Opening Space to the community: Action learning at a community level

The notion of Open Space is rooted in the desire to marry moral and emotional commitment to objectives; to facilitate questions that seek change that is rooted in perceived real need. Also, an acceptance that in an increasingly complex world, shared perspective and multiplicity of opinion offers insights. It is seen as rare for individual leaders to possess sufficient knowledge to keep pace with faster changing contexts. The paper considers action learning in an Open Space event and community context viewing leadership as a complex social process.