Open Space Technology
I know it’s been ages since I posted anything here - and I’ve even got a post about Goal #3 in the works, but that’ll have to wait a little while longer.
I’ve been doing a lot of reading up on informal education models and curriculum planning (thanks for the resources, Andrea!), and I today I stumbled upon this really interesting concept called Open Space Technology. It’s really less about education and more about bringing a group of people together to collaborate and co-create something, but I think it could have some really interesting applications for the Drama Farm.
So, what is Open Space Technology?
The basic idea is that you invite a bunch of people to come together for a specific goal (defining a vision or strategic plan for an organization, solving a specific problem, etc.), with these four principles in mind:
- Whoever comes are the right people
- Whatever happens is the only thing that could have
- Whenever it starts is the right time
- When it’s over, it’s over
At the beginning of the meeting/conference/retreat, the attendees are invited to write down the issues that they feel are most important and post them on the “agenda wall” with a specific meeting time and place. Once the group finishes creating the agenda, they split into smaller groups to discuss the issues - anyone can attend any of the smaller groups, and can move between them at will.
The idea is that only the people who are really interested and passionate about the topic will attend, and they’ll do their best collaborating if left to organize themselves as they deem appropriate. It’s really a very simple idea, but the Open Space method seems to provide a structure that encourages people to participate while preventing it from becoming a free-for-all.
What does this have to do with us?
The way I see it, there are two possible applications for this idea in the planning/operating of the Drama Farm (I’m sure there are more - these are just the two that popped into my head as I was reading).
First, a meeting like this could be a great resource in the planning of the Farm. We’ve been talking about organizing something like a charrette - basically, a meeting of the minds to discuss the direction the Drama Farm is heading and the best strategy to pursue it. But, what we had discussed was inviting a select few “experts” in various fields to meet and talk about specific questions that we had for them. The Open Space conference sounds like a much better incarnation of that idea, since rather than “experts”, we’d have passionate, knowledgeable people who would create the agenda themselves and discuss what they thought was really important.
My other thought is that this could be a really interesting way to collaborate on a theatrical production. Let’s say you have your whole cast and production team together for the first meeting - they’ve all read the script, but beyond that, nothing has been discussed - most of them have probably only known each other for a few days at the most. What if you used the Open Space technique to discuss everyone’s ideas about the play - what they thought the important issues were, what direction they’d like to take things, etc. And what if you used the same technique at all of the subsequent production meetings?
OR…
What if we used it at the beginning of each Drama Farm session, to allow the students to direct the program to suit their interests and needs? We’ve been struggling with finding a way for the program to be flexible and adaptable to each individual group of students, without making it so flexible as to disintegrate into chaos - something like this might be just the kind of structure we’re looking for…
If you’re interested in reading more about Open Space, there’s a great short(ish) summary of it here - or, if you’re looking for something a little more in-depth, check out this OST Practice Guide, via Michael Herman’s website.
And let me know what you think. Am I totally crazy, or might this work? How else could we put this technique to work for us? Ideas? Thoughts? Comment away!
