Unstructuring Health Care
Open Space Technology
February 20, 2015
Why do change efforts fail?
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Change starts at the top
Change is rolled out
Change is engineered
Focus on a few elements of a complex system (not all)
Changing organizations without adequately dealing
with the human beings (emphasis on head vs. heart)
• We must address all the key elements that make up a
system
McKinsey and Co; Inconvenient truth about change management/Build a platform of change; not
a change program (2014)
What is transformational
change?
Fundamental change, altering the very nature
of something.
Transformational change is both radical and
sustainable.
Something that is transformed can never go
back to exactly what it was before.
Robert Gass, Who we are, Social Change Transformation
Staff Engagement
Culture of Safety and Trust
Patient/resident Centred Care
Health Reform
Tapping into hearts and minds
Complex Challenges
If you have come here to help me, then you
are wasting your time… but if you have come
because your liberation is bound up with
mind, then let us work together.
Lila Watson, Australian Aboriginal activist
Wikepedia
Open Space Principles
• Self-organizing
• All attendees are encouraged to present or
facilitate a session
• The goal is understanding, not necessarily to
"win" or win support by being right
• Law of Two Feet
Traditional
Agenda is pre-set
Expert driven
Unstructured/Open Space
PPT driven /Panels
People around table or
behind
All presentations and room
spoken for
Committee planned
Information /Workshop
Participants set the agenda
Driven by the “pitcher” – no
expert
Discussion based
Sitting in a circle with no
table
Encouraged to strike up an
impromptu group discussion
Participant driven
Connection to Action
Sit through the session (at
all cost)
Law of 2 feet. Find the right
conversation.
Burning Question
A good question has …
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“How can we…”
No solution in the question
Status quo is not an option any more
Big goal that is open enough for different
solutions to emerge
• Many elements that influence the problem
WICKED
What questions need to be dealt with
– for this conference Workshop!
to be a success for me?
Our Burning Question?
How might we engage frontline staff in change?
• Write your idea/question on a piece of
paper and add your name
• Come and pitch it! (1 minute time line)
• You will be given a “circle” to meet!
Facilitator Training
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First names only
Step up and step back
Monologues
Circular arguments
Conversations that won’t end
Best facilitators: gentle nudgers who are
adaptive in style
Postcard: A way to
record at each
conversation
But the "magic" is not Open Space Technology, but
rather the force that underlies it -- the power of self
organization.
Harrison Owen
The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the
rational mind is a faithful servant. We have
created a society that honors the servant and
has forgotten the gift.
Albert Einstein
References
• http://www.openspaceworld.com/index.htm
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD3S0wl
bek0
• What is transformation and how it advances
social change. Robert Gass
http://www.stproject.org/about-us/who-weare/
• Avaaz the world in action
http://www.avaaz.org/en/
Robin Speedie
rspeedie@bcpsqc.ca
Marlies van Dijk
@tweetvandijk
Marlies.vandijk@albertahealthservices.ca