[OSList] The OST Game

Wed Oct 9 14:21:26 PDT 2013

Harold, Michael, Harrison, and all,  

I've been lurking on the sidelines of this conversation. Honestly, hoping a bit that it would go away. (Not sure about my motivations there.) However, the turn the thread has taken recently prompts me to speak up again. 

I'd like to remind you about the Agile Open series of conferences (goes back to Europe in 2004 and still continuing) and the Agile Open Program supported by the Agile Alliance (since 2010) and before those the open space formats of Consultants' Camp (started by Jerry Weinberg decades ago), the Consultants' Retreats (Norm Kerth begun in 1997), and Retrospective Faciltators' Gatherings (Norm, Esther Derby, Linda Rising, and me, 2002), all still continuing and having touched many people in the Agile community over the years. What is now the Agile 20xx conferences have had an open space/open jam component since the beginning. As well as John Engle's, Harrison's, & Suzanne's involvement with a variety of Agile conferences. Coming to a Scrum Gathering in Boulder straight from having attended the US-OS on OS in San Antonio TX in 2005(?), I opened the first open space for Scrum (that I know of). Michael opened space at the XP/Agile Universe conference ten years ago and showed everyone there what self-organizing could look like in the moment. (I was there, thank you Michael.) 

All of which has made fertile ground for Dan's advocacy to take hold in the Agile community. We all stand on the shoulders of giants. Dan may be the most vocal advocate at the moment (and I applaud his visibility), but I wouldn't say he's the most potent advocate. Agile and Open Space have a long, rich and entwined history together. 

Some of us have been quietly applying Open Space principles in our Agile adoption work for many years. We haven't codified it or named it, but it's been a central part of what we do. Charlie Poole and others have opened space in organizations as a way of introducing, modeling, and applying Agile and self-organization. 

The theoretical basis of Carse's _Finite and Infinite Games_ underlies much of the thinking in Human Systems Dynamics as well. The idea that the degree to which a system is open or closed, multi-dimensional or single dimensional, non-linear or linear gives us clues about the patterns that may fit the purpose or not, and whether we'd like to shift those patterns or not. Alistair Cockburn used Carse's model to think about competitive and cooperative games, and proposed the idea that software development would do well to think more in terms of cooperation among stakeholders. It's one of the reasons I was drawn into the Agile space. 

Some in the Agile community have embraced this idea of games as metaphor, games/play as learning tool, but they often do not incorporate (are not aware of?) the deeper meanings from Carse and Cockburn and the complexity sciences. They do it because it's more fun. And that's okay too. 

It may or may not be a metaphor, explanation or tool that works for the Open Space community. 

Gratitude for your patience with my rambling, 
Diana

**************
Diana Larsen
http://futureworksconsulting.com

Envisioning a world where everyone at every level of the organization can say, "I love my work; this is the best job EVER!"

Read the books: 
Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great 
Liftoff: Launching Agile Teams and Projects 
QuickStart Guide to Five Rules of Accelerated Learning https://leanpub.com/fiverules
********************

On Oct 9, 2013, at 1:08 PM, Harold Shinsato wrote:

> Hi Michael,
> 
> No fun to hear I'm failing - but it hasn't stopped me before. Try and try again (even if it takes years).
> 
> I'm not saying OST *is* a game. I'm not saying OST is anything.
> 
> What I see is that there is value in the metaphor of OST as a game.
> 
> So Dan is already speaking about OST as a game to Agile circles and making some good cheese with it. And maybe the Agile community has a bit of a leg up on us here because Alistair Cockburn used the game metaphor in his first book in the 1990's about this. And Alistair is one of the signatories of the Agile Manifesto that started the whole "Agile" (with capital letter) conversation. But Alistair wasn't talking specifically about software as in an obscure coding thing thing that will make everyone's eyes glaze over. He was speaking about a different way to look at work and at teams.
> 
> So I've been in the Agile conversation for over a decade. And it's not always been fun. Much of it has been butting up against minds that were very shut, and it's still not an uncommon experience for advocates to run into a wall. And maybe this might not seem relevant here, but much of that "Agile" conversation has been about people. People people people. It's even a frequent complaint I hear for the techies, because a minority who show up at conferences are only interested in the coding aspect. But they're the minority. The first line of the Agile Manifesto - "Individuals and interactions over processes and tools."
> 
> Yes - I do live in that world of code. But I also live in this world of Open Space, improving human dynamics in teams, OD type stuff etc. And often times having a foot in both worlds causes cognitive dissonance because not too many are comfortable in this lonely between space. Finding language to bring together the contasting perspectives can be difficult.
> 
> But living in both worlds - I see so much in common. I see so much common ground. I see so many ways that the Agile crowd can help the OST/OD crowd, and most certainly visa versa.
> 
> The thing is - the Agile universe is already embracing Open Space in a huge way. And not always with the direct help and support and understanding of the folks here. Which is not always a good thing.
> 
> One last thing - the Agile community is not homogeneous. There are many innovations that cause controversy and big huge disruptions. I'm seeing some of Dan's work in this community as being potentially hugely powerful and disrupting - and in a large way due to his being the most potent advocate of Open Space in Agile today. And this game perspective is part of how he got there.
> 
> I'm not fully there and understanding his metaphor of OST as a game - and it looks like I'll need to converse with him outside this forum to fully get it. I guess I was hoping for a warmer reception from the voices of authority and seniority on this list. But at least, having attended WOSonOS in Florida and knowing some of what is happening in the Open Space world because of being part of the Open Space Institute/U.S. - I do know that many of us are catching more of the agile mojo and that it will continue to mature.
> 
> Well, anyway - not sure I just helped you Michael but thanks for giving me an excuse to rant. :-)
> 
>     Cheers,
>     Harold
> 
> 
> 
> On 10/9/13 11:58 AM, Michael Herman wrote:
>> Not sure you actually accomlished "Against," Harold.  I think I just read OST is life, a finite slice of Life.  
>> 
>> And if the conversation happens in a room full of people who think and talk about games, that's great to say OST is a game cuz everyone in that room or community knows what that means. Probably doesn't work as well on CNN or at an ODN mtg. 
>> 
>> I guess it still a bit confusing to me if this conversation is about how to talk OST in agile community or how to talk OST in other/larger communities. Translation is always possible, but the game lingo doesn't seem native to the folks I'm usually talking with. Actually, finding some native understanding of (and native language for) OS seems like half the game in many instances. 
>> 
>> m
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Wednesday, October 9, 2013, Harold Shinsato wrote:
>> 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
>> 
>> 
>> -- 
>> Michael Herman
>> MichaelHerman.com
>> (312) 280-7838
>> Sent from my iPhone
>> 
>> 
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> 
> 
> -- 
> Harold Shinsato
> harold at shinsato.com
> http://shinsato.com
> twitter: @hajush
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