What if you could identify a mission-critical issue for your company or group, bring together the people with something to contribute and something at stake, focus on that issue and take decisive action all in the same meeting? A fantasy? Not with the application of Open Space Technology, a simple and coherent system for dealing with the issues that affect an organization now.

Open Space Technology is a methodological tool that enables self-organizing groups of all sizes to deal with hugely complex issues in a very short period of time. Authored by the originator of Open Space Technology, Open Space Technology: A User''s Guide is a practical, step-by-step user''s guide details what needs to be done before, during, and after an Open Space event. It is the most authoritative book available on how to plan and run a successful Open Space event.

Owen details all the practical considerations necessary to create Open Space. He begins with the most important question--should you do Open Space at all--and examines what types of situations are appropriate for Open Space Technology and what types are not. He goes on to look at nuts-and-bolts issues such as supplies, logistics, and who should come and how you should go about getting them there.

Ultimately, Open Space Technology is not so much about doing as being. Drawing on Owen''s experience as a student of myth, ritual and culture, it operates at levels and in ways that standard facilitation training, or experience, have missed.