people at Coke called me in to help. The level of urgency was perfect
for Open Space. I knew it would work. It always does when there
is real work to be done, and lots of passion. These people were
very motivated.”
“And how did it turn out?” I said.
“Fine. They did a three-day Open Space and completely rede-
signed the exhibit booth. They finished setting it up with time to
spare.”
“So the work that had taken months was reduced to three
days?”
“Yes.”
Impressive. And simple. Harness people’s passion and let them
go to work. As General Patton said about military leadership, tell
the troops which hill to take but not how to take it. Leaving
motivated people to their own devices is a first-rate strategy for
success.
There are many other Open Space success stories, some from
the investment world. I was asked to facilitate an Open Space with
the information technology (IT) department of a major money
manager. The leaders nearly passed out when I first told them my
plan (or lack thereof!). They didn’t see how a day that started with
no agenda could lead to anything constructive and focused. What
made matters worse was that this planning meeting included con-
sultants from another firm, who had a different product to sell.
They continued to throw gasoline on the fire each time the invest-
ment leaders raised a concern.
“This open meeting idea sounds like it will turn into an all-day
bitch session,” said the leaders.
“Right,” said the consultants, “there’s too much negativity in
the department. Without a vision and focused discussion, you’ll
just make things worse.” (Three guesses what the other consul-
tants were selling: vision and mission workshops.)
Well, I prevailed; the leaders reluctantly decided to go with Open
Space as a format. The night before the session I got exactly zeroBrainstorming for the Masses 12514-25 ware 125 1/19/01, 1:13 PM