Open Space Learning Workshop - March 5-7 in San Francisco

Wed Jan 8 15:53:50 PST 2003

Dear colleagues -

Thank you for sharing the following with your friends and colleagues
interested in sharing learning about Open Space.  This workshop is for
people of all experience levels, including those without prior
experience and those who hold their own Open Space events.

- - - - -

Learn an effective method for convening people for action

Do you convene people for

staff meetings, community gatherings, planning sessions, conferences or
committees?

Learn a simple process for bringing innovative thinking, high
productivity, rich communication and collaboration into your work
together -- even if your group is rich with divergent opinions on
issues, challenges, opportunities and potential solutions.

Open Space Technology Learning Workshop

March 5 through 7

(Wednesday evening, all day Thursday and Friday)

in San Francisco, California, USA

Facilitated by international consultant-facilitator-educator

Lisa Heft

- - - - -

Contrary to its name, this method for leading groups can be done using
zero technology, and you do not have to be a professional meeting
convener or facilitator to use it.

People in all occupations, industries, communities and countries use
Open Space Technology for convening groups of 5 to 1500 -- for idea
generation, innovation, problem solving and a sense of community. You
can learn how to do this by reading one short book or taking a single
experiential seminar.

If you are interested in turning discussion into action, running a
responsive, flexible and innovative organization, bringing spirit back
into your work or leading a coalition and community building effort --
If you or your organization convene groups for meetings, conferences,
work projects and discussions, Open Space Technology may be a perfect
tool to use.

What is Open Space Technology? *see description below*

This experiential workshop will include some of the theory behind the
method and also on human behavior change, a full day in Open Space, and
all of the things you may wish to know for holding your own Open Space
event - from planning, preparation and design to logistics, talking with
sponsors/clients, developing invitations and themes, recording
proceedings, event follow-up, 'what-ifs' and anything else you
personally would like to share or ask about.

Registration fees are flexible - money should never get in the way of
learning.

For more information contact Lisa Heft at
lisaheft at pacbell.net
or
+01 510 548-8449

PS: If you are coming from a country outside the USA and need a letter
of invitation for your visa application, let us work together early to
design the wording that will make the process easier for you.

- - - - -

Also in 2003:

This workshop will be offered again in San Francisco July 9-11 and
December 10-12.

The Practice of Peace - September 24-26 in San Francisco - is a special
workshop for those who have experienced Open Space as a method for
convening people - it features Harrison Owen, the method's originator.
In this workshop we will share about peace in our world, our
organizations, our communities, within ourselves and with the land, and
we'll share how Open Space is being used for leadership, organizations,
transformation and peacemaking.  Please contact me if you'd like to join
us.

- - - - -

*What is Open Space Technology? *

This is a way to format a group meeting, retreat or conference that
generates communication, collaboration, innovation, and other solutions
to challenges and transitions. When your organization or community has a
complex problem, you are completely out of ideas regarding a solution,
you have a diversity of people that you can bring to the process, and
the time for resolving this situation was yesterday --- This is a great
time for Open Space.  Group members emerge from the process invigorated,
refreshed, and proud of their individual and collective accomplishments.
Committees, task forces and design teams can take weeks, months and even
years to accomplish their goal -- or in some cases simply to define
their goal.  Much of this same work can be accomplished by holding an
Open Space.  A half- or one-day Open Space can help people to quickly
bring forth emerging issues and opportunities and to build mutual
understandings and networking; a 2.5 day Open Space includes issues,
opportunities and action planning, resulting in a complete written
report of the proceedings for all participants plus identification and
prioritization of top action items and next steps.

Open Space is an interactive process where participants meet in
concurrent and overlapping mini-discussions around a theme or an issue,
across departmental, hierarchal or historically opposite lines.  The
cross-pollination of moving from group to group and topic to topic in a
non-linear way allows participants to jump quickly from familiar ways of
thinking into innovation and action, going where they feel they are
learning or contributing and moving on to another group when they are
not.

The use of Open Space Technology has been effective in over 18 years in
a diversity of settings, cultures and countries. The method has been
used by communities working towards peace, chemists designing new
polymers, tribal and governmental leaders planning land use, community
advocates and local government designing literacy programs, conference
organizers holding conferences in this format, architects designing
pavilions for the Olympics, an entire town having a simultaneous
discussion town meeting, and community workers helping communities
rebuild and heal after times of war.  This tool can be utilized by
groups of 5 to over 1500 and the dynamics and the results are always the
same:  input from stakeholders at all levels, new ways of thinking and
working, large amounts of work done rapidly, bringing perceived
competitors together on issues and projects, organizational flexibility,
interdepartmental or intercommunity teamwork, a sense of accomplishment
and a feeling of passion and energy for the challenges ahead.

Recently members of a global on-line community of Open Space
facilitators asked each other to identify countries in which we have
used Open Space.  The list is growing, but as of this printing Open
Space Technology has been used in:

Armenia " Australia " Austria " Azerbaijan " Bolivia " Bosnia " Bulgaria
" Canada " Channel Island of Jersey " China (Hong Kong) " China
(mainland) " Colombia " Costa Rica " Croatia " Denmark " Ecuador "
England " Estonia " France " Germany " Guyana " Haiti " Honduras "
Hungary " India " Indonesia " Ireland " Israel " Italy " Ivory Coast "
Japan " Kazakhstan " Kenya " Korea " Kyrgystan " Latvia " Lithuania "
Macedonia " Mali " Mexico " Morocco " The Netherlands " New Zealand "
Nicaragua " Norway " Pakistan " Papua New Guinea " Peru " Poland "
Portugal " Romania " Russia " Saudi Arabia  " Scotland " Serbia "
Singapore " Slovenia " South Africa " Spain " Sweden " Switzerland "
Taiwan " Tadschekistan " Tonga " Turkmenistan " Ukraine " United States
of America " Uzbekistan " Venezuela

L i s a   H e f t
Consultant, facilitator, educator
O p e n i n g  S p a c e
2325 Oregon
Berkeley, California
94705-1106   USA
(+01) 510 548-8449
lisaheft at pacbell.net
(coming soon: www.openingspace.net)

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