This is a common question about working in Open Space. It’s easy to have a great conversation, but what about action? How do we get to Action?
First, we need to notice and acknowledge that everything that happens DURING an Open Space meeting or event IS action. When people raise issues, call meetings, work out solutions and so on — in an office — we call it real work. When it happens anywhere else, it’s still real work. It’s still action.
After the meeting or event, I think it’s not so much a challenge to “get” action as to “notice” it. Yesterday, I met with a woman who’s here in Chicago for a science education conference. She wanted to learn more about Open Space. A colleague of hers had heard about the work we did in Open Space for the Ocean Leadership program three years ago. Now they will chart an Open Space-informed course to organize a global network of polar regions educators, starting with the session they’re running this morning. They’ll follow with one in Norway later this year. Sounds like action to me, even though it’s three years later and nobody in the original meeting has even heard of it. Yet.
Invite, connect, inform… and the action just happens.