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 does and does not claim: we track where an exercise has been seen in public sources. We do not claim to know who created it, how popular it is, or that it works. See methodology and trust boundary.
- 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 welcome: if you have evidence of an earlier or more accurate source, tell us.