Open Space is a form of meeting that was developed in the 80s as an alternative to traditional conferences. The participants together set the agenda and the method is particularly good for allowing creative solutions.
In Open Space meetings, participants are invited around a central theme, but no fixed agenda is set before the meeting. Instead, the participants gather in a circle at the beginning of the meeting and get to identify which issues they want to take responsibility for leading conversations about. These questions are distributed among the rooms and times that are available during the meeting. When no more questions are raised, all participants can sign up for the sessions they want to participate in.
Open Space is a suitable form of dialogue if the organizers want to encourage very open and dynamic discussions around a theme. The conversation is based on the interests and enthusiasm of the participants and can often lead to unexpected and innovative thoughts. Open Space is a great method for encouraging creative ideas and can be a good alternative where traditional meetings have led to a lack of innovation or energy. It is an inappropriate form of meeting if the organizers want to have control over the discussion or have a very clear goal they want to achieve with the meeting.
Open Space is also good where self-organization and new ways of working are the goal. Open Space is used to:
The meeting is characterized by openness and flexibility. The only ‘law’ in Open Space is the law of mobility – that is, if a participant does not learn or contribute in a conversation, he must move on to another context where he learns or contributes.
There are also four principles:
In the small groups, what was discussed is documented and the reports are then put up on a wall so that it is possible to see what others have discussed.
Participants are invited through an open invitation where the theme of the day is explained. It is important that no one is forced to participate in an Open Space process and that the participants feel that the issue is important to them.
The open space method is very flexible in terms of the number of participants – meetings with anywhere from 2 to thousands of participants have been held.
Open Space can be a relatively cheap process, given the number of participants. A trained moderator is good to have and it is important that the room has space for many parallel meetings and that all participants can be narrowed into a ring at the beginning and end of the process. It is also good to provide technology that makes it easy to print the results of all the small groups and put them on the wall.
To get the most out of an Open Space meeting, it should be held for at least two days. The method has been used in a day or less and at most Open Space meetings can be held for five days or more.
Unsuitable where the organizer has an end goal in mind or is not flexible in their approach.