Open Space Tech article on Wikipedia

Suzanne Daigle sdaigle4 at comcast.net
Sun Nov 29 14:25:16 PST 2009


Thanks so very much Michael. Was not even home today as this Wikipedia post was swirling about. 
Still worthwhile perhaps to give this some collaborative attention without being rushed and if people have passion around it for many more reasons than Wikipedia. 
Suzanne  
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Herman <michael at michaelherman.com>
Date:         Sun, 29 Nov 2009 16:05:10 
To: <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
Subject: Re: Open Space Tech article on Wikipedia

thanks, all.  while you've been adding to the thread here, i went and edited
the opening overview and history sections of the wikipedia page.  i've
incorporated some of these new details you've sent.

here's what i posted.  i'm better at storytelling than citations, but i
tried to structure it in ways that would make citations easy.  if you can
add to or correct any of this, just go do it in the page itself.  no sense
tweaking this stuff here when it's open for public editing.  there are at
least two or three other sections that need work, as well.

mh


--

*Open Space Technology* (*OST*) is an approach for hosting meetings,
conferences, corporate-style retreats and community summit events, focused
on a specific and important purpose or task -- but *beginning* without any
formal agenda, beyond the overall purpose or theme.

Highly scalable and adaptable, it has been used in meetings of 5 to 5000
people and is characterized by five basic mechanisms: (1) a broad, open
invitation that articulates the purpose of the meeting; (2) participant
chairs arranged in a circle; (3) a "bulletin board" of issues and
opportunities posted by participants; (4) a "marketplace" with many breakout
spaces that participants move freely between, learning and contributing as
they "shop" for information and ideas; and (5) a "breathing" or "pulsation"
pattern of flow, between plenary and small-group breakout sessions.

The approach is most distinctive for it's *initial* lack of an agenda, which
sets the stage for the meeting's participants to create the agenda for
themselves, in the first 30-90 minutes of the meeting or event. Typically,
an Open Space meeting will begin with short introductions by the sponsor
(the official or acknowledged leader of the group) and usually a single
facilitator. The sponsor introduces the purpose; the facilitator explains
the "self-organizing" process called "Open Space." Then the group creates
the working agenda, as individuals post their issues in bulletin board
style. Each individual "convener" of a breakout session takes responsiblity
for naming the issue, posting it on the bulletin board, assigning it a space
and time to meet, and then later, showing up at that space and time, kicking
off the conversation, and taking notes. These notes are usually compiled
into a proceedings document that is distributed physically or electronically
to all participants. Sometimes one or more additional approaches are used to
sort through the notes, assign priorities and identify what actions should
be taken next. Throughout the process, the ideal facilitator is described as
being "fully present and totally invisible" (see Owen, User's Guide),
"holding a space" for participants to self-organize, rather than managing or
directing the conversations.

Hundreds of open space meetings have been documented (
http://www.openspaceworld.org; Open Space Institute US, STORIES Newsletter;
http://www.openspaceworldscape.org; Tales from Open Space, edited by
Harrison Owen, Abbott Publishing). In "Open Space Technology: A User's
Guide," (and seven other books about Open Space), Harrison Owen explains
that this approach works best when four conditions are present, namely high
levels of (1) complexity, in term of the tasks to be done or outcomes
achieved; (2) diversity, in terms of the people involved and/or needed to
make any solution work; (3) real or potential conflict, meaning people
really care about the central issue or purpose; and (4) urgency, meaning
that the time to act was "yesterday."

According to Harrison Owen, originator of the term and the approach, Open
Space works because it harnesses and acknowledges the power of
self-organization, which he suggests is substantially aligned with the
deepest process of life itself, as described by leading-edge complexity
science as well as ancient spiritual teachings. (Owen, Wave Rider, 2008)


[edit<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Open_Space_Technology&action=edit&section=1>
] History

The history of Open Space Technology is detailed in the Introduction to
"Open Space Technology: A User's Guide", by Harrison Owen. (Paperback: 192
pages, Berrett-Koehler Publishers; 3 edition (April 1, 2008), Language:
English, ISBN-10: 1576754766, ISBN-13: 978-1576754764)

In the early 1980's, Harrison Owen wrote a paper on what he called
"Organization Transformation." He presented this paper at a traditional
management conference. It was well enough received that a number of people
urged Owen to organize a conference to specifically address the issues and
opportunities he identified in his paper. Owen hosted the first annual
Symposium on Organization Transformation in 1983, in a traditional
conference format, in Monterrey, California. The event was a success,
inasmuch as it was generally agreed that it should happen again. John Adams,
a colleague of Owen, offered to organize the second annual symposium (OT-2)
one year later, still in a traditional format.

Harrison Owen agreed to organize OT-3 for the following year, but by his own
account, did not relish another year of work to manage all the details. Upon
volunteering to host the third symposium, he retreated to the bar, where he
consistently claims to have discovered what he later called the "Open Space"
approach to meetings and events, at the bottom of his second martini. His
plan for the following year's symposium was informed by his experience as a
biblical scholar, associate pastor, peace corps organizer in the villages of
west Africa, and federal government staffer and organization development
consultant in Washington DC.

The following year, he sent out a simple, one-paraphraph invitation and more
than 100 people showed up to discuss Organization Transformation. In his
main meeting room he set the chairs one large circle and proceeded to
explain that what participants could see in the room was the extent of his
organizing work. If they had an issue or opportunity that they felt
passionate about and wanted to discuss with other participants, they should
come to the center of the circle, get a marker and paper, write their issue
and their name, read that out, and post it on the wall. It took about 90
minutes for the 100+ people to organize a 3-day agenda of conference
sessions, each one titled, hosted, and scheduled by somebody in the group.

Particpants at OT-1 and OT-2 said that the best part of the events was the
coffee breaks, which Owen always pointed out was the one part of the event
that he didn't plan and couldn't take credit for. His inspiration to
articulate the theme, the larger purpose for the work of the symposium, in
an invitation and then a brief opening comment, and then simply "open the
space" for participants to self-organize around the issues and opportunities
they saw as essential to that purpose, was a conscious decision to make
"more of what works." His martini-based plan sought to minimize the grunt
work by leadership (him) and assign responsibility for maximizing productive
learning and contribution to his participants (everyone else).

The approach worked well, in the 3-1/2 days symposium, where it was repeated
annually through OT-20. Soon after the first "open space" event at OT-3,
however, Owen tried the same approach with a consulting client, a large
chemical firm and a group of polymer chemists. When it worked there, too,
the participants of OT began trying it out with their clients, in a variety
of different kinds of organizations, to address many different kinds of
strategic and community issues, in countries around the world. They returned
to the OT symposium each year to share learnings.

Owen never trademarked or patented or certified "Open Space" in any way. He
always claimed to have discovered, rather than invented, it. He said it
could be practiced freely by anyone with a good head and good heart. From
the beginning, he said only that those who used the approach and found it
valuable, should share their stories and learnings as freely, as well.

Twenty-five years later, Harrison Owen estimates that more than 100,000
different "open space" meetings have taken place. The Open Space World Map (
http://www.openspaceworldmap.org) documents that these events have taken
place in more than 160 countries. In December 2009, the OSLIST email
listserve (hosted by Boise State University at
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=OSLIST) for practitioners
worldwide had 660+ members and more than 26,500 publicly searchable
messages, relating to all aspects of practice. Information about Open Space
is now posted in 21 different languages at Open Space World (http:
www.openspaceworld.org). There are at least six different
government-chartered associations or institutes (Canada, France, Germany,
Portugal, Sweden and USA) promoting Open Space practice around the world.
The german language yahoo group started February 2002, had 233 members at
yearend 2009, mostly from Germany, Austria and Switzerland but also a bunch
of German speakers from France, Spain, The Netherlands, Poland and
elsewhere, with 3497 messages in its archive.

Harrison Owen originally used the term "open space" for his "self-organizing
meetings". One of the earliest implementations of the approach was for a
conference theme of "The business of business is learning," in Goa, India.
The organizer of the conference was interviewed by the local media and
described the simple process. When asked what the process was called, he
embellished it a bit, with the more important sounding "Open Space
Technology." The story was picked up by the New York Times (need date, c.
1985), and so "Open Space" became "Open Space Technology."

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