Exploring Open Strategy at the Burning Man European Leadership Summit 2024

This April, from the 5th to the 7th, the Burning Man European Leadership Summit (ELS) 2024 welcomed 250 Regional Contacts community builders and 40 Burning Man Project staff members from San Francisco to gather in Tallinn, Estonia. This summit was intended to be a collaborative learning environment where participants shared their experiences, expertise, successes, and challenges from their efforts in fostering community events and initiatives that have been inspired by Burning Man’s 10 Principles.

Our team from the Open Strategy research project had the unique opportunity to participate and do field research in this vibrant event. Our mission as ethnographers was to explore the intricacies of open strategy—particularly the dynamics of participation and self-management in strategic processes. During the event we hosted our own workshop and immersed ourselves in the workshops, talks, and interactive sessions, gaining insights of the dynamics of open strategy in action and on the techniques for collaborative decision-making.

We discovered on site that effective participatory strategy requires well-defined processes to manage expectations and mitigate power struggles. In a workshop setting it became obvious that genuine engagement and inclusion of diverse voices enhance decision quality and foster ownership and commitment among participants.