OpenSpaceTechnology

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A way of letting social self-organization take over in gatherings.

http://www.michaelherman.com/cgi/wiki.cgi?OpenSpaceTechnology

"At the point of arrival, the participants knew only when things would start, when it would conclude, and generally what the theme might be. There was no agenda, no planning committee, no management committee, and the only facilitator in evidence essentially disappeared after several hours. Just 85 people sitting in a circle. Much to the amazement of everybody, two hours later we had a three day agenda totally planned out including multiple workshops, all with conveners, times, places and participants.

Observably, the operative mechanism was simplicity itself. As each person determined that they had some area of exploration they would like to pursue, they would write a brief description on a small placard, announce their topic to the assembled group, post the placard on the wall and sit down. When no further topics were posted, the original proposers determined the time and place for meeting, and anybody interested in a particular topic signed up. That was it."

Two page primer: http://www.opencirclecompany.com/OpenSpacein2Pages.htm

From the executive summary at *http://www.michaelherman.com/cgi/wiki.cgi?OpenSpaceTechnology/ExecutiveSummary:

"Open Space Technology is one way to enable all kinds of people, in any kind of organization, to create inspired meetings and events. Over the last 15 years, it has also become clear that opening space, as an intentional leadership practice, can create inspired organizations, where ordinary people work together to create extraordinary results with regularity.

In Open Space meetings, events and organizations, participants create and manage their own agenda of parallel working sessions around a central theme of strategic importance, such as: What is the strategy, group, organization or community that all stakeholders can support and work together to create?

With groups of 5 to 1000 -- working in one-day workshops, three-day conferences, or the regular weekly staff meeting -- the common result is a powerful, effective connecting and strengthening of what's already happening in the organization: planning and action, learning and doing, passion and responsibility, participation and performance."

: This is pretty interesting, has anyone experienced this?

I have, quite a few times. From as small as 6 people group to as large as 100 or so people group. --JuneKim

I am a facilitator and educator who specializes in the method of OpenSpace. I have used it for groups up to 1500 people (it is a great method for convening conferences). Please feel free to contact me directly if you'd like to share learning on the method, read more about it, find out where to take workshops to learn it, or just ask questions. -- LisaHeft mailto:lisaheft@openingspace.net and http://www.openingspace.net

For an article describing Open Space Technology:

http://www.openingspace.net/papers_facilitation_OSCollaborationCommunication.shtml

To read more about it, plus a place for those who are learning or already using the method to find futher resources:

http://www.openingspace.net/openSpaceTechnology_method.shtml

To see photos of some Open Space events:

http://www.openingspace.net/gallery/agora.cgi?cart_id=7532155.31210*7M6ed7&xm=on&product=Anatomy_of_an_Open_Space_Event

OpenSpaceTechnology

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