I first encountered Open Space Technology in the early 2000s through the Primary Care Trust in East Rotherham. They introduced it as a method used for a couple of hours in a community setting. I used it a few times, with various groups engaged with community planning.
Open Space Technology appealed to me because I knew about several other participative approaches. Also, it worked well with local people. As is often the case with participative methods, it is professionals who struggle with it!
Longer Conferences
Some conferences prefer keynote speakers!
With longer conferences, I learned a few hard truths. Open Space Technology
- is difficult to facilitate. It can take up to 45 minutes to set up a session and this can be tedious,
- really needs to be run with people who agree to take part in advance. It is difficult to communicate the benefits and the spirit to an unprepared group.
- is easily undermined by dominant people. I remember one session where a senior person wouldn’t let me start a session after I’d set it up because he claimed everyone wanted to do a particular workshop. He asked me to tell them all to do the workshop even though I was about to ask them to choose what they wanted to do! I pointed out this contradiction to him afterwards and I think he saw it.
- with short sessions it seems to work quite well but with a long session, it is perhaps best to go for 2 or 3 days. One day produces useful and insightful information but does not allow time to move those taking part to action planning. This has cost implications and some people find it hard to commit to 3 days without keynote speakers!
- if you have resident experts, you should not use them as keynote speakers, they can offer workshops like everyone else!
Evaluation
I’ve found whilst people in neighbourhoods find Open Space Technology liberating, professional people with agendas find freedom to explore issues profoundly threatening.
Open Space Technology is a powerful method when people contract to use it in advance. It is less effective with unprepared participants. The challenge is to find contexts where it works well.
Perhaps my previous account of Open Space Technology is a little more optimistic about its use. The older post includes a link to a book about the method. For community organisations the practicalities of running very long sessions may be prohibitive. However, it can be used effectively in a couple of hours, particularly if participants are familiar with the approach.
Have you found participatory methods appeal more to local activists than they do to professionals? Why do you think that is? Have you been able to use it for short sessions? For sessions covering a day or more?