Here’s a pretty good shot of me Opening Space at the Scrum Alliance gathering I facilitated recently in Chicago. This is a pretty good view of open space about to happen. Circle of 200+ people, many of them leaning in, listening. A big blank wall, grid of post-it notes at the end of the wall, me in the middle doing a quick briefing. Then they filled the wall with dozens of sessions, scheduled, conversed, typed, posted.
The remarkable thing about this particular gathering is the number of people who came up to me along the way, or mentioned in the large group comments, that they are using open space technology as a regular part of their business practice. Monthly meetings, staff meetings, project kick-off meetings, crisis pow-wows. All sorts. All very encouraging, too.
1. Michael, it looks like a small space for a lot of people in an opening circle. How did it feel?
2. Very encouraging indeed!
yes, that’s the other remarkable thing about this event, jeff. we all fit in the room. probably safer that way, cuz with fewer people the carpet might have made us go insane. better to keep it all covered with people. the scene reminded me of some os pics i think raffi posted once from moscow, what looked like hordes of people gathered around a little tiny center space. but then, who better to be so close with than folks working on “scrum” which is a rugby pile-up or huddle or something like that. had to call out the topics from the edge, right up next to the wall, so more people could see, but otherwise it was and worked just like open space!