Opening Space

…Unleashing

Awesomeness

OPENING SPACE &

OPEN SPACE TECHNOLOGY

OPENING SPACE – THE MANY

FACES….

Physical space

Cyberspace

Mental space

Emotional space

Creative space

Time space

Many other ways to slice and dice

OPEN SPACE MINDSET

Honest, open, and receptive

• to ourselves

• to each other

• to our environment

• to the unknown

Honest: bringing your truth and your fullest self

Open: to the truth of others and the diversity of those truths

Receptive: to feedback from your environment, to the now,

to the unexpected, to the emergent

Making Space for: Emergence & Self-Organization

OPEN SPACE MINDSET –

THEORIES OF AWESOMENESS

An Open Space mindset leads to:

harmony of passion and responsibility – most creative,

powerful, and appropriate fit.

…which leads to optimal structure for getting

out of the way of realizing our potential

awesomeness – our own and our group

…aka, high performance

LESSONS FROM

Open Space Technology

Improvisational Comedy

Ecstatic Dance

A suicide hotline

Nobody Dies…

MORAL OF THE STORY

there is no “right” system or way for open space, for

agility, for achieving high performance

…but I will give

it a try anyhow

ECSTATIC DANCE:

1. Move however you wish (akin to law of two feet)

2. No talking on the dance floor

3. Respect yourself and one another

4. No shoes

5. No drugs & alcohol

Move however

you like …

from awesome to

life affirming

LAW OF MOBILITY - CHALLENGE

Safe enough to try?

Test it, tweak it, throw it away

Reinforce it – example & acceptance

ADVANCED CHALLENGE!

Morningstar & W.L. Gore

Projects, tasks, committees, “titles”

voluntary / self-selected

Passion

Propose, spearhead, create

Responsibility

IMPROV

1. Agreement (Yes, And…)

2. Listen

3. Team Work (Group Mind

4. Willingness to fail

5. Be in the moment

6. Action beats inaction

7. Be honest with what is coming up –

don’t censor or judge

8. Let go of your need to control

9. There are no mistakes

10. Trust

YES, AND…

"Yes and" implies acceptance, but not acquiescence.

• Receptivity + self-empowerment

• Co-existence

• In the Now

• Letting go of control, of expectations, of fears, of

distraction

…EMERGENCE

YES, AND…

Time to play!

YES AND… THE CHALLENGE

SUICIDE HOTLINE

Listening

• No advice

• No judgment

• No Interruption

…just listening

Please call me by my true name,

so I can wake up,

and so the door of my heart can be left open,

the door of compassion.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

DEEP LISTENING IS NOT A

TOOL OR A “BEST PRACTICE”

Openness is a state of being

• Authentic

• Empty, open, receptive – a vessel

NEVER TRY TO OPEN A SPACE BIGGER THAN

YOU CAN OPEN FOR YOURSELF

OPEN SPACE TECHNOLOGY

1. The Law of Two feet – voluntary participation

2. Whomever come are the right people

3. Whenever it starts is the right time; whenever its

over, its over

4. Wherever it happens is the right place

5. Whatever happens is the only thing that could

have

HEALTHCARE MANAGEMENT

CONSULTING FIRM

• 1 day of drinking coffee & booze in Lisbon

• 1 day of trying not to fall asleep staring at the front

of the room

• 1 day being asked to respond to questions from the

front of the room

1 lunchtime chat full of surprises

GLOBAL MEETING – 2011, LISBON

OPEN SPACE TECHNOLOGY

Global Meeting – 2013, Oakland, CA

• OST – “What do you want to learn, what do you

have to share? Getting it done….”

• Within 10 minutes:

• TONS of questions, confusions, and frustrations

• Specific projects & project types

• Desire to learn

• Offers to share

• Live projects – proposal written that day!

• Where the passion and effort wanted to flow

Are we doing this

open space thing

again?Even one less thing to do…

SLACKER CHALLENGE

OPENING SPACES –

A RETROSPECTIVE

Ecstatic Dance: Move however you want

Bring your true self

HONEST

Improv: Yes, and…

Acknowledgment, acceptance

OPEN

Suicide hotline: Active Listening

RECEPTIVE

Open Space Technology: One less thing to do

SELF-ORGANIZATION & EMERGENCE

Open Space

MindsetMemorize it Love it Live it

Make it your own