OS & Evidence based practice

Joelle Lyons Everett JLEShelton at aol.com
Sat Nov 6 10:00:38 PST 2004


Jon--

Paul and I facilitated a series of meetings for a manufacturing company which
wanted to identify management practices which helped create safety, and find
a way to measure managers on those things.   They could see that their current
system only measured failures of safety.

The meetings were not in Open Space--the client was not ready for that--but
they would have been more effective in Open Space.   The safety professionals
and middle managers identified some intriguing ideas.   But they were afraid of
going back to their general managers and "rocking the boat."   In Open Space,
I think some of those fearful feelings might have been part of the
discussion, and the group collectively could have developed strategies for
implementation.

In contrast, I worked with an organization which was planning a move to a new
facility.   They were concerned about the disruptions of working
relationships, commuting patterns and other social and psychological aspects of the
change.   The whole organization gathered in Open Space about 9 months before the
move, and I was amazed at the depth of the discussions, ranging from how to
allocate storage space (a very hot issue in this group) to grief and change.   A
number of the discussions in Open Space led directly to committees and task
forces who worked out many of the needed policies and plans.   The move was
completed on schedule--I asked the director if she was satisfied that this had
worked out as she hoped; she replied that the process had exceeded her highest
expectations.

Good luck with your proposal--I personally think that Open Space is ideally
suited to the work the client wants to accomplish!

Joelle Everett
Shelton, Washington, USA
jleshelton at aol.com

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