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Open Space: A Model for a More Effective Movement

Posted on 22. Jul, 2010 by Glenn in Grazing in the Grassroots, The Visiting Animal

From time to time, we will be featuring guest blog entries from activists who we think are just ducky — folks all around the globe who are advocating for animals in creative and effective ways. Glenn Gaetz fits into that category quite well. Glenn is a director of Liberation B.C. and was recently spotted playing Footsie with Jasmin during their workshop on creative online activism. Glenn’s experience with using “Open Space” as a model for community organizing is both fascinating and cutting-edge.

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You’ve probably been to lots of meetings and workshops, just like me. We go. We sit in the audience and listen to an expert. We sometimes ask questions. It’s a very traditional form of passing information along. We see it in schools, at work, and in most areas of our lives. We also see it in how animal rights organizations, campaigns, and conferences are run.

The Open Space format is an alternative that I think is reflective of how we need our movement to be: self-organizing, diverse, passionate, and willing and able to take action on our own. This may sound chaotic — and it is — but it’s controlled chaos, with just enough chaos to allow for creativity,  and just enough control to hold it all together.

How does it work?

An Open Space event begins with the attendees sitting in a circle of chairs. One wall holds the day’s agenda — which is blank. I like to divide up the day into time slots, much like a regular conference is divided into sessions, just to give a little bit of order.

I usually open the meeting by restating the topic that everyone is there to talk about, such as, “How can we better work together to achieve animal rights?” Then I go through the basic ground rules: The Four Principles and One Law of Open Space.

The Four Principles are:

1. Whoever comes is the right people.
2. Whatever happens is the only thing that could have.
3. Whenever it starts is the right time.
4. When it is over, it is over.

Really, these are essentially about letting go of our expectations. I mean, there is no point in worrying about the people who are not at your meeting. The people who came want to be there, they’re the ones with the passion. It’s pretty zen, really: focus on what is rather than what you think it should be. As the Open Space User’s Guide states, “Be prepared to be surprised — positively. Those who come to an Open Space event with a precise and detailed list of intended outcomes will be frustrated.”

The One Law of Open Space is what makes it all work. It’s usually referred to as the “Law of Two Feet.” Wherever you are, it’s up to you to contribute or learn. If you are sitting in a conversation and finding it to be uninteresting, it’s up to you to make it interesting. It’s simple, really. You are ultimately the person responsible for the success or failure of the way you experience the event. If you want something to happen, you’ve got to make it happen.

Photo by Amanda Daniell

Then the fun part: Everyone is invited to write down a topic or question that they would like to address, and post their topic up on the agenda wall. Very quickly, the agenda wall fills up with topics. Fight the urge to control them – just let the self-organizing happen.

Each person who posted up a topic is responsible for leading that discussion, and it is up to them how they will lead it. The space is open and it is theirs. As the host, I’m just there to set it up and then get the hell out of the way.

That’s really it. The rest of the event will just unfold. I do like to bring everyone back into the circle at the very end for any closing thoughts. I’ve heard people in the closing speak about all sorts of things, from reflecting on feeling empowered by the process to actual things they’ve learned at the event.  It’s really amazing to see how excited people get by just being able to have their own event.

So what’s the point?

One of my main objective with these events is community-building. Open Space provides a format that can bring diverse viewpoints, passions, and interests together. The format itself equalizes and dissipates a lot of potential conflict.

Another main objective, though, and the most important in my view, is to build capacity in our community for taking action, leading, and making things happen. So often, we want some expert to tell us what to do and how to do it. We want the answers to come to us.

But that’s not going to happen.

We are all experts in some way or another, and no one has the one right answer to how to end the exploitation of animals. We need a multi-pronged approach, and it’s up to each of us to decide what we think should happen – then stand up and make it happen.

Some might say that Open Space is “just a meeting format,” but to me, it’s a model for a more powerful, more effective, and more cohesive grassroots movement. It’s imperative to continually explore how we can create even more spaces where we are all invited to voice our passions — spaces where the diversity of our movement is honored and welcomed.

Join the circle. You are all invited. Let’s get started.

Photo Credit: Liberation B.C., photo by Amanda Daniell.

Glenn Gaetz

Glenn Gaetz is a Director of Liberation BC, an animal rights organization based in Vancouver, BC. After attending a social change event that used an Open Space format he got interested in applying it to animal rights. He liked it so much, in fact, that he got a Certificate in Dialogue and Civic Engagement from Simon Fraser University. So far this year he has organized or helped to organize 3 Open Space events and one other dialogue event. He loves to answer questions, so if you’ve got any feel free to email him at glenn@liberationbc.org, find him on Facebook, or get in touch on Twitter (@glenngaetz or @liberationbc). He’s written a bit more about Open Space and dialogue on both the Liberation BC blog and his personal blog.