Hege -- There are indeed stories sort of like what you want... For example way back when, an American aerospace business redesigned itself (reduced its size by about 50%) in Open Space. For the details see "Open Space Used as an Organization Transition Methodology" Hugh Huntington in "Tales from Open Space" http://openspaceworld.com/Tales.pdf Or there is the Rockport Shoes story in which the people created a new product and did a serious fix to their inventory system producing a $28,000,000 addition to their bottom line -- which represented almost a 10% increase. Not bad for 2 days! BUT -- But that was "their" story. And everybody knows that the shoe business and the aerospace business aren't the ship building business. So I am not sure they would help all that much.
It seems, however, that you are more interested in the 3-5% sort of story. I think I understand your interest -- after all what sane executive would believe a 10% increase in the bottom line, achieved in 2 days? And of course a 15,000% increase in productivity is just off the charts. All of which strikes right to the heart of the problem with Open Space and the power of self organization -- IT SIMPLY CAN'T HAPPEN! And if it did happen on any regular basis most executives in the world would have very red faces, trying to explain how they could possibly be delivering such miserable results (by comparison) and why they should not be immediately relieved of their position. Discretion would certainly suggest not embarrassing the client! And to avoid such embarrassment to the client and yourself, I would stay far away from all such numbers. I would also try and avoid stories from other people. And in your case, you can do (not do) all of that quite easily because the client already has their own story. As you said, "The meeting came out great, with energy and lots of important conversations." Your strategy might be something like asking the client to remember the last time they opened space -- and ask them if they would like to turn all that energy and serious conversation loose on a new and important task -- "Building Great Ships: Better, Faster, Cheaper" If so, it is very easy to do, and you are ready to go! Being the persuasive woman you are, I am sure they will be responsive. And when all that happens insist on a minimum of 2 days (better 2 1/2) with EVERYBODY who cares about the issue. From the Board Room to the shop floor: Come if they care! The rest of it will be history -- Another New Story that nobody will believe :-) And when it comes to your fee, you might try this. Offer to do it all for a percentage of the savings or profit. And take nothing if nothing happens. In the case of Rockport Shoes, the CFO was a major critic before we got started. He called it a "million dollar a day boon-dogle. At that time Rockport had a $360 million net annual. We were going to close the facilities for 2 days. No shoes in, and none out = a million $'s a day loss. He was not happy, so I told him I would take .5% of whatever was saved or made -- and nothing if nothing happened. At the end, it was the CFO who figured the value of the new product and savings ($28 million) -- and when he told me the result I told him I would be happy to accept his check for $140,000. I smiled and he smiled ... I took my regular fee. Harrison Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Dr. Potomac, MD 20854 USA 189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer) Camden, Maine 04843 Phone 301-365-2093 (summer) 207-763-3261 www.openspaceworld.com www.ho-image.com (Personal Website) To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of OSLIST Go to:http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Hege Steinsland Sent: Friday, January 24, 2014 4:36 AM To: World wide Open Space Technology email list Subject: [OSList] Shipyard again Hello wise people. I received some great advices from this list earlier when i first went into a shipyard with an Open Space meeting. The meeting came out great, with energy and lots of important conversations, but I`m not sure of the longterm outcome... I`m now invited to do another Open Space in a situation when a ship is delayed, and they still need to keep the time and the costs. At the same time there is a process in the hole shipbuilding group about a need for significant cut in costs, without compromising on good quality, in order to be competitive for the future. Some of the directors have start talking about a different approach to this than yelling from above about shorter breaks and so on. They want the workers to come up with the good solutions and have some ownership in this. My question to all your experienced Open Space facilitators: Do you have examples of situations when Open Space has been used to cut costs, find new and more effective ways to do the business that was taken into reality and worked out? ( I´m thinking of HO`s Ted talk about the 15 000% increase in efficiency :-) Is this one, singular very special situation that we keep telling all the time, or are there more stories similar to this with, lets say 3 - 5 % cost reduction or increase in efficiency? Excited! All the best from Hege Steinsland _______________________________________________ OSList mailing list To post send emails to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org _______________________________________________ OSList mailing list To post send emails to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
