A strategy day that surfaces what PowerPoint can't

Who is this for?

• You are a CEO, board member, director or strategy day coordinator
• You want all voices at the table — not just the dominant ones
• You have a complex challenge with no ready-made solution
• You want the outcomes of the day to be genuinely owned by the participants

Where it’s already worked

Government community day — Flanders. Open Space combined with World Café to bring together officials and civil servants from different levels to discuss shared challenges. Host of the entire day. Result: concrete collaboration initiatives and a network that persisted after the day.

LeSS conference Amsterdam. Open Space as a standalone programme element alongside a classical conference. Full preparation and facilitation of the Open Space track. From empty to full marketplace in under 10 minutes.

What Open Space does for strategy sessions

At a traditional strategy day, the agenda determines what gets discussed. The facilitator steers the content. Participants provide input on questions already framed for them.

With Open Space, participants themselves determine which questions are most urgent. The facilitator holds the process — not the direction. What emerges is what is truly alive, not what the organisation expected to hear.

That is more uncomfortable. It also delivers more.

Preparation

A good strategic Open Space begins weeks before the day itself. I work with the client on:

• Formulating a powerful central question
• Determining the right participant group
• The logistical and psychological conditions for a safe space
• The harvesting strategy: how are the day’s outcomes translated into concrete next steps?
• Whether a combination with other formats (World Café, Liberating Structures) adds value