sample invitation for Open Space Technology meeting

[Birgitt Williams]

The sample invitations that have been shared with us are wonderful and I
thank you for the sharing.

In turn, I include below another, longer sample invitation. Please feel free
to use whatever parts of it appeal to you. In this particular sample
invitation, I am addressing a need of a client group to be more specific
about what participants are being invited to. This was created for a company
where the conflict was high (union/management), the invitation was going out
from management to staff that had no interest in attending any meeting.
Points that I wanted to cover in the invitation included points that often
we don't feel we need to say ahead of time however I have discovered over
time that they are helpful in situations of conflict (and don't seem to
cause harm in other situations)
-we wanted to be sure that participants knew they would build the agenda
-we wanted to be sure that participants knew that the information would be
accessed by anyone who wanted it (I have had one major disaster in an Open
Space when we didn't talk about this ahead, participants assumed it was an
internal to the company document--and within 10 minutes of the Open Space
having been done, the proceedings were in the hands of "the competition".
And just by the way, there are no guarantees that the document will be
confidential, no matter who says so, so I always now say that it is
not---this affects some of what goes into reports and how they are written)
-we wanted participants to know that follow up action would be framed within
the "givens"
-we wanted participants to know that not all topics would be top vote
getters, but the participants themselves would identify the top vote
getters.
-we wanted clearance on the contact information that participants were
willing to have on the list (I always do this for every meeting-in the past
I have had trouble because of a participant list that had all of the contact
information and customers of the company and some others were angry that
their phone numbers and addresses were included in a document that would be
accessible by whoever got their hands on it)

The sample invitation is below my signature.

Birgitt
Birgitt Williams
Make Genuine Contact!
Dalar Associates: organizational
effectiveness consultants

Striving for Success? Ready to exceed
your expectations?

Contact us for consulting services, training,
conference and meeting facilitation,
and keynote speaking.

www.openspacetechnology.com

You are invited to join us for a meeting to explore

"THEME"

You are invited to a meeting that

  1.. lets us design our own agenda and promises that anything that is
important to any of us about the theme has the opportunity to be discussed;
  2.. enables you to connect with others who share your interests at the
meeting with an opportunity to continue networking with these people beyond
the meeting;
  3.. acknowledges and works with the wisdom, experience and expertise that
you and others have to work on the theme;
  4.. provides the opportunity to have meaningful conversation, involvement
and connecting;
  5.. enables you to move from one discussion to another so that at every
moment, you use your personal energy by either learning or contributing.
Your wisdom and energy is too precious to be wasted;
  6.. provides a written summary of every session, posted on a wall during
the meeting as soon as the summary is recorded and is compiled into a book
of proceedings for each participant to use beyond the meeting for ongoing
work; and
  7.. supports action planning at the meeting itself and beyond the meeting.
The meeting format and process is called Open Space Technology. Please join
us as we move

"Theme" forward.


Date and Time

Place

To reserve your spot at the meeting call
..When you call, we will ask for
the contact information that you are willing to have included in the book of
proceedings


To reserve accommodation
.

Special dietary or other needs, let us know


(this is a good spot to identify other special arrangements being made such
as for language translation)

The Purpose for having this meeting:

State Theme

List objectives

Objectives include the overall objective for the event within the larger
organizational context and can also include objectives such as creating a
source of data to identify who has interest in particular issues for future
networking and future work groups. Sometimes the objectives are to offer an
opportunity for learning new material. Sometimes they are for strategic
planning, or community building, or problem solving. Sometimes the objective
for the meeting is to end at the end of the meeting itself. Sometimes the
objective for the meeting goes beyond the boundaries of time and space for
the meeting.

                    List "givens" or non-negotiables or root assumptions

The givens or non-negotiables or more correctly root assumptions for the
event are listed here. They include legal, financial, process, role of CEO
and managers in the meeting, what will happen with the information, what
will happen to items identified for further action. What are the degrees of
real freedom not only for the meeting, but beyond the meeting based on the
meeting. Identifying the givens is really identifying the true degrees of
freedom. It assists in managing expectations.

What to Expect


  a.. Prior to the meeting, you will receive an information packet that
includes the names and contact information of participants. As well, you
will receive information about this topic (theme) that will bring you up to
date with what we currently know/experience. It is recommended that you read
this information in the context of briefing notes.


  b.. The evening before our Open Space Technology meeting, we will be
gathering in the main meeting room at 7pm for a time of storytelling. Our
facilitator
.will lead us through an opportunity to tell stories of the past
and present of this organization. Through our stories, we remember and
acknowledge our past and present. Stories may be sad, mad, glad—all stories
are welcome. It is up to each of us to tell the stories that we would like
to share with others. When you come to our story telling evening, you will
find the chairs set up in a circle. Just help yourself to refreshments and
sit wherever you would like in the circle. We will have refreshments
available throughout the evening for you to get up and enjoy at your
leisure. The story telling portion will end when the stories are over. The
room and refreshments will continue to be available to you until midnight.
There will be no formal breaks.


  c.. In the morning when you arrive for the Open Space Technology meeting,
you will enter a room set up with a circle of chairs. The facilitator will
guide us through instructions for the process. Together, we will create the
agenda for our time together, during the first forty minutes. Through the
creation of the agenda, leaders of topics will identify themselves.
Participants will be invited to sign up for the topics they are interested
in. Participants will then manage their own time and energy, attending
sessions of interest. Leaders will be responsible for getting their topic
going, and ensuring that a report is entered to be posted on the newswall
for all to read, and for entry into the book of proceedings.


  There will be breaks for lunch every day for an hour, served buffet style.
There will be no formal coffee breaks, however beverages and food will be
available for you throughout our time and you are encouraged to be sure your
own needs are looked after.


  At the end of the first day, we will gather in a circle to share any news.
At the beginning of the second day, we will again gather in a circle to
share any news and to have the opportunity to post more topics on the
agenda, if participants have more topics to post. We will head off into our
discussion groups and gather for evening news again at the end of the day.
We shift into a different component of the Open Space Technology meeting on
the morning of the third day. When we gather in our morning circle, we will
each be given a copy of the book of proceedings that we have created. We
will have time to read this book, and then we will be asked to vote for
those topics that we each feel the most personal energy for. This will
identify our top vote-getters. We will spend the balance of the morning
focusing on these top vote getters and developing concrete action plans for
next steps.


  The final component of our meeting will be to gather in a circle for
closing comments following the action planning.


  We will end at noon on this final day.


  Please note that only those who participate in the process may take part
in the voting on the final morning.


  More information about the process that we will use for our meeting is
available at www.openspacetechnology.com


  d.. Following the Open Space Technology meeting, copies of the book of
proceedings including the action planning component will be available
from 
.for anyone who wants a copy. As well, we will post a copy of all of
the proceedings and action planning on our website. Action planning will
proceed according to "givens" that were noted at the beginning of this
invitation.


Sincerely,

CEO

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