[OSList] OST for big changes in company

Thu Jun 2 15:59:36 PDT 2016

Birgitt --- who knows what I wrote when. You Do! And … I’ve always found that Endings and Beginnings are always simultaneous. For those involved it is Beginning/Ending/Beginning/Ending… all at once, all over again, and repetitively. So you are pretty safe with any kind of question. Just open some space, and get out of the way. Grief will process. Hope will manifest. The Present Moment will grow. The folks will get there (or not) given the space/time.

We can only stand by… respectful. I think.

ho  

From: OSList [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of Birgitt Williams via OSList
Sent: Thursday, June 2, 2016 4:49 PM
To: World wide Open Space Technology email list; Karolina Iwa
Subject: Re: [OSList] OST for big changes in company

Hi Karolina,

An article that Harrison wrote a very long time ago has a title that I believe is called 'Endings and Beginnings'. I believe this article is from before OST was birthed, it is that long ago. It is probably archived on the wiki site. I have found it useful to circulate as a resource to read, probably for the Board, planners, and maybe for anyone in the company who cares to read it if you circulate it.

Ideally there should be a pause before announcing the news and heading into an OST meeting so that the meeting is not all about processing the shock. If you do not leave some space and time for people, such as a nights sleep, the extremes of how people handle shock and how quickly they process or don''t process their grief beyond shock will get in the way. Worst scenario without sufficient time is the unnecessary conflict is caused as some people will stay in shock, some will move forward rapidly to 'what is next', and unnecessary and likely harsh judgments of each other will set in that might haunt the company in continual conflict for decades. A night's sleep is really not much space between the 'event' of the news and the OST meeting, but it is better than no pause and sometimes it is all that is possible.

In such circumstances, I absolutely avoid having the OST meeting be about 'the future'. People in the early stages of grief cannot have good discussions about the future. I do have OST meetings when there are endings, about the present ie: with these changes, what issues and opportunities do we need to handle in the present'. Doing this is a big enough stretch for people.

One example that comes to mind is a company that thought it was losing its major contract, and it did. We facilitated an OST meeting when the owners assumed the news would be bad, asking for the company personnel to consider how they would like the potential situation to be handled as it would cause layoffs etc. They came up with great ideas. When the bad news happened, management followed through on what had been agreed upon as to how to handle it.

If I was the consultant with this situation that you have, I would be putting more emphasis on having a good method for facilitating the news being given, and giving people with different learning styles the opportunity to get on the same page with each other about what the news actually is. I use Whole Person Process Facilitation...then a nights sleep....then the OST.

Best of luck,

Birgitt

On Thu, Jun 2, 2016 at 11:11 AM Eleder_BuM via OSList <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:

so interesting, karol!

no such experience up to date.

eager to read the stories.

i'll see and share if any idea comes to my mind regarding your 2nd question, anyway.

best of lucks,

love,

eleder

2016-06-02 15:53 GMT+02:00 Karolina Iwa via OSList <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>:

dear group, 

i am seeking advice and stories.

on monday i have a meeting with the board of a company we've been supporting for the last year in their growth. some time ago they decided to make a major change (cannot get into more details at this point), which most probably a. will make quite some people in the company experience negative emotions and b. is coming quite unexpectedly. 

the board intends at designing the best change experience they can in the moment of communicating the changes and after. 

we intend to open the space after the news has been shared + the reasons behind it & consequences for the company & employees have been communicated, so i am wondering - from your experience:

- what would be similar stories you took part in / heard of?

- what can be helpful / should we pay attention to while preparing the meeting for the board and with the board preparing the whole organisation meeting?

thanks in advance for sharing.

karolina.

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karolina iwa

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