OPENSPACE TECHNOLOGY

To capture many ideas from many people in a short time to help with strategic planning or review, Openspace is the ideal approach. It is especially useful to capture “outlier” ideas for possible future use. Idea harvesting is used at the point where we need to generate options for action and has the particular advantage that individual contributions are captured before discussion begins, thereby preventing the discussion being dominated by one individual or taken down a particular track by the first suggestion made. Open Space technology is not proprietary, and details of the methodology and its uses can be found on the openspaceworld website

The openspace process is simplicity itself, provided a few simple rules are followed.

Participants typically sit around a square table, restaurant-style (hence the other name for this technique: Openspace Cafe). On the table is a sheet of paper, laid out as follows:

OST_Sheet

Each participant controls the section of paper nearest to them and can write whatever they like in this space. The space in the centre is reserved for ideas which are unanimously agreed.

The facilitator introduces the topic or question to be discussed but (and this is important!) does not background it or provide any more context than is essential to understand the question. This deliberate lack of direction allows participants to approach the question in whatever way they choose, and is an important aid to generating diverse ideas and options.

The first few minutes after the topic is announced, participants write their own ideas in their personal space on the sheet, but (and this is important!) they do not discuss it with their fellow-participants. This ensures that each person comes to the topic with their own response, rather than reacting or responding to the first suggestion put forward by someone else. It also ensures that as many ideas as possible are captured at the outset, even if they are not ultimately endorsed by the group as a whole. After a few minutes of individual note-making, the facilitator invites participants to discuss the question and to write ideas they agree on into the central space on the sheet.

It can be seen that this technique is designed to ensure a democratic approach to discussion by neutralising dominant voices, to harvest as many ideas as possible, and ultimately to approach consensus.