A Tough Sell

If you're thinking of introducing the OST format into your meeting mix, be prepared for some resistance, says Stillinger. “Management usually has a message that it wants to get out during a meeting,” he says. “And it wants to make sure that everyone receives that message. That's not necessarily how open space works.”

Heft acknowledges that, and explains that “if you want to deliver a one-way message, open space is not the tool to use. Just as you wouldn't use the same tool for every part of a gardening, cooking, or construction job, you wouldn't use open space for every kind of meeting.”

But, she adds, if you are willing to tap into the wisdom and experience of a cross section of people, and invite divergent and emergent thinking, “even if you aren't comfortable not controlling the conversation,” then “open space may be the tool to use.”

Another key selling point for OST is that it gives internally motivated meeting attendees a chance to take leadership roles on issues that they are truly passionate about.

“How often have you seen meetings in which people just check out — they don't engage?” asks Stillinger. “With open space, you can let the guy who has his hair on fire about advertising talk about advertising.”

The only real way to comprehend the value of a meeting like this is to attend one. “You really need to just do it,” he says. “It's hard to understand until you've really experienced it.”

Ost's Origins

In the early 1980s, organizational consultant Harrison Owen made a simple but keen observation: In his brief history of Open Space Technology, Owen writes that the most exciting, energetic, information-driven periods of most meetings were the coffee breaks, which “weren't really planned at all.”

At that time, Owen was planning symposiums on organization transformation in Monterey, Calif. He decided to change the format of the 1985 symposium. Attendees knew only what time it began, when it ended, and the general theme. There was no agenda or planning committee, and the facilitator stuck around just long enough to get things started.

“Much to the amazement of everybody, 2.5 hours later we had a three-day agenda totally planned out, including multiple workshops, all with conveners, times, places, and participants,” he writes.

4 Principles of Open Space Meetings

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