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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Rescue? Ah yes! My favorite on one occurred almost 20 years ago. The Venezuelan Cell phone company – TELCEL – was just launched and they were about to fail. The problem was that the business was much, much, too good. In a word the company had massively underestimated the public demand for cell phones. In fact TELCEL had sold more phones in the first 6 months of operation than they expected to sell in the first several years. With demand like that the system was in massive overload. It wasn’t just the individual phones, but all the infrastructure – towers, switchers, and all the rest. They were about ready to go down the tubes. My client owned the company and knew about Open Space because we had used it many times before with his other businesses – but this was a big one. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>When a company gets into trouble like this, one of the first things to go is the ability (time) to communicate with all parties. So busy there was no time to talk. So -- a bad situation was getting progressively worse. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>We did an Open Space for everybody (350 people, I recall). Essentially shut down the company, save for a skeleton crew. We only had a day, but that was all they needed because the folks were energetic, bright, and very motivated. By the end of the day, channels of communication were open again, plans were made, problems identified and on the way to solution. The biggest learning, I think, was articulated by one person who said – “We didn’t just do an Open Space – we live in Open Space. This is our world!” One result was that Open Space became the “go-to” approach whenever real difficulties or opportunities presented.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Harrison <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Harrison Owen<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>7808 River Falls Dr.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Potomac, MD 20854<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>USA<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Camden, Maine 20854<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Phone 301-365-2093<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>(summer) 207-763-3261<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>www.openspaceworld.com<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:#1F497D'>To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of OSLIST Go to:<a href="http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org"><span style='color:blue'>http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> oslist-bounces@lists.openspacetech.org [mailto:oslist-bounces@lists.openspacetech.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Csaba Lengyel<br><b>Sent:</b> Monday, March 05, 2012 5:29 PM<br><b>To:</b> oslist@lists.openspacetech.org<br><b>Subject:</b> [OSList] Rescue a project in crisis with OST<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB>Hi all,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB>I have had a discussion with the sponsor of a really troubled big IT investment and business transformation project. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB>They have go-live date in 4 month and in reality the project is so much behind schedule they have hardly any chance to meet the deadline. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB>There is a lot of conflict within the project, the task is almost impossible, time is short – well I thought it’s quite a typical situation calling for OST.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB>I mentioned it and the guy has shown interest, however he’s had too many bad experience with miraculous techniques and solutions, he was a bit sceptical. So he asked if OST has ever been used for project turnaround. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB>I’m sure the answer is yes (and I also know OST always works), but I have only used OST for kicking-off projects and not for rescuing them.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB>So I decided to ask the community. Do you have any experience with OST in rescuing projects? If yes, please help me sharing it!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB>BR,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB>Csaba Lengyel<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></body></html>