[OSList] The OST Game (was: Genuinely open Agile adoptions)

Sun Oct 6 11:28:58 PDT 2013

what your quoting suggests to me, dan, is a distinction akin to what i've
already shared about tools/techniques versus practice.

in another message you've suggested rules, feedback etc, and defined ost as
a game.  what i hear harrison saying in the quoting here, though, suggests
that organization is the game.  ost is a strategy, a style of play, a
gambit, or something inside of that game.  it's a way we choose to play.
 (when i go look it up to be sure, i think when you're calling ost a game,
i think gambit might be the better word.)

this helps explain, at least to myself, why calling open space itself a
game seems too small.  it seems to remove open space from the larger
context, and in doing so, the practice loses it's reason for being.  it
never exists on its own, for it's own sake... always we "do it" for some
purpose.  the chasing of that purpose is the game.  if we make open space a
game, we give up our license to comment on the larger game that is
organization, software development, or whatever.  in other words, my sense
is that if the languaging of these things makes ost a "game" and
organization/software/whatever is "real" -- then ost becomes significantly
limited in what it can do to change what i see as the real game, the bigger
field of play.

i don't know this for sure, but this is my hunch.  it also may be that this
story works better in software circles, where the actual work, much of it
done by people glued to computer screens, looks more like some kinds of
gaming.  this context would make the split between real work and gaming
less pronounced.

i'm all for it, if and wherever it works.  and my guess is that it doesn't
translate immediately, cleanly, and effectively to all kinds of work.  but
then again, almost story does translate easily and effectively to every/any
context.

m

--

Michael Herman
Michael Herman Associates
312-280-7838 (mobile)

http://MichaelHerman.com
http://OpenSpaceWorld.org

On Sun, Oct 6, 2013 at 10:44 AM, Skye Hirst <skyeh at autognomics.org> wrote:

> I guess I want to play in this "game".   Feedback implies mechanistic
> processes that have been identified through cause and effect responses.
> This is where we get into trouble.  Life is not machine like,  in any way.
> It is complex and not complicated as a set of gears and cogs can become if
> there are too many trying to interact.  However processes of living require
> new metaphors to capture or even point to the "game" of living process
> where each entity and combination of entities initiate to form a group,
> organization or society and have formed to "experience satisfaction" or
> find effective actions separately and together.  The constraints emerge
> from what the individuals and the collective discover as useful temporary
> rules of the moment - they can take habit if they are useful beyond the
> moment.  Some where in the process someone decides to "name"  the rule, the
> process and everyone nods in agreement to call what they have shared in
> common by "that word" (i.e. jargon) Then someone else comes along who
> perhaps was not in the experience and take up the name and they pass it
> along as the "rule"  that must be the container for that process and try to
> create the same process starting with the rule instead of the initiating
> impulse to come together.
>
> Well I think you can see an ephemeral organic process that is ever
> changing gets bogged down with words,  the names and with labels, however
> useful they may be for a bit. GAme on,  as they say,  yet,  all I'm
> suggesting is that we stop trying to name, and control with naming a
> process beyond anything but pointers we can use to share a common
> experience - each of us forming it each time uniquely with both particular
> and universal operatives. Unique to the entities in the forming circle,
> the space time event forming the circle and so on and so on
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, Oct 6, 2013 at 10:41 AM, Daniel Mezick <dan at newtechusa.net> wrote:
>
>>  Hi Harold,
>>
>> In THE CULTURE GAME book I make the radical/heretical claim that culture
>> is a game...and every meeting...a game.... and in fact every interaction...
>> is a game.
>>
>> In the book there are examples that support the idea that all meetings
>> are games.
>>
>> According to this theory, if OST is a type of meeting, then OST is a type
>> of game.
>> Games have: Goal, Rules, Feedback mechanisms, Opt-in Participation.
>>
>> The OST Game:
>>
>> The Goal:
>> Explore the Theme-Question.
>>
>> The Rules:
>> 1 Law, 4/5 Principles, some defined Roles, a few other suggestions. A
>> supporting slogan...
>>
>> The Feedback Mechanics:
>> Continuous, rich feedback via all of the senses, in real time for each
>> individual and group-as-a-whole.
>>
>> Opt-In Participation:
>> YES
>>
>> By these measures, OST is a beautifully designed meeting-game.
>>
>>
>> Here is a specific quote from your message, below:
>>
>> "But I'd never heard anyone describe Open Space Technology as a
>> beautifully designed game before."
>>
>> The reality is that Harrison mentions the word [game] when discussing
>> High Play & High Learning as it pertains to self-organizing social
>> systems... it shows up in the book Wave Rider. OST encourages a social
>> system to reach higher levels of self-organization...Hmmm.
>>
>> Here is the quote (emphasis added...):
>>
>> "...High play is the antidote to dogmatic thinking & therefore an
>> essential companion to High Learning. It is also fun. In 'X" Company,  PLAY
>> is strictly prohibited, for after all there is work to be done and it is
>> always very serious. Even worse, PLAY, almost by definition, is out of
>> control- which is what makes if fun. Can you imagine anything worse than
>> PLAYING A GAME where the results are already known in advance? Boring! "
>> -H.O., Wave Rider, page 132
>>
>>
>> On 9/4/13 6:23 PM, Harold Shinsato wrote:
>>
>> Dan,
>>
>> Thank you for forwarding that interview. I've worked with your
>> interviewer Amr Elssamadisy before in Dr. Christopher Avery's "Leadership
>> Gift" program. Great to hear his voice. Thought he did a great job bringing
>> forward your insights.
>>
>> It's hard for me to express how deeply your thinking aligned with what I
>> see as the essence of Open Space, and what I feel emerging in my own psyche
>> and that in the collective when we spoke and I got to be present at your
>> session in Nashville at Agile 2013 last month. I continue to find your
>> material to be a critical piece in helping bridge the Open Space and Agile
>> communities - something Peggy Holman called "Sister Communities" at the
>> World Open Space on Open Space in St. Petersburg back in May.
>>
>> I'd heard your thinking before and it continues to astound me the
>> relevance and power in getting these two communities to work together.
>>
>> Open Space truly is the "secret sauce" making possible successful Agile
>> adoptions. The science behind this awareness goes deep. The timing of it
>> feels like perfection. You seem to be getting just the right audiences to
>> engage with this idea. And what you posted earlier in terms of a framework
>> for adoption involving interspersed Open Space events to help promote
>> agency and engagement - very exciting. Very simple. Truly elegant. And
>> phrased in a way the holders of the bottom line can "get it".
>>
>> What's new about your stuff?
>>
>> Perhaps it's been mentioned before - but here are some points I find most
>> critical.
>>
>> 1) The Mandate. Perhaps Open Space Technology came out of Organizational
>> Development (and Organizational Transformation). But most attempts to
>> transform the organization that I've seen have been "rolled out". Kind of
>> like a steam roller. It's definitely mandated. You went into great depth in
>> your Agile 2013 presentation how Mandated Agile goes fundamentally against
>> the values and principles in the Agile Manifesto. Open Space can help us
>> bring back the original thinking of the signatories of the Agile Manifesto.
>>
>> 2) Games and engagement. Jane McGonigal's book "Reality Is Broken", and
>> the whole arena of Gamification, has become a focal point of driving home
>> ideas from positive psychology, and is also driving many huge wheels of
>> industry (and dollars). Because getting people excited about using your
>> products is important. Getting employees excited about contributing to your
>> products - also critical. But I'd never heard anyone describe Open Space
>> Technology as a beautifully designed game before. This perception I think
>> plays directly with the TOOL versus PHILOSOPHY debate in our community.
>>
>> 3) Agency. This might have been a significant idea as well in Paolo
>> Friere's book - "The Pedagogy of the Oppressed". Without people feeling
>> like they have some say in how they apply their blood, sweat, and tears -
>> engagement is not going to happen. Open Space is a critical way to nurture
>> agency in people.
>>
>> I'm so thankful that you've started posting on the OSList and I look
>> forward to how things unfold. From what I see you saying, and how I see
>> people are hearing you, it seems as if we're on target for a much more
>> explicit chapter in the relationship between the Agile and Open Space
>> "sister communities".
>>
>>     Thanks!
>>     Harold
>>
>>
>> On 9/4/13 2:37 PM, Daniel Mezick wrote:
>>
>> Here's a 16-minute video that explains the crisis of disengagement in
>> Agile adoptions, and how the time to act was yesterday, and how Open Space
>> can help...
>> http://www.infoq.com/interviews/dan-mezick-qcon-new-york-2013
>>
>> --
>>
>> Daniel Mezick, President
>>
>> New Technology Solutions Inc.
>>
>>
>>
>>  --
>> Harold Shinsato
>> harold at shinsato.com
>> http://shinsato.com
>> twitter: @hajush <http://twitter.com/hajush>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Daniel Mezick, President
>>
>> New Technology Solutions Inc.
>>
>> (203) 915 7248 (cell)
>>
>> Bio <http://newtechusa.net/dan-mezick/>. Blog<http://newtechusa.net/blog/>.
>> Twitter <http://twitter.com/#%21/danmezick/>.
>>
>> Examine my new book:  The Culture Game
>> <http://newtechusa.net/about/the-culture-game-book/>: Tools for the
>> Agile Manager.
>>
>> Explore Agile Team Training<http://newtechusa.net/services/agile-scrum-training/>and
>> Coaching. <http://newtechusa.net/services/agile-scrum-coaching/>
>>
>> Explore the Agile Boston <http://newtechusa.net//user-groups/ma/>
>> Community.
>>
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>
>
> --
> *Skye Hirst, PhD*
> President - The Autognomics Institute
> *Conversations in the Ways of Life-itself*
> www.autognomics.org
> @autognomics
>
> New Phone Number:
> 207-593-8074
>
>
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