Open Space Technology
Open Space Technology is a relationship mapping exercise for closure and transfer: it helps participants close the session and carry learning into the next action.
How to run it
- Generate action and build energy, commitment, and shared leadership
- Address intractable problems or conflicts by unleashing self-organization
- Make sure that ALL of the issues that are most important to the participants are raised, included in the agenda, and addressed
- Make it possible for participants to take responsibility for tackling the issues that they care about and for what does or doesn’t happen
- A compelling challenge and attractive invitation are key requirements.
- Write up the entire proceedings in a single document, completed and distributed/shared immediately during the meeting.
- Open Space makes it possible to include everybody in constructing agendas and addressing issues that are important to them.
- Generate action and build energy, commitment, and shared leadership Address intractable problems or conflicts by unleashing self-organization Make sure that ALL of the issues that are most important to the participants are raised, included in the agenda, and addressed
- CollaborationCollaboratively create agendas in real-time.
Run this exercise live
The facilitator console stays in this browser. Its QR handoff is a short-lived participant snapshot containing only public exercise instructions, phase, prompt, and timer state.
What participants need now
Materials:
This is a participant-safe snapshot, not a response form. It sends nothing back to the facilitator.
Prompts to use +
Generate action and build energy, commitment, and shared leadership
Write up the entire proceedings in a single document, completed and distributed/shared immediately during the meeting.
Generate action and build energy, commitment, and shared leadership Address intractable problems or conflicts by unleashing self-organization Make sure that ALL of the issues that are most important to the participants are raised, included in the agenda, and addressed
CollaborationCollaboratively create agendas in real-time.
Run this with your AI assistant +
Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or your own local model: paste this prompt and your AI will co-facilitate this exercise with you.
Adapt this exercise for my exact room. Exercise: Open Space Technology. Readiness: Publishable Draft. Core moves: Generate action and build energy, commitment, and shared leadership; Write up the entire proceedings in a single document, completed and distributed/shared immediately during the meeting.; Generate action and build energy, commitment, and shared leadership Address intractable problems or conflicts by unleashing self-organization Make sure that ALL of the issues that are most important to the participants are raised, included in the agenda, and addressed; CollaborationCollaboratively create agendas in real-time.. Return a concise facilitator script with timing, wording, safety notes, and remote/in-person adjustments.
Origin unverified
- Where we observed it: The strongest current observations come from Liberating Structures; aggregators are listed as additional observations, not origin proof. (2 sources observed, including Liberating Structures, SessionLab.)
- What that means: we track where an exercise has been observed in public sources. We do not claim to know who created it, or how popular it is.
- No efficacy claims: appearing in this library is not a claim that the exercise is proven effective. Facilitator judgment and context decide whether it works for a given room.
- Method lineage: this exercise shares its method name with work attributed to David J. Teece and Erik Brynjolfsson in our people index. That is a name match, not an origin claim.
- Corrections: if you have evidence of an earlier or more accurate source, read our methodology and trust boundary and tell us.