[OSList] Open Agile Adoption experience report

Tue Aug 5 20:18:35 PDT 2014

Yes, great story, Daniel!

One of the ways that my experiences with OST have profoundly influenced me,
is in making very apparent, the futility and sheer madness of attempting to
"get everyone to agree" to anything...

One place where I often find people still deluded into thinking that it's
"how many" that matters,
is in some old-style social change circles… it's amazing how much energy
can be freed up, when people
are willing to reconsider the assumption of needing to come up with "a
single action" that everyone will subscribe to…
and instead begin to open to the possibility of having a multiplicity of
actions emerge.

The old idea of "strength in numbers" can be a hard one for people to let
go of.. and yet there can be so much more power in small committed groups
of people following their own inspiration… especially when there is
reasonable communication among them.

On Mon, Aug 4, 2014 at 6:01 PM, Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net> wrote:

> Wonderful story, and marvelous lesson: It is never about “how many” – but
> always about “Who cares, and how much.” Those who care ALWAYS make the
> difference. I think. Have fun!
>
>
>
> Harrison
>
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> *From:* OSList [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] *On Behalf
> Of *Daniel Mezick
> *Sent:* Monday, August 04, 2014 4:50 PM
> *To:* oslist at lists.openspacetech.org
> *Subject:* [OSList] Open Agile Adoption experience report
>
>
>
> As some of you may know, ASCAP (The American Society of Composers Authors
> and Publishers) recently won the coveted CIO100 award from CIO MAGAZINE.
>
>
> You can learn more about that here:
>
>
>
> http://www.ascap.com/press/2014/0610-ascap-to-receive-cio-100-award.aspx
>
>
>
> ASCAP is an organization that uses Open Agile Adoption with Open Space.
> They are one of the 1st to stick their necks out, and avoid mandates, and
> try the self-organized approach to figuring out what Agile adoption might
> actually mean to their organization.
>
>
>
> When we did the 2nd Open Space (“OST2”) at ASCAP, the event was not as
> well attended, and had a smaller closing circle than the 1st OAA Open
> Space or “OST1”.
>
>
> At the time, I felt like we failed. However, a couple of interesting
> patterns emerged:
>
>
>
> ·      The people who participated all the way to the closing circle were
> full of passion and responsibility
>
> ·      Those same people were the people who took the whole Agile
> adoption forward from there !
>
>
>
> Imagine my astonishment as ASCAP completed their mission-critical task of
> delivering a new business operating system- the system that pays royalties
> to hundreds of thousands of members. AND they got this done at a time when
> the business was under tremendous pressure to perform. Furthermore they got
> this done using agile ideas inside a 100-year-old-culture that was highly
> resistant to change.
>
>
>
> What looked like a total failure in the closing Open Space was actually
> the beginning of very significant culture change inside the company.
>
>
>
>
>
> The next client to use OAA was a progressive, FORTUNE Top-20 employer, a
> software company. You would think they would NOT have a 2nd Open Space
> that was less attended than the 1st, but they did. I recognized the
> pattern again—the really passionate and responsible people were there, in
> the closing circle. Furthermore, while the numbers of people were down, the
> level of intensity was way UP—one participant remarking in the closing
> circle said “I don’t understand why the whole company isn’t here right now.
> We are making tremendous improvements!”
>
>
>
> Moral of Story: If you use Open Agile Adoption, expect the 2nd Open Space
> (about 3 to 4 months later) to have lower attendance. This is a normal
> pattern. The people who are present in the closing circle are your new
> leaders- the people who are going to carry the culture change forward.
>
>
>
> I welcome your questions as you ponder the futility of mandates (and the
> power of invitation) in your own work with organizations that are working
> hard to improve their culture-- and their results.
>
>
>
> --
>
> 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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