Dismissed employees of the RED CROSS decide to do a Open Space

[Harrison Owen]

At 08:27 AM 8/2/00 +0200, you wrote:

>The group of dismissed employees asked me if  I would help them with the
>facilitating of an Open Space.

******************************
Great Tale! It reminds me of some work that Hugh Huntington did about 10
years ago with a large American Aerospace Co. (Honeywell I think) When
peace (of sorts) broke out following the dissolution of the Soviet Union,
American defense companies faced a major change in the economic situation.
For Honeywell this mean a 50% reduction in force in something like 6
months. They had to go from 2400 employees to 1200! Hugh helped them
through their Open Space -- not only to build moral and say good by -- but
also to do the re-design of the business. He tells this story in Tales From
Open Space.


A related story rolled out at Proctor and Gamble -- They had a 50 year old
plant with three generations of folks working there. The plant was more
than a place of work -- it was really a way of life. But it had to go. The
equipment was too old, the product was a "dirty" one, which made meeting
environmental standards in the town where the plant was located almost
impossible. Anyhow, I had the privilege of doing what I could to help them
through. Open Space didn't exist (as far as I was concerned) at that point,
but in retrospect we all worked in Open Space. I have tried to tell that
tale in "The Spirit of Leadership." -- (used to be called "Leadership Is"")

Anyhow -- there seems to be somewhat of a body of experience using Open
Space productively in what we in the US call downsizing situations. I guess
other folks call it differently -- but by whatever name, the situation is
familiar, and maybe a little discussion around the issue would be useful?

Harrison





Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, MD 20854 USA
phone 301-469-9269
Summer Phone 207-763-3261
fax 301-983-9314
website www.mindspring.com/~owenhh
Open Space Institute website www.openspaceworld.org
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