The open space · format 3 of 3
The invited
expert.
Someone who knows a subject explains it and then answers questions. It can be a woman from the circle — the most common and the easiest — or someone from outside.
It is for when what is missing is information: how a loan actually works, what you sign when you open a business, how to read a statement.
It is the only format that can change the session, and that is why it has conditions of its own.
One of the three formats of The open space, the seventh block of a circle session. It is not used on its own: you choose between the three when that block arrives.
Its four rules
Short
Twenty minutes of presentation at most. Anything longer stops being a circle and becomes a talk.
It is information, not advice
She explains how something works. She does not tell anyone what to do with their money.
Nobody sells
Not the visitor and not a member. If the person makes a living selling what she has come to explain, she does not come. There is no polite exception to this.
It is announced beforehand
The subject and who is coming are said in the previous session. Nobody arrives to find a stranger sitting there.
If someone comes from outside, the circle changes that day
With a visitor the 5% is not shared. Only the open-space block runs, or it is agreed that she arrives after the intimate blocks and leaves before the closing round.
Confidentiality does not stretch by itself to someone from outside. The agreement is explained to her before she comes in, and the circle decides whether it accepts. If one woman is not comfortable, she does not come in: this is not decided by majority.
How it runs
- 01Agreed in the previous session
Who is coming, what she will talk about, and if she is from outside, which parts of the session she will be present for.
- 02Presentation · 20 minutes
Without slides if possible. It is a conversation, not a training.
- 03Questions · whatever is left
Open. If a question turns into somebody's case, the guide stops it: that goes to next month as a prepared case.
- 04Close
If she came from outside, she is thanked and she leaves. The closing round happens without her.
Where it comes from
The invited expert format is common practice in peer groups. It has no single documented author. The condition that the 5% is not shared with a visitor is MQHD's, and it follows from its rule on confidentiality.