Appropriate Structure
Open Space is a simple, dynamic, integrative
and expanding environment, that allows planning, learning and
implementation to occur simultaneously, in a unique and powerful
(self-organizing) combination of:
- Support Group
- where resources are shared, creativity nurtured, hunches confirmed,
decision-making supported, learning and risk-taking encouraged,
peers consulted, progress and accountability maintained, and
successes celebrated;
- Think Tank
- where events are reviewed, patterns and relationships identified,
experiences analyzed, theories critiqued, observations shared,
futures envisioned, scenarios sharpened;
- Learning Laboratory
- where assumptions are tested, issues explored, experiments
attempted, products design, plans drafted, possibilities discovered,
and new ways to work invented and practiced;
- Workshop/Working Model - where actions are taken, phone calls made, blueprints
finished, invitations issued, momentum experienced, contributions
made, services delivered, products delivered, and responsible,
intentional, self-organization demonstrated productively.
Certain Productivity
Opening Space may be the fastest way to get
an impossible amount of work done with any size of group, especially
with issues that are larger, more complex, more diverse or more
conflicted than your usual meeting. An Open Space meeting or
event can happen, literally, as fast as the sponsors can find
a meeting space and the invitees can clear their schedules. And,
while we never know exactly what solutions will emerge when we
ask a group to go to work on a really tough issue, we can be
sure that with just a few days in Open Space, any organization
or group can:
- Engage everyone
who really cares about the question, theme or situation
- Identify all
of the most important issues and opportunities related to the
question, theme or situation
- Create working
groups to address all of the issues and opportunities identified
as essential to success
- Practice effective
leadership, planning, teamwork, and implementation behaviors
without lectures, manipulation, or other external motivation
- Do everything
that can be done right now or immediately following the meeting,
in the normal course of business
- Make Plans
for those issues and opportunities that will require additional
study and review before implementation
- Refocus attention
on those issues and opportunities that require long-term or ongoing
monitoring, assessment and/or activity
- Document the
discussion, ideas, plans, commitments and other progress made
on every issue and opportunity identified
- Prioritize
all of the issues and opportunities raised, based on the best
judgment of the entire group
- Associate secondary
issues and opportunities with top priority items, so nothing
important gets lost in the shuffle
- Determine immediate
next steps in each high-priority area
- Distribute
the entire proceedings, priorities and action steps to every
participant before the end of the meeting
- Disseminate
the entire proceedings, priorities and action steps online, just
days after the meeting ends
- Raise the level
of awareness, conversation, learning and activity around every
aspect of the organization's most important business or community
interests
- Begin to raise
the level of learning and contribution, organization-wide
Growing the Bottom Line
Open Space is, far and away, the most cost-effective
way of getting people, information, and spirit moving in an organization,
alliance or coalition. The actual costs of holding a meeting
or conference in Open Space are low relative to other large-group
methods and a mere drop in the bucket when held up against the
very real costs of delayed projects and disheartened people.
Remembering that the Open Space approach can
be used with groups of 5 to 500 (or more) people, one rule of
thumb for estimating consulting/facilitation costs is it that
takes 3-4 days of preparation, meeting and follow-up time for
every day (or partial day) of the meeting or conference itself.
According to this rule, estimate half-day meetings at 4 days
total and 2 1/2 day conferences at 8-12 days total, on the part
of the consultant/facilitator.
More importantly, Open Space really hits the
bottom-line in terms of lowered costs and increased revenue because
it gets so much work done so quickly. When a project that is
expected to take 10 months comes in 6 or 8 months early, the
reductions in direct costs alone are tremendous. On the revenue
side, one company created a whole new product line in two days
and made $24 million in its first year of sales. Suffice it to
say that bottom-line gains are all about being prepared to be
surprised!
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