On "Failure"

Thu Jun 3 14:28:43 PDT 2010

Actually Reinhard, -- sounds to me like it went totally right! And of course
it was a heartbreaker!! Good folks, doing good work being trashed by a CEO
(MD, Whatever) who clearly valued his ego above efficiency, effectiveness
and real team work. But that happens. Some folks would rather maintain their
delusion of control even in the face of real success and innovation. And
don’t fault that poor HR fellow for faulty briefing. The CEO was who he was
and doubtless remains so. And I don’t know what happened next (do you?) –
but a successful outcome (for me) would have been that everybody resigned en
mass. If they all chose to go back and be as miserable as they were to begin
with – that is their choice. And definitely not your fault! Congratulations
on a space well opened! 

Harrison 

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:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of VISUELLE
PROTOKOLLE
Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2010 1:08 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: On "Failure"

Harrison and all,

Another example of an OS that went terribly wrong:

It was a factory producing printing machines, both in Eastern and western
Germany, and the participants were mixed from both areas. We had the o.k.
from the four directors, to whom we had illustrated what to expect, and a
final conference after the OS was already determined. One of the directors,
the one who seemed to be the most employee-oriented, was choosen to say some
words at the end of the OS. Our partner in the company was a young man from
HR, very active, with good contacts to the directors. So he insisted that he
should brief the director what to say at the end of OS.

Everything went fine. The groups worked with joy and enthusiasm. We
accompanied the whole OS with 3 people visualizing everything, and that was
a big success, because  everybody could see what had happened everywhere.
After we had shown the pictures in a final slideshow, the director stood up
and destroyed everything within 5 minutes. He said that he was disappointed,
had expected other outcomes, and that the managers wood have a hard time to
use some of the results.

That was the end of the project for us, but much worse all the participants
were angry and a big chance was lost for the company.

Of course the mistake was to let the young HR-man brief the director. 

Reinhard

Reinhard Kuchenmüller 
Dr. Marianne Stifel
VISUELLE PROTOKOLLE
Kuchenmüller & Stifel

+39-0566-88 929
www.visuelle-protokolle.de 

Am 03/06/10 18:12 schrieb "Ralph Copleman" unter <rcopleman at comcast.net>:

Harrison and all,

I've had a few that sort of fell flat.

One involved a group concerned about availability of services for senior
citizens across an entire US state.  Two-thirds of the room consisted of
seniors themselves and, frankly, a lot of them ran out of energy about an
hour after lunch.  So they sat around, a number slumping in chairs with eyes
closed.

Another involved an exploration of customer service issues for an airline.
Lots of corporate leaders from the airline present, along with their booking
agents (this pre-dates internet booking sites), frequent flyer customers,
and corporate travel execs who make travel policy for their companies.  A
great mix, actually.  We were set to go from 8:00 a.m to 4:00.  About 2:00,
a group of participants more or less seized control of the meeting somehow
(I wasn't in the room when it occurred) and got everyone to agree to shorten
the meeting by a full hour.  When I returned at 3:00, someone simply
informed me, and asked that I begin the closing circle.  So that's what I
did.  I never found out what actually happened.

Not sure how to think about that last one, since I never found out how it
all developed, but the following one is more like a true failure.

I was asked to convene a two-day open space gathering for about 200 folks
from around the US.  It would be the annual meeting of an association of a
certain type of public health officer (cannot recall the details).  The
whole thing was pretty dead from the outset –– I mean 200 people posting a
total of only 15 sessions for two whole days!?  I found out the theme was
all wrong.  The planning committee chose an idea that turned out to have no
juice for the association's members.  I had spent hours in conference calls
with the leadership group and the planning committee, and they'd assured me
that the idea they chose was at the heart of the challenges facing them and
their organizations.  Turns out that was dead wrong.  Nobody else cared.  I
don't know how I might have seen through this situation ahead of time.

I essentially agree with you, H.  If the conditions are appropriate, it will
work.  But, if the three experiences above teach me anything, it's clear
that stuff can always happens.

Ralph Copleman

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