[OSList] On Liminality in Agile Organizations

[Harold Shinsato]

Not meaning to be snarky. Only checking your intentions with the huge 
fonts. We you trying to generate liminality?

The topic fascinates me. It just strikes me what you say about 
continuous improvements creating a liminal or threshold state. We're not 
just talking about everyday learning here, we're often talking about 
unlearning and complete collapse of understanding before new ways of 
looking at things can be embraced. Agile does seem to have a lot of 
that. And not everyone is comfortable in that space. Whereas most OST 
folks I know love that space.

I'm reminded of the work of Thomas Kuhn and paradigms and revolutions in 
science. I've heard tell that in many fields the old guard has to die 
before people can expect things to really change. But things are 
changing too fast now to be able to wait for the old guard to kick the 
bucket. And often times, we ourselves end up being the old guard after 
being the revolutionaries only a few years (or days!) previously.

This really is in sync with Harrison Owen's description of grief work in 
Wave Rider, one of my favorites of his books, and why OST has been so 
relevant. We're really invited to die and die again, but without dying, 
so that we can learn new things. But the same grief process seems to get 
invoked, even if we don't actually die.

What does the research and thinking around liminality say about griefwork?

     Harold

On 10/11/13 8:14 AM, Daniel Mezick wrote:
 > In the book SPIRIT, author Harrison Owen says plainly and profoundly:
 >
 >
 >
 > "The old ways are passing, and the new ones are yet to arrive. We are 
in the Open Space, between what was and what might become."
 >
 >
 >
 > This is describing a threshold state:
 >
 > the "liminal" state, which is
 >
 > the "in-between",
 >
 > the "not-here",
 >
 > the "not-there"....the "no-mans-land."
 >
 >
 >
 > We are liminal when we do Agile for real. And because there is no end 
to improvement in Agile, the dangers (and the opportunities) of the 
liminal state are always present. This is a perfect spot for a passage 
rite...one based on Open Space, leadership storytelling and more.
 >
 >
 >
 > Agile creates stressful liminality. The Open Agile Adoption technique 
recognizes what is happening, says "OK" to that, and addresses the issue 
by bringing in a useful passage rite, one designed to handle the 
liminality...a passage rite that incorporates Open Space.
 >
 >
 > Now the stress of liminality is reduced, leading to better 
outcomes...in the Open Space.
 >


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