I’ve experienced Open Space for the first time.
The chairman of Föreningen svenska tonsättare (FST, the Swedish Composers’ Society) invited the board and the employees on a two day conference/board meeting in beautiful Smådalarö gård south of Stockholm.
We arrived on a Thursday morning at 9 am and had coffee and sandwiches in the orangery. Shortly after that Pernilla Luttropp introduced the Open Space Technology. An original Open Space takes two and a half days but since we only had one and a half day we got the Light version.
According to the ”Open Space Technology User’s guide” by Harrison Owen ”Open Space Technology is in fact a very simple way to enable more effective and productive meetings. And, as it turns out, Open Space is much more. Be prepared to be surprised! […]” Sounds good.
The theme for this Open Space meeting was of course the future of FST. We shared thoughts and ideas of what FST should be doing in the future and who or what will affect the future of FST. We also had some really interesting group discussions that led to action plans and ”semi-agreements” on concrete suggestions towards reaching our goals.
Another quote from the User’s guide by Harrison Owen:
”A strong point of Open Space Technology is its ability to unite groups of enormous diversity in their education, ethnicity, economics, politics, culture, social position, or all of the above.”
Very true