[OSList] The OST Game

Wed Oct 9 08:10:14 PDT 2013

Harold - Conversation surely continues! Never fear!! And I surely hear what
you are saying, but as I commented to Dan in a private note - "Never fear
Dan. I think I do understand. As an old gamer, having used both the theory
and practice extensively in the '70's for the development of health care
policy and programs, I am profoundly aware of the power and the
possibilities. As I used to say in those ancient days - Gaming allows us to
do in pretend time what is impossible or illegal to do in real time. Covers
a lot of bases and gets a lot done. That said, I would never use gaming when
I could play for real. I just went for it. I think that may be the source of
my discomfort when "game" is attached to OS. As far as I am concerned - when
in Open Space, we are "going for it for real." It ain't a game.

Your use of the words and concepts certainly make sense given the context
and the community you are addressing (Agile, Scrum, etc.) But I am just not
sure that they translate well into a broader and different community. I have
and certainly can be very wrong, but I've always found that when in Rome a
little Latin will do J"

My real point is that when seeking to help us understand what Dan is all
about (and it is a marvelous project), his phrasing may not be the most
felicitous. Then again my difficulty may well be an advanced case of
hardening of the neuronal pathways. Happens J J

Harrison

Harrison Owen

7808 River Falls Dr.

Potomac, MD 20854

USA

189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer)

Camden, Maine 04843

Phone 301-365-2093

(summer)  207-763-3261

www.openspaceworld.com 

www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)

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From: Harold Shinsato [mailto:harold at shinsato.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2013 9:29 AM
To: World wide Open Space Technology email list
Cc: Harrison Owen
Subject: Re: [OSList] The OST Game

Harrison,

Ok, I'll take your word from previous posts that I won't be in trouble if I
risk going up against you again - or maybe it's just a hope that this thread
won't be shut down due to misunderstandings.

The statement "OST is a game" actually doesn't work for me so much because
it uncomfortably reduces all the ideas and philosophy (and practice) of OST
into a word that unfortunately has for many negative connotations. But
perhaps I'll invite thinking about OST *as* a game instead. Perhaps that can
help prevent cognitive dissonance and allow for this conversation to
continue.

My understanding of the word game as used by Daniel Mezick and others comes
from game theory - and could open up many benefits.

The briefest way I think to hope to keep this particular door open for those
in this community who might find the word game unpleasant would be to
suggest the book "Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and
Possibility" by James P. Carse. Mr. Carse actually is a professor of history
and literature of religion - and his thinking in that book is very poetic
and beautiful. And it reminds me much of Open Space thinking - and I won't
even attempt to dive into his thesis any more than to look at what I think
sums up the thinking being the final sentence in the book. "There is only
one infinite game."

The bigger game of Open Space is the game of life - the unending story - the
"one infinite game". And an OST meeting or conference is a finite game which
seems to open up an experience of the infinite game in a beautiful way. And
yet, there's still value in seeing the finite game aspects of OST in that
context.

Alas, perhaps this attempt will be futile. But I hold out hope that others
won't be discouraged from this perspective on OST as a game and it's
benefits.

    Harold

On 10/7/13 1:25 PM, Harrison Owen wrote:

Dan - Using the word, "game" as you do, I guess it sort of works with OS,
but I do confess a certain feeling of cognitive dissonance, which I suspect
may be shared by some of my colleagues. In any event, it certainly would not
be a word I would use. But that doesn't mean a great deal. However, when you
say, "Leaders choose to play OST. Or not," I do feel called upon to say
something like... Oh Yes? 

Some people refer to the "Game of Life," but it is scarcely a game you
choose to play (or not). Not playing is called suicide, I think, and while
some people do make that choice it is not a choice that most folks would
considered good, useful, or positive. It is more like canceling all choices.
Out of the Game, so to speak.

I feel rather the same way about OS, and for all the same reasons. OS for me
is not a process we choose to do or not do - quite simply it is what we are
--  Self organizing, and OS is only an invitation to be ourselves fully and
purposefully. We can chose to be ourselves with distinction, despair, or
something in between --  but so long as we remain on the planet in some
viable form, we got no choice. We are what we are, what we are. Put a little
differently, OS is not something new and different, it is just a small name
change for what has been around for quite a while: life.  I guess you can
call it a game, but somehow that seems to miss some of the nuances.

Harrison 

-- 
Harold Shinsato
harold at shinsato.com
http://shinsato.com
twitter: @hajush <http://twitter.com/hajush> 

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