Whenever it starts is the right time.

To do's:

• invite and build a cohort of six keen leaders
• find a date that works
• have a workshop

Signup for the Slack community and mailing list, to find dates.

Possible Target Dates

20 & 21 April  2020
4 & 5 May 2020
11 & 12 May 2020

Where ever it happens is the right place.

We have not announced the venue. But, here is what I can tell you:

• inspiring location on the VA Waterfront, in Cape Town
• some special friends live and work there as ambassadors for the earth
• we'll let the venue, and the venue's vision, inspired us

abundant oceans for life

This is a workshop about holding space.

This is a two-day workshop to discover the life-changing magic of holding space.

Day 1

Learn & practice Open Space Facilitation, or take your current practice much deeper.

Soon you'll be holding space more fluently.

Deb Preuss and I also offer the Day 1 content and experience as a live, virtual course through Coaching Cocktails.

Day 2

Learn how to integrate the principles of Open Space into your work.

Soon you'll be using open space leadership day-to-day to cultivate organic transformation more effectively in a complex world.

We'll study Harrison Owen's reflections on the Open Space "experiment" using his book Wave Rider: Leadership for High Performance in a Self-Organizing World.

This international workshop is usually priced in-line with similar courses in North America and Europe. Please help me find a price compatible with Cape Town budgets for two-day courses.

If price is a barrier, let's make a plan for your situation.

Sign in to our Slack community to join the pricing conversation.

Whoever comes is the right people.

This workshop is for leaders including:

change agents, facilitators, educators, activists, bosses, Scrum Masters, Product Owners, founders, developers, and coaches

Open Space creates new leaders, and Open Space sparks flow, or congruent high performance, in teams.

Pre-requisites

1. You've been part of any Open Space event as a participant—events like: Agile Coach Camp South Africa, an Open Space day in your own company, an online/remote Open Space, or an Open Space night at a SUGSA or another community meetup.
2. You're planning to organise or hold a real Open Space event. What does it mean to be "panning"? Planning includes making a plan. (If you intend to hold a half-day open space—for your company or the community—sometime after this workshop then you're planning an open space.)

But your interest in this work is the real key!

If this workshop sounds engaging to you, then you've probably met the pre-requisites. Sign in to our Slack community to explore the reason for the pre-requisites and understand how you meet them.

After the workshop you'll discover new transformation in your work.

You'll draw on your new learning and practice to adapt the way you lead by invitation. You can search out and cultivate  open space conditions in your day-to-day work.

Previous leaders who've completed the workshop have held space at leading conferences and Open Space events. Others created new un-conferences, bar camps, and agile camps.

Some of the leaders we've worked with are finding responses to climate change or the cure for cancer. (No. Really.)

You'll be ready to plan, organise or hold:

• company offsites using Open Space (for 1-3 days!)
• Open Spaces to make real community change
• Agile Coach Camps, or a #WomenInAgileOpen event
• half-day Open Space meetings for your work group or deparment
• SUGSA open space meetups
• and more...

Several different alumni of our one-day workshop have held space at several different annual Global Scrum Gatherings in the USA and Europe. A Scrum Gathering invites over 1,000 people into the circle. Alumni from this workshop have held that space amazingly.

Several other aluni have held space for 30-70 people at Agile Coach Camps around the world, and they've told stories of amazing outcomes.

Open Space is a natural phenomena for change and adaptation in our increasingly complex world. I want you to know that alumni of this workshop have impressive stories to tell with showy social media friendly outcomes.

But those showy social media ready stories are not the important part. You will also discover the life-changing magic of Open Space quietly in groups of 10 people in your neighbourhood or at your child's school. You'll discover it in the way you lead people or coach teams. These stories are meaningful, important stories of lasting change. And we share these stories as the most meaningful stories we tell.

The Open Space Technology Handbook by Harrison Owen is one of my favourite books.

Of course, you can learn about holding space from blogs online. You can learn from a book. There are excellent guides to Open Space online.

I'm offering something different. I'm offering a deep, intentional learning experience. You'll explore what sets Open Space facilitation and leadership apart. You'll deepen your own leadership stance especially related to congruent, lasting transformation.

The workshop is a safe-place for you to practice holding space in a new, deeper, and more effective way.

In the workshop you'll also have the  support of colleagues and experienced guide even after the workshop itself is done.

This multi-modal workshop includes: 

• 14+ hous of active practice and 'training from the back of the room'
• Individual preparation work (often called "homework") - plan to spend 6 hours of work before the workshop starts
• 4 or more personal reflections using our Open Space workbook (created by Deb Pruess)
• a one-on-one mentoring call after the workshop ends but before you hold your first open space

Yes.

You'll most likely be saying 'hi' to Famous Harold Custard and all pzir penguin friends.

Harold even said pze'd fly by and look in on our workshop, but pze can't stay. Harold has important penguin things to do.