[OSList] Inviting non-invitation

Tue Sep 1 08:22:45 PDT 2015

This debate happens in the world of agile also. Specifically when we talk
about Extreme Programming over Scrum. Should a team be told to do the
Extreme Programming practices or do we invite them to try them is a debate
that rages again and again. (Extreme programming is a very disciplined way
of developing software while scrum prescribes no disciplines.)

The challenge with Extreme Programming is that the practices are counter
intuitive and many will find them distasteful. E.g. why do I have to pair
program with a junior developer? That will slow me down and we will get
less work done.

I don't claim to have an answer to force vs. invite but I can share my
story on how I came to love Extreme Programming (XP).

XP was forced on my dev team. We were given a new dev manager who said we
are going to do XP. If you didn't like it you can use the law of two feet
to leave the company. (Not those words exactly but I'm sure you get the
drift.) Now I loved the team I was with, the place I worked and the work we
were doing but absolutely hated XP. But I promised to give it six months
and if the team had not decided that XP was a load of rubbish and were
still doing it after 6 months I will leave and find another job where
sanity still rained. I hated everything about XP and agile and it took me
way out of my comfort zone as a software developer. But then somewhere
during the six months the sense of it started to dawn on me and I actually
started enjoying it. By the end of six months I was a fan and am now an
evangelist for XP. I like finding the haters and assure them it's OK to
hate XP. When they get it, they become the biggest advocates.

So was it wrong to have XP forced on me? I will leave that up to you to
decide. I often wonder if I would have ever come around to agile and
especially XP if it had not been forced on me.

An analogy I have to learning XP is learning downhill skiing. There is a
point where you have to do the unintuitive and lean down the slope. Your
body is screaming NO but your ski instructor is telling you that is how you
do it. Turns out he is right but you have to get through that disbelief and
discomfort to get to the other side. OK that is forcing myself after he
invited me to try it - so maybe there needs to be a little of both?

Ron Quartel
FAST Agile <http://fast-agile.com> - An agile software process
incorporating Open Space Technology

On Mon, Aug 31, 2015 at 1:40 PM, Daniel Mezick via OSList <
oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:

> "Is it accurate to say that some self organizing happens by invitation and
> some happens by coercion/force? "
>
>
> Great question Lucas!
>
>
> The [invitation] wall-poster you suggest feels wall-worthy to me, so long
> as no one is obligated to examine it... or even look at it.
>
>
> My turn to ask a question: What might a world "void of manipulation" and
> "replete with invitation" actually look like?
>
>
> Daniel
>
>
>
> On 8/31/15 9:57 AM, Lucas Cioffi via OSList wrote:
>
> Hi All,
>
> Is it accurate to say that some self organizing happens by invitation and
> some happens by coercion/force?
>
> For example, from the perspective of someone who lives outside of Iraq,
> the way the Ba'ath Party took charge of Iraq through a coup seems like an
> example of self-organizing by force to us, because we're outside the system
> of Iraq.  I welcome some thoughts on this.
>
> Over the past few months (and working with Michael Herman for VOSonOS)
> I've seen that the spirit of invitation shouldn't end with the writing of
> the invitation, and instead it should be present throughout the open
> space.  When someone posts a topic on the marketplace wall, they are
> inviting others to a conversation, not taking over a time slot (like having
> a coup and taking over a small country).
>
> When someone wants to be a "dictator" of their open space session, yes
> others can use their two feet and walk out, but that comes at a cost to the
> social fabric of the organization.  A better outcome would be that the
> would-be dictator holds a welcoming space from the start.  So I'd recommend
> that another sign worth posting on the wall near "Law of Two Feet" would be
> "Spirit of Invitation".  I think it's wall-worthy, do you?
>
> Lucas Cioffi
> Founder, QiqoChat.com <http://qiqochat.com/>
> Charlottesville, VA
> Mobile: 917-528-1831
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, Aug 31, 2015 at 5:07 AM, Paul Levy via OSList <
> <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:
>
>> I think the clue lies in the wonderful word "self".
>>
>> We are the selves that organise.
>>
>> Beautiful.
>>
>
>
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