[OSList] Shipyard again

[Harrison Owen]

Hege -- There are indeed stories sort of like what you want... For example
way back when, an American aerospace business redesigned itself (reduced its
size by about 50%) in Open Space. For the details see "Open Space Used as an
Organization Transition Methodology" Hugh Huntington in "Tales from Open
Space" http://openspaceworld.com/Tales.pdf Or there is the Rockport Shoes
story in which the people created a new product and did a serious fix to
their inventory system producing a $28,000,000 addition to their bottom line
-- which represented almost a 10% increase. Not bad for 2 days! BUT -- But
that was "their" story. And everybody knows that the shoe business and the
aerospace business aren't the ship building business. So I am not sure they
would help all that much.

It seems, however, that you are more interested in the 3-5% sort of story. I
think I understand your interest -- after all what sane executive would
believe a 10% increase in the bottom line, achieved in 2 days? And of course
a 15,000% increase in productivity is just off the charts. All of which
strikes right to the heart of the problem with Open Space and the power of
self organization -- IT SIMPLY CAN'T HAPPEN! And if it did happen on any
regular basis most executives in the world would have very red faces, trying
to explain how they could possibly be delivering such miserable results (by
comparison) and why they should not be immediately relieved of their
position. 

Discretion would certainly suggest not embarrassing the client! And to avoid
such embarrassment to the client and yourself, I would stay far away from
all such numbers. I would also try and avoid stories from other people. And
in your case, you can do (not do) all of that quite easily because the
client already has their own story. As you said, "The meeting came out
great, with energy and lots of important conversations." Your strategy might
be something like asking the client to remember the last time they opened
space -- and ask them if they would like to turn all that energy and serious
conversation loose on a new and important task -- "Building Great Ships:
Better, Faster, Cheaper" If so, it is very easy to do, and you are ready to
go!

Being the persuasive woman you are, I am sure they will be responsive. And
when all that happens insist on a minimum of 2 days (better 2 1/2) with
EVERYBODY who cares about the issue. From the Board Room to the shop floor:
Come if they care! The rest of it will be history -- Another New Story that
nobody will believe :-)

And when it comes to your fee, you might try this. Offer to do it all for a
percentage of the savings or profit. And take nothing if nothing happens. In
the case of Rockport Shoes, the CFO was a major critic before we got
started. He called it a "million dollar a day boon-dogle. At that time
Rockport had a $360 million net annual. We were going to close the
facilities for 2 days. No shoes in, and none out = a million $'s a day loss.
He was not happy, so I told him I would take .5% of whatever was saved or
made -- and nothing if nothing happened. At the end, it was the CFO who
figured the value of the new product and savings ($28 million) -- and when
he told me the result I told him I would be happy to accept his check for
$140,000. I smiled and he smiled ... I took my regular fee.

Harrison

Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Dr.
Potomac, MD 20854
USA

189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer)
Camden, Maine 04843

Phone 301-365-2093
(summer)  207-763-3261

www.openspaceworld.com 
www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of OSLIST
Go to:http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org

-----Original Message-----
From: oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org
[mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of Hege Steinsland
Sent: Friday, January 24, 2014 4:36 AM
To: World wide Open Space Technology email list
Subject: [OSList] Shipyard again

Hello wise people.

I received some great advices from this list earlier when i first went into
a shipyard with an Open Space meeting.
The meeting  came out great, with energy and lots of important
conversations, but I`m not sure of the longterm outcome...

I`m now invited to do another Open Space in a situation when a ship is
delayed, and they still need to keep the time and the costs.
At the same time there is a process in the hole shipbuilding group about a
need for significant cut in costs, without compromising on good quality, in
order to be competitive for the future. Some of the directors have start
talking about a different approach to this than yelling from above about
shorter breaks and so on. They want the workers to come up with the good
solutions and have some ownership in this.

My question to all your experienced Open Space facilitators: Do you have
examples of situations when Open Space has been used to cut costs, find new
and more effective ways to do the business that was taken into reality and
worked out?

( I´m thinking of HO`s Ted talk about the 15 000% increase in efficiency :-)
Is this one, singular very special situation that we keep telling all the
time, or are there more stories similar to this with, lets say 3 - 5 % cost
reduction or increase in efficiency?

Excited!

All the best from

Hege Steinsland

_______________________________________________
OSList mailing list
To post send emails to OSList at lists.openspacetech.org To unsubscribe send an
email to OSList-leave at lists.openspacetech.org
To subscribe or manage your subscription click below:
http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org