Liberating Structures
Options Place (Open Space Technology)
Liberate inherent action and leadership in groups of any size. Ideal for tackling complex challenges without predetermined agendas. This structure transforms uncertainty into creative energy, allowing passionate and knowledgeable people to lead conversations that matter—while others join discussions where they can contribute best.
Options Place
What is made possible - What it unlocks
Options Place creates a self-organizing marketplace of conversations and activities where participants become co-creators of their own agenda. It unleashes collective intelligence by trusting people to organize around what truly matters to them, fostering genuine ownership and accountability. Participants experience the freedom to move between conversations, the responsibility to contribute where they can add most value, and the joy of discovering unexpected connections and breakthrough ideas that emerge from authentic self-organization.
When to use it
- When facing complex challenges that don’t have obvious solutions and require diverse perspectives
- When you need to generate innovative ideas and action plans with genuine buy-in from participants
- When the group is large (20-1000+ people) and traditional facilitation methods feel too controlling
- When time is limited but the issues are important and urgent
- When you want to surface the real concerns and passions that people care about most
- When building community, strengthening networks, and discovering shared purpose matters as much as the content
- When you want to tap into the group’s collective wisdom instead of forcing a predetermined agenda
- When you want to transform conflict or diversity of opinion into creative tension that drives action
🛠️ The five design elements of Options Place (Open Space Technology)
Each Liberating Structure consists of five simple design elements to make participation possible for everyone. By shaping these elements with care, you move beyond rigid control or chaos and create space for people to contribute, listen, and co-create.
- 1. The Invitation
- 2. Setup & Materials
- 3. Participation Flow
- 4. Group Configuration
- 5. Sequence & Timing
How you frame the purpose or question that sets the focus and energy of the group.
- Invite people to come and address a complex problem
- Invite participants to co-construct the agenda by posting sessions that they will convene on topics they are passionate about
- Invite participants to join any session that they care about”What question, if answered, could make the most difference to the future of [situation/challenge/opportunity]?” Participants are invited to identify topics they have genuine passion or responsibility for, post them on a wall, and take ownership of hosting that conversation.
The arrangement of space and which tools or resources are needed to support interaction.
- A large open space where people can move freely and form circles of conversation
- Breakout areas or spaces for simultaneous small group discussions (cafés, corners, outdoor spaces)
- A blank wall or board to create the “marketplace” where topics are posted
- Sticky notes, markers, and tape for participants to post topics
- A simple grid showing time slots and locations for sessions. Include slots for enough concurrent sessions to accommodate what is likely to emerge given the challenge and the number of participants. (One rule of thumb is that 3 out of 10 participants will post a session, e.g., there will be 15 sessions posted from 50 participants.)
- Four OS Principles, the Law of Mobility and the 4 Participation styles on a large poster or slide (see the worksheets for free poster materials)
- Microphones needed for groups larger than 40
- Optional: laptops or devices for real-time documentation of conversations
Who gets a voice and how everyone is actively included in the process.
- Everyone who cares about the challenge at hand and accepts the organizers’ invitation is included
- Everyone has an equal opportunity to contribute
- The “Law of Mobility” governs the participation of all attendees in the various sessions. It says: “Go and attend whichever session you want, but if you find yourself in a session where you are not learning or contributing, use your mobility to move on!”
How people are arranged (alone, small groups, or all together) and how this shifts during the activity.
- Works with groups from 20 to 2000+ participants
- Start together in one large circle (or as many concentric circles as needed)
- Continue with groups of various sizes self-organized around agenda topics
- Multiple rounds allow participants to attend several different conversations
The step-by-step flow of the activity and the time given to each step to keep energy and focus.
- Setting the stage: Gather everyone in a circle. Introduce the theme/question and explain the four principles (whoever comes are the right people; whatever happens is the only thing that could have; whenever it starts is the right time; when it’s over, it’s over) and one law (the Law of Mobility). See worksheets below for free printable supporting material (5-15 min)
- Open the marketplace: Invite anyone with a topic they have passion or responsibility for to come to the center, announce it in 30 seconds or less, write it on paper, and post it on the wall with a time and location
- Create the agenda: Continue until all topics are posted. People may organize topics that seem related and adjust times/locations to avoid conflicts (15-30 min)
- Announce sessions: Quickly review the posted agenda so everyone knows what’s available (5 min)
- Convene conversations: Participants go to their chosen sessions. Conveners facilitate their own sessions; someone captures key insights (30-60 min per session)
- Practice mobility: Encourage people to use their mobility—move if you’re not learning or contributing
- Harvest insights: Collect notes from all sessions. Post them where everyone can read them
- Close with reflection: Reconvene the full group to share discoveries, patterns, and next steps that emerged (10-60 min)
Total time: depending on timeslots – 90 minutes – 3 days
Online version
Adapted for virtual use, with the same impact
- Setting the stage: Gather everyone in the main room. Introduce the theme/question and explain the four principles (whoever comes is the right people; whatever happens is the only thing that could have; whenever it starts is the right time; when it’s over, it’s over) and one law (the Law of Mobility) (5-15 min)
- Open the marketplace: Invite anyone with a topic they have passion or responsibility for to open their microphone, announce it in 30 seconds or less, write it in the chat or post it on the digital whiteboard with a time and break out room name (or number)
- Create the agenda: Continue until all topics are posted. People may organize topics that seem related and adjust times/locations to avoid conflicts. It is highly recommended to use a digital whiteboard that all participants can add to and edit. (15-30 min)
- Announce sessions: Quickly review the posted agenda so everyone knows what’s available (5 min)
- Convene conversations: Participants go to their chosen sessions. Conveners facilitate their own sessions; someone captures key insights. Make sure breakout rooms are clearly named and that participants can select and enter their preferred room independently. (30-60 min per session)
- Practice mobility: Encourage people to use their mobility—move if you’re not learning or contributing
- Harvest insights: Gather notes from all sessions and share them on the digital whiteboard for everyone to read.
- Close with reflection: Reconvene the full group in the main room to share discoveries, patterns, and next steps that emerged. You can use a chatterfall/chatstorm or Impromptu Networking (with breakout rooms again) (10-60 min)
Total time: depending on timeslots – 90 minutes – 2 days
Order now
All Liberating Structures in 1 e-book
All Liberating Structures (44!) including explanations, visual step-by-step guide, and worksheets in a handy workbook for € 11,-
- Simple methods for big changes
- Have interactions that truly matter
- Build a culture of innovation step by step
- Involve and activate everyone in the group
Proven over decades
🧠 Why it works
Liberating Structures are not magic tricks—they work because they tap into how people naturally think, connect, and collaborate. Each structure is carefully designed to unlock participation, spark creativity, and build trust, using principles grounded in social science and human interaction.
Attribution: Invented by Harrison Owen (see Open Space Technology: A User’s Guide). Short form developed to fit in Liberating Structures milieu by Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless.
Self-organization
When people organize around their genuine interests and expertise, they bring higher energy, ownership, and creativity than any predetermined agenda could generate.
Distributed Authority
By removing the single facilitator bottleneck and trusting everyone to lead where they have passion, the structure multiplies leadership capacity and accelerates problem-solving.
Emergence over Planning
Complex challenges require emergent solutions that can't be predicted in advance—OST creates the conditions for surprising connections and breakthrough insights to surface naturally.
Freedom and Responsibility
The law of Mobility puts participants in charge of their own learning and contribution, creating a healthy balance between individual autonomy and collective purpose that eliminates passive participation.
Riffs and Variations
Start with creative constraints to learn this structure and then... go liberate yourself and try some variations.
- Animal Metaphors: Open Space uses four animal metaphors to describe participation styles (see supporting materials/worksheet)
- Open Space Online: Use virtual breakout rooms and shared documents; the marketplace becomes a digital board where people post session links
- Speed Open Space: Run a 90-minute version with just one or two rounds of shorter conversations (20-30 min each)
- Theme-based waves: Instead of one big marketplace, create multiple rounds where different themes or questions frame each wave of topics
- Open Space + World Café: Start with Open Space to generate topics, then use World Café rounds to deepen specific conversations
- Silent Open Space: Begin with a silent period where people write and post topics without speaking, then proceed as usual
- Action-focused: Ask conveners to focus their sessions on “What action will we take?” rather than just discussion
Tips
Lessons learned from other facilitators.
- Craft a compelling invitation: A powerful, meaningful question that truly matters is the foundation—spend time getting this right
- Trust the process completely: Resist every urge to control, steer, or over-facilitate. Notice when you want to “help,” then let it go and do one less thing
- Introduce with energy and clarity: Present the Law of Mobility, Four Principles, Participation Styles and mechanics in a seriously entertaining fashion that inspires confidence
- Design the space for movement: Create comfortable, informal seating in circles with clear breakout areas where people can move freely and self-organize
- Document in real-time: Write up the entire proceedings in a single document and distribute/share it immediately during or right after the meeting
- Plan for meaningful harvest: Create time and structure for the closing circle so people can reflect on patterns, make sense of what emerged, and commit to concrete next steps
Traps
Don't make the same mistakes.
- Trying to control the agenda or outcomes: Steering topics or predetermined outcomes kills the self-organizing magic that makes Open Space work
- Weak framing at the start: People need crystal-clear boundaries, purpose, and understanding of why their participation matters
- Forgetting the Law of Mobility: A meeting where participants create the agenda but aren’t free to move between sessions is NOT Open Space
- Using it for the wrong situation: Don’t choose Open Space when you actually need predetermined outcomes, specific expert input, or are working with fewer than 15-20 people
- Poor space design: Cramped rooms, fixed seating in rows, or inadequate breakout areas prevent the movement and circle formation that Open Space requires
- Judging “success” by attendance: Empty sessions, small groups, or people taking breaks (butterflies) are not failures—all participation styles contribute to the ecosystem
Try it with…
The real power of Liberating Structures emerges when you combine them into "strings." Link different structures together to build on insights and create more powerful results. Here are some nice combinations:
- 25/10 Crowd Sourcing beforehand to generate bold ideas that become Open Space topics
- 1-2-4-All during the closing to help people reflect on patterns and commitments
- 15% Solutions after harvesting to identify immediate actions people can take
- What, So What, Now What? (W3) in the closing circle to make sense of what emerged
- Troika Consulting to help session conveners prepare their topics beforehand
- User Experience Fishbowl to deepen specific conversations that emerged as most critical
- Helping Heuristics to support people in following through on commitments made during sessions
Field stories
To get to know Liberating Structures without having used them yourself, it helps to see familiar situations from real-life practice. Chances are that you or your team have faced one of these challenges before. Discover how to approach these kinds of situations in a fresh and engaging way.
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Download the PDF explanation incl. worksheets
Would you like a clear, well-designed visual explanation of Open Space Technology (Options Place)? It’s yours!
This download also includes 2 worksheets that help you run an Open Space fully by yourself: a poster of the 4 Open Space Principles & The Law of Mobility and a poster of the 4 Participation Styles
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Options Place
Liberate inherent action and leadership in groups of any size.
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