This article was reprinted with permission from the November 2004 issue of AI Practitioner.

Open Space as Appreciative

By Harrison Owen

Open Space begins with invitation. This is not about command and control, orders from the top to present oneself. Nor is it a strictly defined, carefully negotiated, select group of stakeholders. It is an open invitation to all who care, and care enough about the issue at hand (whatever that might be) to come. Doubtless those who respond will care in many different ways, but this difference guarantees the rich diversity from which innovative solutions can emerge. From the very start, Open Space is appreciative of difference and of the multiple souls that manifest those differences.

Open Space forms in a circle, the age-old form of community, as in a family circle, a circle of friends. There is no top or bottom, front or back. Those who come and care face each other, with nothing in the way. No tables, no desks, no rostrums – nothing. Without a word being spoken the common concerns and vital differences of the group involved are appreciated.

When words are spoken, they are once again words of invitation - an invitation to declare what really matters for each person. Their passion and also their willingness to take responsibility for that passion. There is no attempt to quell incipient (or actual) conflict. If anything it is magnified, and space is given for appreciation of difference in all of its richness. There is no right or wrong, acceptable or unacceptable – the only criterion is that somebody cares enough to say what is really on their mind.

Open Space is guided by four principles and one law. Each in their own way advance the appreciative environment. The first principle, Whoever comes is the right people, reminds participants that those present cared enough to come – which, in and of itself, makes them precisely the right people. The second principle, Whatever happens is the only thing that could have, focuses attention, and therefore appreciation, on the present moment, thereby excluding all of the might-have-beens, should-have-beens. What is is the only thing present at the moment. Appreciate that! The third principle (the bane of all meeting managers) is Whenever it starts is the right time. This is an admonition to take things as they are and when they happen – a cardinal prerequisite for full appreciation. The last principle, When it’s over it’s over, is basically the flip side of the preceding one. Everything has a beginning, middle and end. All three must be honored (appreciated), most particularly the end when it comes.

The one law is a strange one. It is called The Law of Two Feet, and says succinctly, If at anytime during our time together you find yourself in a situation where you are neither learning nor contributing, use your two feet. Go somewhere else. Do something useful. Of course we have all been taught that leaving an unproductive situation is rude. Under the power of this teaching, countless hours of boring meetings have been endured – and to do otherwise would be socially unacceptable. And now participants are advised to do precisely what they have always wanted to do. I think this is the ultimate of appreciation – of our time, energy, dignity. And strangely enough, it is also (I think) a profound appreciation of those in a group who choose to stay. No blame or judgment attached, just a simple recognition that this is not my cup of tea.

It is probably worthwhile noting that the Principles and The Law did not emerge through any analytical or judicial process aimed at prescribing what should happen. Rather they emerged as a simple recognition of what was going on. In a word, people are given permission to do what they were going to do anyhow. It is an invitation to be fully and completely yourself.

Laws and principles are interesting to read, but at the end of the day, the proof of the pudding is always in the eating. What happens when you open space? Lots of things happen, but a common characteristic of them all, or at least all the ones I have heard of or seen, is that by the conclusion there is an almost palpable sense of camaraderie or community. This is not to say that love and light breaks out in all quarters, but they always seem to peek through, even in the most unlikely places. For example, I was privileged to work with a group of 50 Palestinians and Israelis several years ago. This was not your standard “peacenik” crowd. In fact we had folks from the right and the left politically and religiously along with security folks and serving military officers. By the end of two day's worth of heated and pointed discussion, one of the participants (a senior advisor to the Foreign Minister) said, “The visual memory etched in my mind: smiling people, embracing, even kissing, a certain sense of intimacy in the Open Space.”

Perhaps it is flawed analysis or just wishful thinking, but every time I have experienced community of the sort described above in an Open Space Event, or in the open space of our lives, it all began with appreciation – appreciation of others just as they are – which then seemed to move inexorably along a spectrum from respect, to trust, to hope, to some real sense of shared intimacy. This is not to suggest that all issues were solved or that full agreement was achieved, but it is to affirm that the individuals involved openly respected (deeply appreciated) each other for who and what they were.

There is a continuing mystery surrounding the manifestation of appreciation in open space, for it seems to happen all by itself. The facilitator of the event rarely spends more than 15 minutes starting it going, and then never intervenes in any of the multiple discussion groups that form. The only plausible explanation I have found for this mystery comes from all we are currently learning about self-organizing systems. So if asked what is the magic of Open Space, my answer is always – it has none. The real magic comes from the power of self-organization manifesting in complex adaptive systems, as the folks from the Santa Fe Institute would say. One might conclude then, that the phenomenon of appreciation is actually a natural concomitant to the ongoing process of self-organization. And to really go out on a limb – if it turns out, as many scientists would suggest, that the cosmos itself is the product of self-organization, perhaps the appreciative mode is deeply written into the process of cosmic evolution. Far out to be sure, but I find it a pleasant thought.