[OSList] Inviting non-invitation

Tue Sep 1 09:03:56 PDT 2015

it occurs to me that one difference between what we're calling force or
imposition or non-invitation on the one hand and invitation on the other,
might be the number of people in whose interest an actor is working.  even
the "bad" guys named we working in more than their own personal self
interest, were passionate about something and took responsibility for it,
but maybe they were working for too small a group.  or they were working
too hard, overestimating what they knew about the interests of others.

in every single act, from pouring a cup of tea to arising at the edge of
the circle to post an issue on up to taking over a country, there is some
desire as an individual to have some effect on the environment which
includes a number of other people.  more and less impact, yes.  more or
fewer people, yes.  more direct and indirect effects, yes.  but always we
are changing the environment.  there is also a need to be listening to the
environment, letting it change us.  in this way, non-invitation is action
that refuses to listen.

this reminds me of the tibetan teacher's story about sitting on the top of
a hill at night, taking in the whole vastness of the night sky and still
being able to hear the dog barking at the house at the bottom of the hill.
 these different awarenesses are sometimes called big mind and small mind,
non-local and local.  the teaching is that big mind isn't better than small
mind, it's the going back and forth that strengthens us.

i think it is the same with passion and responsibility, action and
invitation, self-interest and others-interest, learning and contributing,
and so on... it's the going back and forth that strengthens us... as we
learn to do both at the same time, like when we ask a question for learning
that changes the direction of the conversation and people say afterward
"this question was a great contribution to our progress."

it seems what the aikido teaching points to is similar in the sense of not
opposing, but not surrendering either.

--

Michael Herman
Michael Herman Associates
http://MichaelHerman.com
http://OpenSpaceWorld.org

On Tue, Sep 1, 2015 at 10:22 AM, Ron Quartel via OSList <
oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:

> 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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>> --
>>
>> Daniel Mezick, President
>>
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>>
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