Open Space Technology

How does an Open Space Technology meeting work?

Open Space operates under four principles and one law. The four principles are:

1. Whoever comes are the right people
2. Whatever happens is the only thing that could have happened.
3. When it starts is the right time
4. When it's over it's over

The Law is known as the Law of Two Feet:

"If you find yourself in a situation where you are not contributing or learning, move somewhere where you can."

The four principles and the law work to create a powerful event motivated by the passion and
bounded by the responsibility of the participants.

What does Open Space look like?

A meeting room prepared for Open Space has a circle of chairs in the middle, letters or numbers
around the room to indicate meeting locations, a blank wall that will become the agenda and a
news wall for recording and posting the results of the dialogue sessions.

Essentially an Open Space meeting proceeds along the following process:

1. Group convenes in a circle and is welcomed by the sponsor. The facilitator provides an
overview of the process and explains how it works.
2. Facilitator invites people with issues of concern to come into the circle, write the issue on
a piece of quarter size flip chart paper and announce it to the group. These people are "conveners."
3. The convener places their paper on the wall and chooses a time and a place to meet.
This process continues until there are no more agenda items.
4. The group then breaks up and heads to the agenda wall, by now covered with a variety of
sessions. Participants take note of the time and place for sessions they want to be
involved in.
5. Dialogue sessions convene for the balance of the meeting. Recorders determined by
each group capture the important points and post the reports on the news wall. All of
these reports will be rolled into one document by the end of the meeting.
6. Following a closing or a break, the group might move into convergence, a process that
takes the issues that have been discussed and attaches action plans to them to "get
them out of the room."
7. The group then finishes the meeting with a closing circle where people are invited to
share comments, insights, and commitments arising from the process.
from the website by Chris Corrigan

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