Open Space Technology
You’ve got lots of complex issues, passionate people and the potential for conflict, so of course you wouldn’t run a meeting without an agenda. Would you? Or could you? Or should you!
Open Space Technology could be the perfect tool for you to resolve those complex issues. In Open Space meetings, participants develop and manage their own agenda of simultaneous working sessions around a central theme of strategic importance.
Open Space originated after Harrison Owen designed and planned a conference, and then discovered that all the best work was done during coffee breaks. All the networking, deal-making, visioning and collaboration; all the new ideas, new products and new programmes came from small circles of people chatting over similar passions and interests. Just as it happens in life. So, for the next conference Owen designed a process that would be all coffee-break energy, all the time. Thus, Open Space Technology was born.
At first glance, Open Space appears to have lack of structure. However, an Open Space meeting is, in fact, very organised. The meeting structure is so well integrated that it is often overlooked. The underlying processes support, rather than block, the best work - generating more complex, stronger and lasting outcomes faster than management-driven designs.
Open Space puts everyone on an even footing and allows everyone to have their say. Participants are no longer ‘the CEO’, ‘the Managing Director’ or ‘the Admin staff’. Instead, they are collectively ‘the people who have a passion for this business/organisation/team’.
While we can’t predict beforehand what will happen when we open the space for people to discuss the topics they are most passionate about, what we can say is:
- The issues that are most important to the participants will be raised, and these issues will be addressed by those who can action the necessary changes.
- All of the ideas, discussions and recommendations will be documented in one report, which is available immediately and can be taken with the participants when they leave.
- Results can be planned and implemented faster than any other kind of ‘large group intervention’. It is possible to accomplish in days and weeks what some other approaches take months and years to do.
Contact us for more details.
Tags: “What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
© 2008 Teamworks Pacific Ltd