The Features of an OST Meeting

There are several features to an open space meeting.

Chairs are arranged in a circle to facilitate communication and there are no tables within the circle. The role of the facilitator is to open the space and to hold safe space open. This process acknowledges the potential for leadership in every person.

The agenda is created by the people present in the room. Passion and responsibility are the two keys to a successful meeting. Without passion, enthusiasm for an idea will soon wane, and without responsibility, there is risk that the ideas will never move forward.

There are four principles and one law for conducting an open space meeting which enables the participants to stay focused on the event at hand and acknowledges that the wisdom to resolve the issue is present in the room.

The four principles are:

1. Whoever comes, are the right people (reinforces that the wisdom to achieve solutions is present in the room and the group is not to worry about who is not present nor to panic about who is)
2. Whatever happens is the only thing that could have (keeps the attention on the best possible effort in the present, not worrying about what we "should have done")
3. Whenever it starts is the right time (reminds people that creativity cannot be controlled)
4. When it is over, it is over (encourages people to continue their discussion so long as there is energy for it. This may result in a short session not filling the entire time allotted, or it may result in a session longer than the time allotted)

The Law of Mobility states that if participants find themselves in situations where they are neither learning anything or contributing anything, they are responsible for moving to another place, for example to another group meeting. The principles and law enable people to participate in ways that are most meaningful to them.

Having explained the process, the facilitator opens the meeting to let the group create the agenda by identifying topics that are important to the individual regarding the theme. The individual puts his or her topic on a sheet of flipchart paper along with their name announces the topic to the group, and then posts the topic on the agenda wall. There is a means of assigning room spaces and times for the topics that are generated.

When all the topics are up, everyone goes to this "marketplace of topics" and signs up for the topics of discussion that interest them. The facilitator gets out of the way. The group self-manages the discussions and produces a report of the proceedings at the end of their discussion for all to read. The facilitator oversees what is happening at the computer station, which is where the reports from each group get inputted. The facilitator reconvenes the group as a collective whole at day's end and in the morning again in a multi-day event.

Following the generation of all of the reports, the facilitator moves into a more guided process to identify priorities of the group and then to identify next steps and future action. This portion of the meeting takes about three hours, whether it is a two or three day meeting.

Lastly, there is a closing circle, which further identifies the commitment of participants to the theme and to the future.