'OpenStrategy is a commons-based peer production system for multi-stakeholder planning which captures and liberates the collective wisdom of all stakeholders to enable individual actions to evolve in a collaborative community framework.' - The OpenStrategy Book

OpenStrategy was developed in order to create a better way for communities to work together. It provides an alternative to the traditional, top-down management and strategy planning processes that too often fail to achieve outcomes that benefit communities and their stakeholders, by providing tools to allow stakeholders within a community to work together in a collaborative, transparent, and strategic manner.

In conventional thinking, strategy is a top-down tool. But an open, inclusive community simply cannot be run this way because for many participants the sovereignty or independence of stakeholders is of primary importance.

Organisations and individuals in a communtiy do not accept being told what to do, and by the same token communities do not want to be endlessly consulting and collaborating; discussions that often seem to go nowhere fast.

Instead, what many communities are now finding they need are new concepts and tools, and a new paradigm that embraces and encourages consultation and collaboration while building practical strategies, which can be formalised, documented and acted upon as they evolve.

We call this process 'liberating collective wisdom', and it's the basis of a new paradigm - and a new tool to implement it - called OpenStrategy.

OpenStrategy is a planning system for multi-stakeholder communities. Its design is based on the tenet that, given the right tools, stakeholders can plan their future options using their collective wisdom and intelligent communications.

OpenStrategy is not simply a way of recording what everyone thinks and then disseminating the results. It is an intellectually rigorous paradigm embodied in an easy-to-use, unified, formal system.

OpenStrategy is not simply a tool for policy-development, nor is it an e-voting system for citizens. It is used by groups and agencies to develop and implement strategies within diverse, complex communities.

OpenStrategy organises the collective wisdom of a Community of Stakeholders, and facilitates the evolution of new wisdom, new interconnections and new strategies. Although OpenStrategy does not itself make decisions, it provides stakeholders with the information they need to make better-informed decisions.

The OpenStrategy tool itself is comprised of a simple information structure, and a prioritisation system which are embodied in a web-based tool. This tool is supported by a facilitator, and all types of communications that occur between stakeholder groups: emails, phonecalls, meetings, and workshops. It doesn't replace conventional communication methods, it simply acts as a tool to help distill the key wisdom from such communications.

How the OpenStrategy tool works is further detailed in the 'How It Works' section of this site.