Open Space

I was at Henley Business School the other day with other visiting faculty members discussing the impact of their merger with Reading University’s business school.  We were using a technique called Open Space, which is a way of working with big groups to discuss issues and develop them.  Imagine a shoal of fish which keeps forming and reforming around various topics and issues.  People can move from topic to topic as they wish.  Open Space has a few underpinning concepts such as:-

• Whoever comes is the right people
• Whatever happens is the only thing that could have
• When it’s over, it’s over, and one there is one rule,
• The rule of two feet, which simply says you are free to walk away when that feels like the right thing to do.

Today, I was out on the Sussex Downs and we had planned to go for an 8 mile hike.  At one point, after about 5 miles,  we found that we weren’t quite where we expected to be, and there was an option to cut out the last 2 miles and go straight back to the car.  So in our big open space, we exercised our rights under the rule of two feet, and accepted that when it was over, it was over.  We had  had a perfect walk, a wonderful lunch of local cheeses and needed to be back.  The Universe had offered us this perfect end to a perfect day.

Sometimes you have to flex your plans to acknowledge that things have moved on and your needs have changed or even been met.   Staying open and flexible is a key to Change, Life and Open Space…

“There are two types of minds – the mathematical, and what might be called the intuitive. The former arrives at its views slowly, but they are firm and rigid; the latter is endowed with greater flexibility and applies itself simultaneously to the dive”  Blaise Pascal

Tags: Change, groups, open space technology

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 at 18:23 and is filed under Business Change, Hints, Tips & Techniques, Personal Change. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.