Let's open the space for organizational development
Forthcoming BetaCodex research seeks to deepen understanding about how to produce Chosen Agency for the purpose of organizational development, within large groups
by Niels Pflaeging
Silke Hermann and I just came home from a little workation in Vorarlberg, Austria. Apart from daily business, a bit of hiking and a 2-day management event in Lech I spoke at, I got in the mood for writing another BetaCodex Network research paper. The last one, our 25th, published just under a month ago, was pretty big, conceptually, if you remember. That paper talked about how to reinvent organizations for time-orientation and “lean-that-deserves-the-name” - as an alternative volume-, batch-, or size-orientation. So I figured that our next paper should be about a less far-ranging topic, but a relevant one, and one we might have “over-looked and under-published” in the past.
And soon enough, we figured something out.
From the point of view of the BetaCodex, and Beta transformation, the topic we chose for the 25th research paper may seem peculiar. But it is highly relevant to change-as-flipping, to Time-Boxed Change, Beta transformation and all contemporary Organizational Development work that tries to involve “all the willing, all at once”. In short: In our forthcoming research paper, we will finally bring a powerful, new approach to OpenSpace into the world! We are calling it OpenSpace DEV. DEV is for development. OpenSpace DEV is based on OpenSpace Technology, which was invented by Harrison Owen in the early 1980s, but it is fit for the problem of organizational development: It’s perfect for change and transformation work that’s supposed to be high-impact, fast, focused on working the system and done together with all the willing. Put differently: 42 years after its inception in 1983, the OpenSpace large-group conferencing method is getting a well-deserved update!
With OpenSpace DEV, the OpenSpace large-group method is getting a well-deserved update
Now some veteran users of OpenSpace might be thinking (and you may try to imagine them talking with a thick Texan accent): Weeeel, good ole OpenSpace is working juuuuust fine for me! And that's great. It’s okay to stick to the well-known ways of OpenSpace Technology: Bar Camps, Unconferencing and session pitching may be just your thing. But if you are interested in using OpenSpace in the context of organizational change and transformation work, you’d have a problem. We know, because we’ve been there, and because we have been in touch with hundreds of OpenSpace practitioners, over the last decades. It’s in the field of organizational development where OpenSpace DEV is much better suited than “traditional OpenSpace”. OpenSpace DEV has 14 distinct features - some of which may appear "unthinkable" to you at fist, if you were trained in traditional OpenSpace Technology. But do not worry: As Ernst Weichselbaum liked to say: "From the viewpoint of the old, the new is always wrong." You will get over it.
About OpenSpace DEV and the new research
The new research paper specifies the above mentioned 14 characteristics of OpenSpace DEV. If you have studied or practiced OpenSpace Beta, you will be well aware of some, but probably not all of them. The new paper is also written as an homage to the great Harrison Owen (1935-2024), creator of OpenSpace Technology. And it will include the OpenSpace DEV open source license.
The paper will be published during the next 14 days. So stay tuned! The paper announcement is already up on the BetaCodex website. Here’s the cover:
Comments and opinions on this are very welcome! What do you think about the topic? Do you have an interesting or funny prejudice on OpenSpace DEV that you want to share, ahead of the paper’s publication? Or are you keenly awaiting publication of OpenSpace DEV? Please share!
What a beautiful idea! Another distinction. Another elevation!