[OSList] Open Agile Adoption: wait, it gets better

Harold Shinsato via OSList oslist at lists.openspacetech.org
Fri Oct 31 13:49:00 PDT 2014


After attending Daniel Mezick's inaugural (and excellent) Open Agile 
Adoption (OAA) workshop, I got to drive just a couple hours to a beach 
in North Carolina. As I walked my head was swimming with how powerful 
Open Space can be, how much the Agile space is at this tipping point for 
realizing how forced Agile is just not working, and just can't work, and 
that OST can be a crucial ingredient, used effectively, in getting high 
engagement and a successful agile adoption.

At Carolina Beach where I walked for miles and even got to swim, I 
watched dolphins and sting rays leap as I walked under the high fishing 
lines of hundreds of people with lines reaching high above me into the 
waters. Many storks and sea birds made dive bombing runs into the waves. 
Very fertile waters!

I'm very excited about Prime-OS as to how it applies to engaging a 
client in Montana that are already sold on an Open Space. Unfortunately 
the IT centric leadership are more aware of unconferencing than of OST, 
and they're also ambivalent about Agile because of the frequent lukewarm 
or failed Agile adoptions at other enterprises.

When Daniel unfurled the Prime-OS idea it was especially exciting - 
because the wisdom of Open Space goes well beyond any specific idea of 
how to improve the workplace - either Lean, Agile, Kanban, or what have 
you. OAA and Prime-OS fits so well with open space philosophy in letting 
the attendees figure it out. And since Prime-OS is using open source 
licensing, it's free to use, but illegal to derive works without giving 
attribution so people will always know where it comes from. And when 
OAA/Prime-OS infuses through the Agile community and beyond, it will 
help everyone know that OST is the true source of Unconferencing so they 
can benefit from the wisdom of Harrison Owen and this magnificent OSLIST 
community of practice.

I hope folks take a little time to investigate and be ready to fish the 
fertile waters!

     Regards,
     Harold

On 10/29/14 7:43 PM, Daniel Mezick via OSList wrote:
> Hi Suzanne,
>
> Thank you for your kind and encouraging response to these videos. It 
> means a lot.
>
> We presented the course "Agile Success with Open Agile Adoption" at 
> the Scrum Retreat in Raleigh NC on 10/27-28, sponsored and arranged by 
> the Scrum Alliance. This event offered a huge opportunity to bring OAA 
> with Open Space to the attention of about 85 external and internal 
> Agile coaches. These are influential connectors who collectively touch 
> thousands of people as they do their work. I printed 100 copies of the 
> Open Agile Adoption Handbook, and gifted every single attendee with a 
> copy.
>
> It is important to note at this time your observation, Suzanne:
>
> /"...introducing Agile in an Agile Open way is far better than 
> mandating it.  The same would apply to all change management 
> approaches outside of Scrum and Agile. "/
>
>
> YES, and, so interesting: others in the USA and Europe have made the 
> very same observation. Coaches in Europe are using the OAA approach to 
> introduce non-Agile process change. And early reports indicate it is 
> working great. The OAA approach is broadly applicable, as the 
> 'introducer' of any kind of process change.
>
> In light of the foregoing, the following developments are well underway:
>
> 1. The core structure (begin in Open Space, experimentation with 
> new-process for 3++ months, then another Open Space to terminate a 
> passage rite structure) has been isolated as a base class or 
> foundation, called Prime/OS. This is now being published under an open 
> source license, with all that open-source licensing implies. I have 
> spoken about this here, in some detail, earlier. The core idea is 
> found here: 
> http://newtechusa.net/agile/culture-technology-wants-to-be-free/
>
> 2. OAA is built on top of Prime/OS and is in fact a derivative work. 
> As such, OAA is also being published under an open source license, per 
> the rules of the Prime/OS license. You can see that here: 
> www.prime-os.com. What this means is that innovators are strongly 
> encouraged to innovate, using Prime/OS as a foundation. Also to modify 
> it and thus to improve it. OAA is an instance of an application that 
> inherits Prime/OS as a basic foundation. The "OS" in Prime/OS stands 
> for Open Space and Open Source.
>
> 3. Others who wish to create innovative derivative works like OAA are 
> strongly encouraged to do so. As such they are first required to honor 
> the terms of the Prime/OS open source license, or opt-out. Details on 
> open source licensing here: 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_license
>
> 4. There are others with substantial "culture tech" that will soon be 
> announcing availability of their work under open source licensing. 
> This is an emerging movement, and is not a flash in the pan. "Culture 
> technology wants to be free."
>
>
>
> It is important to understand that the opt-in invitational approach, 
> inspired by Open Space (with the goal being learning via 
> experimentation, with the only constraint being the 12 principles of 
> the Agile Manifesto) is considered a heresy by the mainstream of the 
> Agile movement. Repeat, this is considered heresy, as in "it cant 
> work. It will not sell."
>
> Really?
>
>
> The "mainstreaming" of mandated Agile practices and forced-Agile 
> adoptions and related Agile coaching is a huge industry now. There are 
> lots of transactions and very few genuine transformations at scale. 
> Yet the top-down mandate is easily generating at least $US 100MM per 
> annum. I know of 2 outfits that are generating over 20MM each. This 
> 100MM number is quite conservative.
>
>
>
> One consequence of OAA is that new demand for OST facilitation is 
> being generated. The OAA method guides coaches to avoid the OST 
> Facilitator role completely, in service to the org's overall learning. 
> The guidance is to bring a skilled Facilitator in, instead. Coaches 
> become "members of the family" and as such probably cannot be 
> effective in the OST facilitator role. Since a typical OAA 
> implementaton includes at least 3 OST events, the arithmetic is very 
> simple: 1000 OAA implementations worldwide per year implies 3000 or 
> more OST events inside organizations. OAA's guidance to coaches is to 
> bring a new Facilitator into each event. This translates into much 
> higher demand for skilled OST Facilitator services.
>
> It appears the Agile coaching community is about to tip, away from 
> mandates and towards invitations. At the Scrum Coaching Retreat, I 
> have found a core group of about 20 of the 80 attending who totally, 
> totally get this and are making moves. The rest are getting introduced 
> to the concepts via the book.
>
> This story is emerging, and the early adopters who bring this forward 
> are writing it. It's these coaches from the Scrum Retreat and others 
> who are IN. They are the emerging /authors/ of the story and also the 
> emerging /characters/ in the story.
>
>
>
> The next thing to happen is the publication of many short testimonial 
> videos along the lines of the 2 I have posted today. These will be 
> posted as public YouTube videos that anyone anywhere can embed in 
> their blogs and web pages.
>
> These are some exciting times we live in.
>
> Regards,
> Daniel
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 10/29/14 7:20 PM, Suzanne Daigle wrote:
>> Dan,
>>
>> No questions on "what the heck" you are doing just unabashed kudos on 
>> these very compelling videos. A great gift!  Why was I so hooked?  
>> Because of the seriousness of the discussions, the level of detail 
>> shared which demonstrates unequivocally the value and impact of Open 
>> Space to the work at hand. I also appreciated the comments around the 
>> difficulties of adjusting to the level of autonomy and freedom that 
>> is such a contrast to how organizations traditionally operate. You 
>> opened the space beautifully in the interviews which made it very 
>> safe for the interviewees to share so honestly and openly.
>>
>> These videos also make the point in ways that words and assertions 
>> may not do as well, that introducing Agile in an Agile Open way is 
>> far better than mandating it.  The same would apply to all change 
>> management approaches outside of Scrum and Agile.
>> I was also so pleased to hear how what Agile was doing was also being 
>> felt by other areas (engineering I think is what one of the 
>> interviewees quoted).  I guess it is time for me to say: glad you've 
>> stuck to your guns. You were right which I never doubted though you 
>> also know how passionate I am introducing Open Space to other parts 
>> of the organization. Your work will indeed pave the way. Bravo!
>>
>> Giving you full credit, do I have your permission to share these with 
>> clients?  I look forward to seeing the other videos.
>>
>> Thanks again Dan.  So very very cool!
>>
>> On Wed, Oct 29, 2014 at 5:18 PM, Daniel Mezick via OSList 
>> <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org 
>> <mailto:oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>> wrote:
>>
>>     Here are two short videos of people telling the tale of Open
>>     Agile Adoption in their own words.
>>
>>     The Open Agile Adoption process
>>     (http://www.OpenAgileAdoption.com) begins and ends in Open Space.
>>     In between, people /*play*/...er, I mean /experiment/...with
>>     Agile practices. For 3 or 4 months.
>>
>>     They are free.
>>
>>     However, the game does have one small constraint: the Agile
>>     Manifesto. So long as what they are doing does not obviously
>>     conflict with the Agile Manifesto principles, they are absolutely
>>     free to try absolutely any new practice they want to try, in
>>     service to continuous improvement.
>>
>>
>>     Video #1: Length 13 minutes.
>>     A UX/Experience Design pro explains his skepticism and ultimate
>>     shift... powered by Open Space.
>>     https://twitter.com/DanielMezick/status/527506795968069632
>>
>>     Video #2: Length 15 minutes.
>>     A Product person explains what he thinks and feels before and
>>     after the Open Agile Adoption process.
>>     https://twitter.com/DanielMezick/status/527566037211176960
>>
>>     Dozens more videos are on the way.
>>
>>     I hope you find these 2 initial narratives interesting, and I
>>     welcome your questions about what the heck I am doing.
>>
>>     Regards,
>>     Daniel
>>
>>     New to the Manifesto? Here it is:
>>     http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html
>>
>>
>>     -- 
>>
>>     Daniel Mezick, President
>>
>>     New Technology Solutions Inc.
>>
>>     (203) 915 7248 <tel:%28203%29%20915%207248> (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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>>
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> Suzanne Daigle
>> Open Space Facilitator
>> NuFocus Strategic Group
>>
>> FL 941-359-8877941-359-8877
>> Cell: 203-722-2009203-722-2009
>> www.nufocusgroup.com <http://www.nufocusgroup.com>
>> s.daigle at nufocusgroup.com <mailto:s.daigle at nufocusgroup.com>
>> twitter @Daiglesuz
>> Call
>> Send SMS
>> Add to Skype
>> You'll need Skype CreditFree via Skype
>
> -- 
>
> 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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-- 
Harold Shinsato
harold at shinsato.com <mailto:harold at shinsato.com>
http://shinsato.com
twitter: @hajush <http://twitter.com/hajush>
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