My First(ish) Open Space.

Sat Nov 27 03:45:04 PST 2010

Super stuff Keith – really glad it went so well – who needs ‘agile
organisations’ – Open Space is clearly agile enough!!

Very best wishes

Jon

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From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Blundell,
Keith
Sent: 26 November 2010 17:34
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: My First(ish) Open Space.

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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