[OSList] Genuinely open Agile adoptions

Wed Sep 4 15:42:22 PDT 2013

Harold - Totally brilliant! The words could never have been mine (thank God)
and you have so neatly captured the moment. Well done!! But one small point.
You said, "Perhaps Open Space Technology came out of Organizational
Development (and Organizational Transformation)." Open Space didn't come
"out of" any of the above. Two martinis: pure and simple. Actually, OS
didn't come out of 2 Martinis - it was already there. But I needed 2
Martinis to allow myself to experience a blinding flash of the obvious. Some
people are a little slow!

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: oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org
[mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of Harold Shinsato
Sent: Wednesday, September 04, 2013 6:24 PM
To: World wide Open Space Technology email list
Subject: Re: [OSList] Genuinely open Agile adoptions

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> 

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