Key organizational events occurred during this process, which may be described as ‘empowering’; whereby staff have felt that they could directly influence decision-making and organizational direction. This was experienced from the time of the Open Space event onwards, when Visioneers and Discoverers were recruited for the purposes of co-creating strategy with other members of the Group Senior Leadership Team. 

The feedback that now follows marks a sharp contrast to a conversation overheard at the Open Space event itself, which seemed to indicate at the time that this type of staff involvement, or engagement with the senior management team and board was still experienced by some as relatively unusual.

This conversation involved a staff member who would go on to become a Visioneer. Discussing with a colleague some key difficulties this staff member was experiencing concerning managing customer feedback accurately and consistently, the staff member concerned was asked:

"Would you now share this issue with the Chief Executive for example, given the nature of this event, i.e. open discussions and forums informing strategic topics?"

 The staff member concerned quickly replied:

“No never. I would never bother the Chief Executive with something like that.” (Reference researcher diary – Open Space Event March, 2017).