Here is a story of a participative event which demonstrates the power of this way of working. Remember it describes only one process from the many available.

Scenario

Imagine you are a professional counsellor who focuses on people in the workplace. You have had a long, hard week, it’s summer and it’s hot and sunny. You are attending your professional conference and there is one final conference session before the long drive home and you are tired. You have had a nice lunch and are engaged in an interesting conversation with colleagues when you look at the conference programme to remind yourself about this session. It looks a bit strange-it’s called ‘Open Space’ and there is a topic printed in the programme ‘What are the issues and opportunities for counsellors and counselling skills users in advancing psychological health in the workplace’ A key question but you would really like to get started on the drive home……. A number of your colleagues feel the same but but you go along for the start and hear about how this thing called ‘Open Space’ started.

Open Space

Open Space is 15 years old and was developed by a management consultant who noticed that people enjoyed the coffee breaks the most at conferences so he designed a whole conference as one long coffee break. At the coffee breaks you talk to who you want to, about whatever subject you are interested in and when you feel like it you circulate, moving on to talk to others. The conference was based on these principles and ran for days. It has become a popular conference ’design’ and can also be used for informal, self managed meetings. If people are not familiar with this way of working they can sometimes be reluctant to get started but slowly people speak up about what they feel what interests them and here at the counselling conference the issues and opportunities start to emerge. You are invited to go off and find a location and pursue your discussion in the self selected group. You can even go back to sitting on the grass in the sunshine! Hey-this is fun and its relaxing! When the large group meets again you find that there have been some fascinating discussions over a wide range of topics and everyone is looking relaxed and yet enthusiastic. They have enjoyed the experience and got a lot out of it. Even the 2 people who went off to sit on the grass confess to having gained a lot and helped each other make sense of some of the conference sessions.

The open space ends on a high note with some people saying that they had known about this way of working in the past but were grateful for the opportunity to experience it. They will be thinking of ways they can apply it in their day to day work. It may seem initially a bit of a risk to do so but having experienced it for themselves and seen others enjoy it so much they will give it a go. They recognise the freedom, energy and fast creative results which people are motivated to act on without anyone pushing them.

If you need fresh creative ideas on a subject in record quick time and know that you need results, give Open Space a run. Its fun, energising and effective.