In a single post, I'm not going to try to give a complete picture of any particular way of planning or leading a participative gathering; this is just a taste of what can happen, enough to hopefully whet your appetite. Using participative leadership models and changing the assumptions we make about what can happen in our public meetings will go a very long way toward restoring public discourse and trust in government. To do that, as progressives we need to start building a menu of options and a group of practitioners who can lead such gatherings.
Behind almost all participative models you find the assumption that we are wiser together than apart, that the wisdom to solve our problems and create a better future is found in us, and working together we will do better than working in isolation. Adam Kahane, who helped create and lead the Mont Fleur process in South Africa, has written that when confronting the highly complex problems facing us today, we need to use processes that are systemic, emergent and participatory. One of the most interesting and dynamic of these processes is Open Space Technology.
The traditional model of conferences and meetings says, "We'll have a keynote speaker and then break out sessions on pre-determined topics." If those topics are disconnected from the concerns of participants, the break outs either get hijacked or people get bored and mentally check out - the result is frustrated presenters and attendees. In such as setting, we depend on leaders to have created appropriate agendas and to know the issues in advance. More often than not, the real work happens in the hallways and parking lots, in the conversations over lunch. It's also not uncommon for issues to arise at the last minute - which means we have to rearrange our agenda or ignore it.
Open Space recognizes that dynamic and creates opportunities for that real work to happen at the center of the gathering, not in its margins, it provides ways to deal with issues as they arise and gives participants permission to take charge of the meeting.
Open Space's great strength is its flexibility - rather than being committed to follow a pre-arranged agenda, the attendees create the agenda on site. Open Space works by inviting people to come together around a shared question or concern and frees them to focus on the specifics within that question or concern and work on the parts that interest them. There are few ground rules and the outcome is a free exchange of ideas and concepts.
Questions are the foundation of Open Space and begin with the idea that "We can come together and think together and do better." Questions might be things like "What possibilities haven't we explored for making our political party stronger in Utah?" Or "How we can best manage our resources to reach the most voters in this election?" If you were inviting a more general audience your might ask "How progressives connect more effectively with one another and the broader community?" The shift is from "come and we'll teach you" to "come and we'll create together."
A day of Open Space begins with a large group gathering, everyone in a circle. The space is set up with letters or numbers signifying the meeting spaces (how many you have depends on how many people are attending - with a group of thirty people you might have four or five meeting spaces, a group of 300 you'll probably have 20 or more spaces). You'll have prepared two walls - one is blank for reports, one has a grid on it with times and places (the places correspond to your meeting places). I've lead open space meetings in churches where there's a social hall for large group then lots classrooms, conference rooms and other meeting spaces. The social hall becomes the "town square" for the day, it is also the cafeteria so it is our shared space. You want the meetings are long enough but not too long - in my not vast experience, I've found 30 minutes isn't quite long enough, but 90 minutes is a little too long; research shows that the average adult can concentrate for about one hour before needing a break. The meeting time is also part of how long you have overall - at a three day gathering, I wouldn't worry about two or three hour sessions; at a one day event, 90 minutes is probably the maximum you want for a single session. The way it works is simple: people identify a topic around which they want to convene, they pick a time and place, announce it to the group, write it on a piece of paper and identify a time and place that issue will be addressed.
The key facilitator(s) welcomes everyone and sets the tone for the day. They explain the process, repeat the question and give background as necessary. Then they cover the "Four Principles and One Law" of Open Space:
Whoever comes are the right people
Whatever happens is the only thing that could have happened
When it starts is the right time
When it's over it's over
The Law is:
The law of two feet. If you find yourself in a situation where you are neither contributing nor learning, move somewhere where you can.
All told, this could easily take about 20 to 30 minutes; don't rush the opening. The facilitator(s) sets the tone for the day, and creates a safe space. He or she is creating a container which will hold the day's work; especially if people are unfamiliar with Open Space, it's important to help peole feel comfortable.
Now, comes the scary part. Invite people to step up: "We have ten meetings spaces and we've divided our day into 75 minute blocks, with fifteen minute breaks in between. Today we're exploring how can progressives connect more effectively with one another and our community? If you have ideas or areas that you feel need to be explored or fleshed out, here is your chance to take the lead. In the middle of the room, on the card tables, you'll see five by eight sticky notes and markers. Write your idea or topic on one of the notes, announce it to the group, then place it on the grid on this wall. You'll be the convener of that session. Your job is to call the group together and be part of that discussion then provide a short report on what you explored or decided in your session." Then you sit down and shut up. In the past, I've seeded these sessions, making sure that a couple people have ideas that they want to lead so if the silence and thinking lasts too long, my volunteers step up and model the behavior. I have never needed them to do so. You may get some questions:
"Hold it, if I think we need to talk about better use of social media and texting, I can call a meeting about it? I can write 'Reaching people using Facebook, Twitter and Texting' on a sticky, pick a time and place and have a meeting?"
"Yes."
"What if I have two ideas?"
"Then go ahead and announce both and pick times and places."
After one or two people announce a topic and a time, the process goes pretty quickly. There may be some discussion - "Wait, isn't the Facebook session covering the same thing as the New Ways of Connecting session?" "Yeah." "Let's do one session then." When the agenda is completed, it's a good time to remind people that some topics may not attract fifteen or twenty people and that's okay - that's what the four principles are about. In a session with Utah Democrats, I would expect to see conversations about reaching out to Mormons effectively, glbt issues, women's issues, reaching younger voters, success outside Salt Lake County and so on. As people visit the agenda wall and figure out which sessions they're attending, it will be noisy and a little chaotic and that's good. People are wrapping their arms around what's there; they're also seeing one another with new eyes - as peers and as co-creators, not just folks at a meeting.
As the first meetings gather, people will be tentative. We're in new territory. As people discuss ideas with one another, unexpected things will begin to emerge - trust, collegiality, collaboration and innovation. People's awareness of themselves will shift and they will start seeing themselves as leaders. People will get into the swing of things pretty quickly; the sessions will get richer and deeper, more meaningful. It sounds hippy dippy, I know, but there's a number of intangibles that start working at such events - energy that grows as people get excited and engaged.
As your time winds down, people will feel a rewarding mixture of exhilaration and exhaustion. At a multi-day event, people will have new ideas over night or you might people realizing certain topics need to change or be combined; that's okay. Trusting participants is a key ingredient in success.
Where do we go from here? You've just created a lot of excitement, you want to take advantage of it. Maybe now you form specific working groups to implement the ideas generated during the day or you recruit volunteers for future activities. You want to make sure you have a wiki or good discussion board ready to go. This gathering was only one part of an ongoing process.
There are some great resources for Open Space:
Harrison Owen's book Open Space Technology: A User's Guide is hands down the best since Harrison Owen created Open Space.
One of the best web resources is Chris Corrigan's website- it includes links to all the major Open Space sites.