This story was published in Exchange Leadership Magazine of the United Church of Canada (Fall 1997) 

Open Space Technology 

If I had a gift to give to the Church, it would be to encourage the Church to use Open Space Technology as a way to bring people together for the purpose of revitalizing or re-Spiriting the Church. I am an organizational consultant, who has had a long history of work within and for the Church, wearing many different hats. And of all the methodologies for getting at issues and opportunities, I know that there is none that works better. I know that the Church would benefit by using Open Space Technology at the congregational level, to conduct Presbytery and Conference meetings, and to conduct meetings of  General Council. It results in better and more meaningful meetings; it results in getting at the issues and opportunities for which the people gathered have passion and are willing to take responsibility; and it results in fundamental change happening on an ongoing basis in how we relate to each other. To stimulate your thoughts, I give you a brief description of Open Space Technology as well as telling you just one of the stories where it was used in a congregation. 

Open Space Technology enables organizations like the Church  to become simpler, high achieving, high learning, and highly playful. It enables Spirit to be felt in all aspects of the organization. Developed with simplicity in mind, while adhering to clear principles and values, Open Space Technology is a powerful tool for creating an environment for innovation, problem solving, creativity and rapid change. This is the very environment we need within our Church. 

Description of an Open Space Technology  Meeting: 
Note that Open Space Technology used well requires much thinking and discussion in advance of a meeting, as well as work after a meeting to determine how to make maximum use of what happened in the meeting. I do not describe all of that here, but rather just a brief description of the meeting itself so that you can see what it looks like. 

There are several features to an open space meeting. Chairs are arranged in a circle to facilitate communication and there are no tables. The role of the facilitator is to open the space and to hold safe space open. The process acknowledges the potential for leadership in every person. The agenda is created by the people 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 enable 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 is the right people. 
2.Whatever happens is the only thing that could have. 
3. Whenever it starts is the right time. 
4. When it is over, it is over. 
The Law of Mobility states that if persons 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, sign up for the topics of discussion that interest them and then, 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. And it works! 

Open Space Events are: 
- easy to organize, requiring very little lead time 
- effective for small or large groups (20-500) 
- participative 
- enabling for leadership to surface naturally 
- facilitated by one or two facilitators, no matter how large 
 
 Use of Open Space Technology is Appropriate when: 
- an existing church or organization needs reenergizing 
- creative planning needs to be done quickly 
- challenges are present that need immediate action’ 
- communication needs to improve 
- a wide variety of issues need to be dealt with 
- opportunities for the future need to be explored 
- vision and structure need to be developed quickly 
- individual interests within a group appear to be quite diverse 

Open Space is not Appropriate when: 
- specific outcomes are predetermined 
- existing leadership is not willing to make the changes as a result of the event 
- people do not want to address the truth of what they might uncover 

In an Open Space Meeting, you will discover how: 
- to take risks and develop practical visions 
- rekindle your passion and take responsibility for your own change of agenda 
- self organize with others in work teams 
- flow with the energy of the moment and with team spirit for maximum creativity 

Who attends? 
All persons who have an interest or “stake” in the subject of the meeting. Within the Church context this would include all members, adherents, previous members, and people in the neighborhood that you would like to invite. 

What is required? 
One large plenary room with a blank wall which can be taped onto, and in which chairs can be arranged in a circle, or concentric circles. Breakout spaces dependent upon registration. Arrangements for refreshments and meals throughout the day. A public address system with a cordless microphone, one computer per twenty participants, and a printer. Paper, flipchart paper, masking tape, and magic markers, sticker dots for voting. 

What does the facilitator do? 
I would advise you to hire a trained facilitator for your first Open Space meeting. The first Open Space meeting should be one that is vital to your Church, and for which many people have an interest. Following this meeting, someone within the congregation could be trained in Open Space Technology and the Church can continue using Open Space Technology for meetings with a facilitator from within the Church. 

The facilitator helps the leadership team clarify the purpose of the meeting, explores the story of that particular Church or organization, and ensures that Open Space can in fact be used for this meeting and then ensures that the steps needed before the event are looked after. The facilitator then leads the event. Following the event, the facilitator again works with the leadership team to give guidance for making maximum use of what came out of the meeting. 

What concrete information do you get out of the meeting? 
A format is laid out for every discussion group to record its findings, and the recorder inputs the report into a computer. The facilitator organizes, indexes, and assures one printer ready copy of  the “book of proceedings” with reports from each group, as well as other pages the planning committee have agreed upon (such as a covering letter). In a three day event, the book is printed during the second night for distribution on the third morning, whereas in a one or two day event the book is to be in the participants’ hands within two weeks. Criteria for prioritization, feasibility, and actionable forward steps may be included in the report. 

Far more important and far reaching, however is the change which takes place in the minds of participants, who emerge from the event as ambassadors for the change within the Church. 

Options to meet your needs: 
- your needs may require a one day, two day, or three day meeting. A one day meeting will raise the issues and opportunities and identify ownership for change. A three day meeting is the ideal if the organization wishes to identify priorities, focus participants around those priorities, and develop further steps for action 
- leveraging from the Open Space meeting to an Open Space way of conducting business on an ongoing basis brings an organization to being a high learning, highly interactive organization that can position itself well for into the future 

St. John’s United in Oakville, Ontario 

I wish to share a bit about the story of using Open Space Technology at St. John’s United in Oakville. In preparing for this article, I telephoned Janet Jones, the Chairperson of St. John’s United. Our conversation was four months after the Open Space Meeting and I asked her how things were going as a result of the meeting. She was still most pleased, saying that all items that had arisen during the meeting were still being worked on with lots of enthusiasm and people were working on even the harder topics such as financial increase and change at the Board level. 

My assignment at St. John’s was a favourite for me. As Chairperson, Janet had called me and wondered if I would take their Church through an exercise to look at their future. She said that they were doing well as a congregation, that there was a lot of life in the congregation, that new families had come, and that there was a mix of ages that added to the health of the Church. She also said that they wanted to be wise about the future. They were well aware of demographics and predictions for future decline  in the Church in general, including in their area. Janet is a determined lady; she said that there was no reason that St. John’s should do anything but continue to grow. 

I met with the planning group who were equally as committed as Janet is to their Church and a positive future. We agreed that there were no pre-determined outcomes and that they wanted everyone to really participate and have their voices heard. They were most concerned that newcomers would have a chance to be in the discussions and not feel as though they didn’t belong. Janet had wisely chosen a planning committee that included at least one person from every stakeholder group in the Church ranging from the ministers to the newcomers. With this diversity of views on the planning committee we were able to ensure that we prepared everything to include all of the stakeholders. 

The planning committee agreed that they would host one evening, one full day and one half day for the whole congregation to prepare for the future of their Church. Invitations were sent out to the whole congregation and people were asked to register and to bring their own lunch on the full day. A member of the planning committee wanted to contribute baked goods for the morning and evening sessions. Another member offered to look after the preparation of coffee and tea and so on. Others took responsibility for the registration table, while still another took responsibility for the Church computers that we would use to make a record of our discussions. 

The first part of the meeting took place on a Friday night. About 25 people attended to “tell stories”. They told stories of the good and the bad, of the past and the present. They were wonderful stories, telling of moments that were special in their Church life. And in telling the stories of the past and the present, and honouring that they were special, the group prepared themselves to look at the future. 

The following day was a full day in Open Space Technology, in which issues and opportunities for their preferred future were identified and then discussed by the 40 people who came. The people who put the topics up led the discussion groups and then came to see Mike in the “computer room” to make sure that their topic was recorded. As the reports were generated, Mike or I would put them up on the newswall so that everyone could read about what was going on in each group. Lay people led groups, ministry personnel led groups, people who had never thought they would ever be in a position to lead a group did so. And they did a terrific job! Those who knew how to use a computer helped those who didn’t to make sure that the reports were entered. No one needed to organize this. The people managed all these parts of their own process. 

Because the Church had special services both that Sunday and the next, we were not able to have our last day of the process for two weeks. So, on Saturday morning two weeks later, we met again. As the group gathered, they were handed their individual copy of “the book of proceedings” that we had collectively generated on our previous Saturday together. They were also handed a balloting sheet so that each person could identify the five items that were the most important to them from amongst the fifteen issues and opportunities that had been generated. 

The group was very silent through this process, understanding the seriousness of what they were doing for the future of their Church. To help the process, I had each topic title on a separate sheet of flip chart paper around the room, and had handed each person five stickers. Each person placed their stickers on the sheets in accordance with their voting. Visually, we were able to see the top “vote-getters” quickly. Instead of five, there were eight. The group collectively agreed that they had the energy to work on all eight, so these became the items that would be worked on for the future of their Church. 

The balance of our time together was spent developing action plans to move each of these items forward so that they could be presented to the Board at its next meeting for final approval. Resources that would be needed were identified. Linkages of various items with existing committees of the Church were also identified. The executive committee agreed to take on the role of ensuring that the new initiatives blended well with the existing committees and that the new initiatives would not get bogged down within committees that didn’t have the energy to move them forward. 

All items were approved at the Board meeting, and as noted above, all items are still being worked on to position this congregation into the next millennium.  Next year, all groups will report back on their achievements in relation to the action plans. At that meeting, all groups will be disbanded and a search for actionable items to be worked on will begin again. Some items may  reappear then, new ones will develop. There may or may not be  carryover of the  people working on them. Everything will be remandated anew. 

In the words of one participant: “I was very skeptical about this process beforehand. Now I am enthused and re-energized and very positive about our future. It really worked”. 

Birgitt Bolton