What I do — Transformation
The people who have to deliver the change rarely got to talk about it
Mergers, reorganisations, agile transformations, AI transitions. Large-scale change redraws teams, rewrites roles and rebuilds governance. Open Space gives the people who have to do it a say in how.
Who is this for?
- You are leading a transformation programme, merger or major culture change
- You have employees who are being informed and want to contribute
- Stakeholders with different interests need each other
- You know buy-in cannot be communicated
Where this worked
In the field since 2006, the last ten years in agile transformations.
As a consultant at iLean (Cronos) I used Open Space with clients, inside ongoing programmes. Mainly in banking and the public sector, within guilds, tribes and communities of practice. Groups of up to fifty participants.
In one digital transformation I ran the Open Space repeatedly, across 2020 and 2021. Repetition changes what the form produces: what was a concern in one session can be an initiative already under way in the next.
What these sessions mostly produced was exchange. Concerns that would otherwise have stayed in the corridors, and ideas nobody had written down yet. Sometimes concrete improvement initiatives came out of it. That is a more honest answer than the promise you often read, and it is why repetition matters.
Market context
Demand for facilitation in large-scale change is high right now:
- Belgian hospitals and municipalities are in a merger wave. On 1 January 2025, 28 Flemish municipalities merged into 13 new ones.
- The Netherlands has its highest number of reorganisations in ten years.
- AI transitions everywhere call for new working methods and a different division of roles.
What Open Space does in a transformation
Transformations rarely stall on strategy. They stall on the hundred practical questions no one asks officially, which circulate in corridors without landing anywhere.
An Open Space brings those questions inside. Participants put what occupies them on the board themselves, and the conversations that follow produce agreements instead of rumours. I make sure that happens safely and productively.
Where in the programme
Timing determines what an Open Space delivers. At a kickoff you collect questions and lower resistance. Mid-programme you correct course with the people who see what is actually happening. At the end you evaluate at programme level rather than team by team. During preparation we look at which moment gives you most.
A one-off Open Space stays a gathering. Run the form repeatedly within the same programme and something else happens: the second session can look back at what has been tried since the first. In one digital transformation I did this across 2020 and 2021.
Daniel Mezick has worked this pattern out under the name OpenSpace Agility, taking invitation rather than mandate as its starting point. I do not work to that method, though it explains why repetition yields more than a single day.
What that repeated use actually produced in practice: what an Open Space actually produces.
From day to agreement
An Open Space produces a harvest: everything participants wrote down themselves. A report is not yet a decision, and that is where large gatherings usually stall. So during preparation we agree who decides after the day, how, and by when.
If your organisation works with consent-based decision-making, that form is already in place. Jutta Eckstein and John Buck worked out the combination of Open Space and sociocratic decision-making in Company-wide Agility with Beyond Budgeting, Open Space & Sociocracy.
More on the preparation: the invitation is the design.
Frequently asked questions
How does Open Space help with organisational change?
Open Space Technology helps with organisational change by giving employees and stakeholders the space to ask the questions they have and have the conversations they need. Change does not fail because the strategy is wrong — it fails because people do not feel heard. Open Space addresses this by giving people a voice in the outcome, creating genuine buy-in that does not need to be communicated because the people who shaped it already own it.
When in a change programme should you use Open Space?
Open Space can be valuable at different stages of a change programme: at the start to explore challenges and build buy-in, midway to renew energy and address blockers, or at the end to anchor outcomes. The best timing depends on the specific programme and is determined in consultation with the client.
Is Open Space suitable for mergers?
Yes, Open Space is particularly suited to mergers. A merger by definition brings together diverse stakeholders with different interests — the context Open Space was designed for. By giving people a voice in the issues that concern them, genuine buy-in emerges that makes the merger workable and successful. Belgian hospitals and municipalities are currently navigating merger waves where this format is increasingly used.
What is the difference between Open Space and change management?
Traditional change management typically works with communication plans, stakeholder analyses and structured change frameworks — tools that treat change as something managed top-down. Open Space is different: it gives people the space to ask the questions they have and have the conversations they need. Open Space does not replace change management, but complements it at the crucial moment when genuine buy-in must emerge.
What does Open Space facilitation cost?
I work with a day rate plus the preparation the challenge requires. With Open Space that preparation carries weight: the central question, the participant group, and the agreement about what happens after the day determine whether it works. Total cost depends on group size, number of days, venue and follow-up. You receive a quote after the thirty-minute exploratory conversation.