizational function over time.

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Description

At the very least, Open Space is a fast, cheap, and simple way to better, more productive meetings. At a deeper level, it enables people to experience a very different quality of organization in which self-managed work groups are the norm, leadership is a constantly shared phenomenon, diversity becomes a resource to be used instead of a problem to be overcome, and personal empowerment is a shared experience. It is also fun. In a word, conditions are set for fundamental organizational change.

In Open Space, participants are seated in a circle or circles and introduced to the four principles and one law:

Whoever comes is the right people; Whatever happens is the only thing that could happen; When it starts is the right time; When it’s over, it’s over

The Law of Two Feet: If you feel you are neither contributing nor learning where you are, use your two feet and go somewhere else.

Then the participants are invited to identify any issue for which they have some genuine passion and are prepared to take personal responsibility. With the issue in mind they come to the center of the circle, write their issue on a piece of paper, announce it to the group, and post the paper on the wall. When all the issues that anyone cares to identify have surfaced, the group is invited to go to the wall, sign up for the issues they care to deal with, and get to work. No matter what the group size, all this takes somewhat more than an hour.

From that point on the group is self-managing. As the groups meet, reports of their activities are generated, and at the conclusion all the issues are prioritized. The “hot” issues are developed in further detail with concrete action as the goal.

At the end, all important issues will have been discussed and a full record of the proceedings from the discussions will be in the hands of the participants. Priorities will have been established, related issues converged, and initial action steps identified. And the people in the organization will have experienced a very different and self-empowering way of working that they can take back with them. Substantive outcomes have ranged from organization redesign to strategic plan development to product design.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ Synopsis

The Collaborating for Change series offers concise, comprehensive overviews of 14 leading change strategies in a convenient, inexpensive format. Adapted from chapters in The Change Handbook, each approximately 48-page booklet is written by the originator of the change strategy or an expert practitioner, and includes

* An example of the strategy in action
* Tips for getting started
* An outline of roles, responsibilities, and relationships
* Conditions for success
* Keys to sustaining results
* Thought-provoking questions for discussion

If you're deciding on a change strategy for your organization and you need a short, focused treatment of several alternatives to distribute to your colleagues... Or if you've decided on a change strategy and want to disseminate information about it to get everyone on board, the Collaborating for Change booklets are the ideal choice.

Other titles in the Collaborating for Change series:

* Appreciative Inquiry
* The Conference Model
* Future Search
* Gemba Kaizen
* Open Space Technology
* The Organization Workshop
* Participative Design Workshop
* Preferred Futuring
* Real Time Strategic Change
* The Search Conference
* The Strategic Forum
* The Think Like a Genius Process
* Whole-Scale Change
* Whole Systems Approach