Dear György, Michael, Harrison, Elwin and all the others commenting on the Hungarian experience,
Györgys comments and the responses of the OS-community excited me a lot. I want to add some personal experiences from Poland - like Hungary a new democracy. Nevertheless the country has got a popular ex-communist President and a successful ex-communist party, which has extremely good chances to regain power in the coming parliamentary elections. Born and grown up in Stuttgart/ West-Germany I picked up Polish as a teenager. Many Poles believe I missed out on basic education, as my talk sounds Polish, but my spelling is a mess. Speaking and understanding the language is the major reason why I did some workshops and Open Spaces for German multinationals in Poland. Basically I met two types of German expat ceos overthere. The one´s are the command and control freaks. They are often wondering about their bad fortune as their Polish employees do a lot behind the scenes to make sure that their bosses plans don´t work out. The others are of a more cooperative nature and want their Polish managers and employees to participate. Recently the ceo of a chemistry multinational in Warsaw told me his story. His Polish employees told him apparently, that they want him to be their king and don´t like being treated as equals just having different jobs and responsibilities. Is this some sort of the "freedom shock" Harrison is talking about? But freedom is the precondition for economic success. A friend of mine from Technical University Berlin does a Ph.D. study about German companies in the former Soviet Union and countries from the soviet block. He found some evidence for this: The more cooperative the leadership, the more successful their businesses are. For me Open Space has a huge potential in countries, which have emerged from dictatorship and are in the process of freeing themselves. György, if you want to approach German multinationals in your country, please let me know, so we can share experiences, where to find the relevant who is who. Many Poles I know believe freedom means driving a BMW, Audi, ChryslerDaimler ... to deal with each other on the basis of partnership and equality is still a very strange notion. That´s a pity, but it´s also a challenge to convince them of freedom and OS, not by making discounts but with words and emotions. To convince prospective clients of OS and its value I am telling success stories a la : OS leading to results, e.g. Harrison´s experience with AT&T, which needed a quick concept for the new exhibition hall at the Olympic Games in Atlanta. Is anybody aware of European success stories? Where do I dig them out? I am grateful for any idea. Greetings from Berlin and the carneval - Hape Hape Etzold Combrains Idea-Conferencing Brigitten 4, D-12247 Berlin T +49 30 771 21 50 F +49 30 771 908 70 i...@combrains.de www.combrains.de "Neue Lösungen und neue Märkte aus der Intelligenz und dem Wissen in der Organisation" * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html =========================================================== osl...@egroups.com To subscribe, 1. Visit: http://www.egroups.com/group/oslist 2. Sign up -- provide an email address, and choose a login ID and password 3. Click on "Subscribe" and follow the instructions To unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@egroups.com: 1. Visit: http://www.egroups.com/group/oslist 2. Sign in and Proceed