[OSList] Open Space with Agile: Failure patterns

Daniel Mezick dan at newtechusa.net
Thu Sep 19 08:25:48 PDT 2013


Greetings to you,

In Paris this week at the Global Scrum Gathering I plan to issue certain 
warning about specific failure patterns I have experienced when working 
with Open Space inside Agile adoptions. I can tell you right now that 
Open Space by itself is not a panacea for the complex problems 
associated with Agile adoption.

Agile is actually a cover story about the wider act of bringing culture 
change (a new and unfamiliar game) to an enterprise situation (the old 
story we all want to cling to). The SPIRIT book pretty much spells out 
the problem.

I've learned that there are actually more ways to fail with Open Space 
in Agile adoptions than there are ways to succeed. There are many ways 
to stumble when trying this. I'll be enumerating some of these subtle 
Agile-related pitfalls and traps in the Paris keynote on Tuesday, and in 
upcoming blog posts. Simply holding one or more canonical Open Space 
meetings (with full pre-planning and post processing) is not enough to 
neutralize the forces that oppose healthy and well Agile adoptions. The 
game mechanics, storytelling and passage-rite-structure elements must be 
present and robust for Open Space to be an effective tool in Agile 
adoptions. Open Space and these elements are composed in harmony with 
each other in the Open Agile Adoption technique.

If you offer training in Open Space for Facilitators and/or Sponsors, I 
invite you to send me your links and I will make sure they are added to 
the list of resources I am beginning to compile at 
OpenAgileAdoption.com. I plan to list in the Paris slides some specific 
French-language OST course offerings from French-speaking instructors 
located in Europe, and Quebec.

Kind Regards,
Dan

-- 

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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