Dear Keith
Excellent news! That warmed my heart. Look forward to our next catch up.
Martin Grimshaw
On 26/11/10 22:45, Harrison Owen wrote:
Keith -- Bloody Good Show! -- you might say. And when it comes to
agility, it seems like OS can help people move in useful ways. Perhaps
it is unique to the Pharma Folks (don't think so) but some years ago I
opened some space for Park-Davis (that dates it J) -- 500 researchers
on their Strategic Research Agenda. Everything was going well when
suddenly it was announced that P-D was being acquired (eaten?) by
Pfizer. Without missing a beat the agenda turned to focus on the new
reality. You are absolutely right -- with any other approach (to the
strategic planning effort) the whole thing would have closed down, or
at least dissolved into a miasma of useless effort. So here is your
next advert ... "When agility is the issue, OS is the way." Or something.
ho
Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Dr.
Potomac, MD 20854
USA
Phone 301-365-2093
www.openspaceworld.com
www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)
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*From:* OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]] *On Behalf Of
*Blundell, Keith
*Sent:* Friday, November 26, 2010 12:34 PM
*To:* [email protected]
*Subject:* My First(ish) Open Space.
Dear All,
Many months ago I asked for some help on running an OS session -- so
firstly I would like to thank those who responded and especially those
who gave up their time to speak and meet with me to answer all my
questions.
Since then I have been suggesting that this may be a valuable way of
running meetings within my organisation. A few weeks back I held my
"pilot" OS event -- (I say that purely from my perspective of having
never run one before!) with a small group of managers during an
afternoon. Although the session went well and the group were engaged,
their subsequent feedback and my own learning of actually "doing it"
was valuable. It had consolidated not only my reading but also the
insights from those mentioned above.
Since then I experienced a Co-Learning Workshop on Open Space as well
as the WOSONOS 2012 meeting held a few weeks ago -- my first taste of
an OS event. Both were great experiences and consolidated my
understanding and learning. (As an aside, I initially went to the
2012 meeting to observe, but very quickly became engaged in the meeting!)
This has all been preparation for (what I consider to be -- although I
can see others disagreeing) my first OS Meeting in the San Francisco
offices last week. I was originally approached to debrief a project,
but learned that the team were about to work together on the next
phase of an upgrade and implementation. After some discussion my
sponsors were taken by the idea of "trying something new" and using
Open Space. Although debriefs were not new to Roche, Genentech had
not typically found them useful, and since we are a merged company
taking an approach not used before was also a consideration. Initially
there was much scepticism from some team leaders -- "how can we fly
people to SF when we don't have an agenda?" -- which we were able to
overcome.
The theme of the meeting was "Building on what we have learned
together and preparing for the future". Rather than just being an OS
event, we agreed that the scene would be set on the afternoon of Day 1
with an overview of what was required and expected of the next phase
of the project. Day 2 was then given over to OS and some more formal
planning anticipated for day 3. There was initially some scepticism
about OS when I very very briefly mentioned what it was about at the
end of day 1. I encouraged the participants to be prepared to trust
the process and that the format would be more fully explained in the
morning. It will be no surprise to you that I was more confident,
that the scepticism melted away and the meeting was a success.
That's not the reason for me writing. The reason is to share with you
something that I think was more profound. Following the merger and
some internal and external pressures, Roche was looking at all levels
of the business for efficiencies and an announcement was due to be
made towards year end. That announcement -- that there would be a 6%
reduction in numbers -- was made in Switzerland and was received early
morning (especially early for those of us still on European Time)
prior to the OS event . We also found out that that there would be a
town hall meeting in the afternoon, so we now only had half a day
rather than a full one. Despite this news there was still a desire to
continue with our meeting and the principles and law of OS allowed us
to manage this unexpected change. Indeed, a small group of
individuals received some additional info during the first morning,
and although the topic was never posted they were able to find a space
and discuss whatever they needed to before returning to participate in
the other sessions. At the end of the morning there was overwhelming
support to continue with the format on day 3 with those posted items
outstanding.
If we had had a formal agenda, then the meeting would have been thrown
into chaos -- indeed many meetings held on that day were cancelled.
As noted above, the meeting was a success and all the expectations of
those present, including the sponsors, were met. All the items that
individuals expected to be covered were covered, and the detailed
planning expected on day three fell out of all the discussions.
A testament I think to OST -- I hope there will be an opportunity
within my organisation to continue with this approach. And I am
looking forward to 2012!
Best Wishes,
Keith.
*Dr K Blundell*
* *
Global Strategy Lead -- Innovation and Change
Process & Training Excellence (PTE)
Product Development Global Operations
Roche Products Limited
6 Falcon Way
Welwyn Garden City
Hertfordshire
AL7 1TW
Registration Number: 100674
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