My First(ish) Open Space.

[Chris Corrigan]

Well done Keith, and thanks so much for sharing the insights with us.  The resiliant nature of OST is what I love about it too.  You can throw huge levels of chaos and uncertainty at it and people will reform in the way they need to do deal with what they need to deal with.  I have had many experiences like this, and Harrison has too, even wrote a whole book - The Practice of Peace - based on one of those.  

The story is fabulous.  Much appreciated in this learning community.

Best of luck for 2012.

Chris

(PS...and you have also discovered that there are no observers...excellent!)
----
Chris Corrigan
chris at chriscorrigan.com
http://www.chriscorrigan.com


On 2010-11-26, at 9:33 AM, Blundell, Keith wrote:

> Dear All,
>  
> Many months ago I asked for some help on running an OS session – so firstly I would like to thank those who responded and especially those who gave up their time to speak and meet with me to answer all my questions.
>  
> Since then I have been suggesting that this may be a valuable way of running meetings within my organisation.  A few weeks back I held my “pilot” OS event –  (I say that purely from my perspective of having never run one before!) with a small group of managers during an afternoon.  Although the session went well and the group were engaged, their subsequent feedback and my own learning of actually “doing it” was valuable.  It had consolidated not only my reading but also the insights from those mentioned above.
>  
> Since then I experienced a Co-Learning Workshop on Open Space as well as the WOSONOS 2012 meeting held a few weeks ago – my first taste of an OS event. Both were great experiences and consolidated my understanding and learning.  (As an aside, I initially went to the 2012 meeting to observe, but very quickly became engaged in the meeting!)
>  
> This has all been preparation for (what I consider to be – although I can see others disagreeing) my first OS Meeting in the San Francisco offices last week.  I was originally approached to debrief a project, but learned that the team were about to work together on the next phase of an upgrade and implementation.  After some discussion my sponsors were taken by the idea of “trying something new” and using Open Space.  Although debriefs were not new to Roche, Genentech had not typically found them useful, and since we are a merged company taking an approach not used before was also a consideration. Initially there was much scepticism from some team leaders – “how can we fly people to SF when we don’t have an agenda?” – which we were able to overcome.
>  
> The theme of the meeting was “Building on what we have learned together and preparing for the future”.  Rather than just being an OS event, we agreed that the scene would be set on the afternoon of Day 1 with an overview of what was required and expected of the next phase of the project.  Day 2 was then given over to OS and some more formal planning anticipated for day 3.  There was initially some scepticism about OS when I very very briefly mentioned what it was about at the end of day 1.  I encouraged the participants to be prepared to trust the process and that the format would be more fully explained in the morning.  It will be no surprise to you that I was more confident, that the scepticism melted away and the meeting was a success.
>  
> That’s not the reason for me writing.  The reason is to share with you something that I think was more profound.  Following the merger and some internal and external pressures, Roche was looking at all levels of the business for efficiencies and an announcement was due to be made towards year end.  That announcement – that there would be a 6% reduction in numbers – was made in Switzerland and was received early morning (especially early for those of us still on European Time) prior to the OS event .  We also found out that that there would be a town hall meeting in the afternoon, so we now only had half a day rather than a full one.  Despite this news there was still a desire to continue with our meeting and the principles and law of OS allowed us to manage this unexpected change.  Indeed,  a small group of individuals received some additional info during the first morning, and although the topic was never posted they were able to find a space and discuss whatever they needed to before returning to participate in the other sessions.  At the end of the morning there was overwhelming support to continue with the format on day 3 with those posted items outstanding.
>  
> If we had had a formal agenda, then the meeting would have been thrown into chaos – indeed many meetings held on that day were cancelled.  As noted above, the meeting was a success and all the expectations of those present, including the sponsors, were met.  All the items that individuals expected to be covered were covered, and the detailed planning expected on day three fell out of all the discussions.
>  
> A testament I think to OST – I hope there will be an opportunity within my organisation to continue with this approach.  And I am looking forward to 2012!
>  
> Best Wishes,
>  
> Keith.
>  
>  
> Dr K Blundell
>  
> Global Strategy Lead – Innovation and Change
> Process & Training Excellence (PTE)
> Product Development Global Operations
> Roche Products Limited
> 6 Falcon Way
> Welwyn Garden City
> Hertfordshire
> AL7 1TW
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