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

Sun Oct 6 11:31:54 PDT 2013

oh, and... skye... i don't think naming has to be about controlling.
 sometimes we say face, sometimes nose, sometimes nostril, or deeper still
sinuses.  sometimes it's just about higher resolution understanding.

--

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

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

On Sun, Oct 6, 2013 at 1:28 PM, Michael Herman <michael at michaelherman.com>wrote:

> 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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>
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