They are best used when you are looking to gain inspiration and engagement to make a strategic change of direction.  For example to become more customer focused or customer centric.

Such an event is a tool or process to enable all kinds of people, in any kind of organization, to create inspired meetings and events. Over the last 20+ years, it has also become clear that opening space, as an intentional leadership practice, can create inspired organizations, where ordinary people work together to create extraordinary results with regularity.

While the mechanics of Open Space provide a simple means to self-organize, it is the underlying principles that make it effective both for meetings and as a guidepost for individual and collective effectiveness.  There are only ever four principles or rules for an OST event.

• Whoever comes are the right people
• Whatever happens is the only thing that could have
• Whenever it starts is the right time
• When it's over, it's over

Harding & Yorke can run your event for you - from organising the venue, inviting the participants, facilitation, capturing the outcomes and reporting back the findings.

Our most successful events are achieved when we present the findings of our research in a dramatic and evidential way to the participants.  The presentation evokes all kinds of reactions and inevitably takes on its own direction.  Facilitation of the event ensures that no political agendas creep in to the process and people participate at their most effective.

A Harding & Yorke facilitator explains the process and then participants are invited to co-create the agenda and host their own discussion groups. Discussions are held in designated areas or separate rooms known as 'breakout spaces' and participants are free to move amongst the discussion groups. Each group records the conversations in a form which can be used to distribute or broadcast the proceedings of the meeting (in hard copy, blog, podcast, video, etc).

Online networking can occur both before and following the actual face-to-face meetings so discussions can continue seamlessly. In a multi-day Open Space, participants have the opportunity to announce new discussion topics / late-breaking sessions each new morning. At the end of the day (or 2 days or 2.5 days) the full group reconvenes for comments and reflection. This helps participants to re-engage in the full group over the duration of the meeting.

OST Events can be organised with groups of 5 to 2000+ people - working in one-day workshops or three-day conferences.  

What will happen?

We never know exactly what will happen when we open the space for people to do their most important work, but we can guarantee these results when any group gets into Open Space:

1. All of the issues that are MOST important to the participants will be raised.
2. All of the issues raised will be addressed by those participants most qualified and capable of getting something done on each of them.
3. All of the most important ideas, discussion, data, recommendations, conclusions, questions for further study, and plans for immediate action will be documented in one comprehensive report and distributed to all those participating in the event.
4. The contents of this report document will be focused and prioritised and prepared for presenting to the Board or managing Group.
5. All of the results can be made available to an entire organisation or community so the conversation can invite every stakeholder into immediate implementation.
6. AND... results like these can be planned and implemented faster than any other kind of so-called "large-group intervention." It is literally possible to accomplish in days and weeks what some other approaches take months and years to do.

OST events get people and work moving, although it may mean lots of things are very different than before.  We do not recommend using OST events if you are looking for support of an existing plan or not prepared to do something about the findings.

Failure to do take action following an Open-Space Technology event can be costly.

For more information on OST events please contact Jamie Lywood on 0845 450 1750 or email: JamieL@empathy.co.uk