What needs to be finished first
A clearly formulated core theme with urgency or tension is present, motivating participants to offer their own sessions.
The invited groups are identified and diversity (roles, hierarchy, functions) is ensured.
What needs to be ready before start
Large room with chairs in a circle; at least three breakout rooms or open areas; marketplace wall with time-space grid; A4 paper and markers for session proposals; pinboards in breakouts; documentation template per session.
One sponsor who introduces the guiding theme and keeps energy; one facilitator with Open Space experience; participants (minimum 15, ideally 30-100); volunteer session hosts; one documentation owner per session.
Theme and invitation text at least two weeks ahead; day schedule with marketplace slots; the four principles and the law of two feet introduced; documentation requirement per session.
1-3 days, minimum 4 h for a compact version
Circle seating without tables in center. Marketplace wall with slots (time x room) visible. Materials for proposals at entry. Publish principles as poster: Whoever comes, whatever happens, whenever it begins, when it is over, it is over. Plus law of two feet.
The one question this method answers
Which topics under the guiding theme are important enough that people lead a session themselves, and what outcomes come out of self-organized conversations?
Marker: Phase
| Step | Duration | Action | Hint |
|---|---|---|---|
1Phase 1: Introduction and opening | 30-45 min | Sponsor explains the guiding theme and urgency. Facilitator introduces the principles, law of two feet, marketplace mechanics, and documentation requirement. Circle seating keeps attention centered. | If the introduction lasts longer than 45 min, energy for the marketplace drops. Keep it concise and clear. Sponsor remains visible in the plenary, not as a distant observer. |
2Phase 2: Marketplace | 30-45 min | Participants who want to lead a session enter the circle, write topic, name, and preferred room on a sheet, pitch in 30 s, and pin the sheet to a time-space slot. Multiple proposals allowed. | If no proposals appear after 15 min, the facilitator stays calm and waits. Pressuring the room destroys momentum. The first proposal is always the hardest, then the marketplace opens. |
3Phase 3: Session rounds | 60-90 min per round, 2-4 rounds | Participants choose sessions by interest and switch freely (law of two feet). Hosts facilitate, everyone documents in parallel using the template. After each round, 15 min pause at marketplace. | If a session is empty, this is a signal about topic relevance, not a problem. A host may join another session. No one is forced to stay in a session. |
4Phase 4: News Wall and convergence | 30-45 min | All session documents are made visible on the News Wall. Participants read across sessions, mark topics with energy (dots). Optional prioritization with dot voting. | If documentation is missing or only keywords, this phase has no value. The template must be clear in advance (topic, discussion, next steps). |
5Phase 5: Closing Circle | 20-30 min | Recenter in the circle. Each person speaks for 30 s: what I take with me, what I commit. Sponsor closes with thanks and next step for the outputs. | Do not skip closing. If the sponsor does not clarify what happens with outputs, Open Space is just a meeting without consequence. |
What comes out at the end
News Wall as photo overview of all session outputs, plus one documentation page per session with topic, host, participants, discussion points, decisions, and next steps. Plus closing note with sponsor commitment.
Date and guiding theme as header. New collection per Open Space, older Open Spaces as cross-reference in archive. Attach follow-up sessions to the original session notes so progress stays visible.
Compact working template for Open Space Technology with context, input, output artifacts, and next step.
Self-organized large-group format in which participants shape the agenda and sessions themselves.
When and for what do we use this method?
Which data, observations, decisions, or materials are available?
Short notes along the runsheet.
Owner, date, and success signal.
Concrete filled scenario, fictional example
Concrete filled scenario, fictional example
Sponsor: Sabine Hauser (CTO). Participants: 47 from 6 tribes. Sessions: 18.
Sponsor: Three top themes are taken into the next Engineering All-hands, results shared in the tribe channel by 30.06.
Recognize symptoms and steer against them
Marketplace remains empty for 20 min; proposals are generic ("improve communication").
Narrow the topic before the start with a tension question: what is driving us, what is blocked. Sponsor states urgency concretely, otherwise no hosts emerge.
Only senior people propose sessions; junior participants wait or defer.
Facilitator explicitly asks for "topics that normally do not fit the agenda." Sponsor leaves the room briefly after opening so hierarchy can relax.
Participants stay in unproductive sessions out of courtesy; hosts stretch low-value conversations.
Repeat the law before every round. Facilitator visibly leaves a session as a modeling behavior. Explicitly allow "butterflies" (between sessions) and "hummingbirds" (frequent switching).
News Wall is half empty, existing pages are hard to read or only lists of fragments.
Make documentation template mandatory per host and hand it out at each session start. Reserve 15 min before closing for documentation completion.
Sponsor appears only at start, does not join sessions, closing is ceremonial.
Clarify in advance: sponsor attends at least two sessions as participant, not observer. Closing commitment must be substantive, not procedural.
News Wall is photographed and forgotten; after three weeks, nobody remembers the decisions.
Before Open Space, define who owns follow-up, where results stay visible, and when status updates happen. Otherwise participation drops at the next iteration.
Done signals checkable in under a minute
Go to the profile for purpose, similar methods, and sources or continue to the next method in the catalog.