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[Matthias zur Bonsen]

Birgitt,

thank you for your answer. You asked me also:

>I loved your story about the merger. Could you give details about how the
>companies "were convinced" to use Open Space and what feedback you've
>gotten since the event. I would really like to know much more.

Let me start with the feedback. It was very enthusiastic after the event. 
Already three weeks later another smaller group in this company had tried 
OST on it's own. At the end of the Open Space event many participants 
said that this was the best thing that could have happened to start the 
merger. Several of them said also that this event would save them many 
trips from Berlin to Cologne or vice versa.

How did I convince them? I don't know. An OD-person invited me in and 
introduced me to the CEO. He liked the idea. He saw the chance to 
demonstrate to the employees that the old times with authoritarian 
leadership are over. (His predecessor was a very authoritarian type.) And 
he saw a chance to integrate the western and the eastern part smoothly. 
Since the unification of both germanies 7 years ago is in "the new 
states" (the eastern ones) generally perceived as a takeover and not a 
merger, it was especially important to do it differently with this merger.

Paradoxically the  company is "the materialization" of the german longing 
for security and for "staying in control". Its business is technical 
surveillance. It started 200 years ago with inspecting steam engines (to 
keep them from exploding). Nowadays this company scrutinizes and 
certifies everything from cars (every car has to be inspected every two 
years in Germany and you are not allowed to drive if it is not 
technically ok), nuclear power plants, elevators to quality management 
systems.

I am glad that I had the chance to open up space there.

Matthias zur Bonsen
Frankfurt, Germany
mzurbonsen at compuserve.com