Organizations specify the roles of formally authorized leaders. Their authority is formally defined by those organizational roles. And there is a formal process by which these roles are endowed or altered.
In OpenSpace Agility, these formal leaders are tasked with ensuring that the first and second Open Space meetings, and all experiments are clearly optional with no formal consequences for opting out. Without this specific cooperation from the formal leaders, there can be no OpenSpace Agility. The Sponsor must signal very clearly the invitational and opt-in nature of the OSA experience.
The formal leaders are tasked by the Sponsor to support and implement the top ideas from the Proceedings of OST1 and OST2. As the Sponsor and Formal Leadership encourage and nurture the engagement from the initial Open Space, the informal leadership increase the pace of their initiative and experiments towards high performance.
People watch leaders, especially formally authorized leaders. Everyone in the organization will be watching the behavior of these leaders. By making their behavior coherent with the organization’s intention to achieve high performance and agility, these leaders tell the story of the organization’s success.
Written by: Harold Shinsato, OSA-Certified Trainer