[OSList] Inviting non-invitation

Wed Sep 2 10:06:04 PDT 2015

you remind me of the christopher alexander, "nature of order" work/books,
chris.  life comes from life.  we need to be space to open more space.

--

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

On Wed, Sep 2, 2015 at 11:50 AM, Chris Corrigan via OSList <
oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:

> I'm not sure cosmology agrees with your premise Harrison. I think it's
> more like spacetime is finite but ever expanding.
>
> What has my attention these days is the dynamic that in this universe
> everything comes for inside itself: it unfolds, within a constrained finite
> context.
>
> I other words, an apple seed is indeed a constrained and finite thing, but
> out of it unfolds the entire potentially infinite future of apple trees.
>
> Chris
>
> --
> CHRIS CORRIGAN
> Harvest Moon Consultants
> Facilitation, Open Space Technology and process design
>
> Check www.chriscorrigan.com for upcoming workshops, blog posts and free
> resources.
>
>
>
> On Sep 1, 2015, at 2:58 PM, Harrison via OSList <
> oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:
>
> Here’s a thought... Space/time is infinite, defined by our minds, and
> limited by our imagination. So “constraints” are only what you make them
> out to be. AND... it is always nice to have as much “space/time” as
> possible. A “genuine invitation” creates a LOT of space/time.
>
>
>
> Ho
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> *From:* OSList [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org
> <oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org>] *On Behalf Of *Michael Herman
> via OSList
> *Sent:* Tuesday, September 01, 2015 1:15 PM
> *To:* Chris Corrigan; World wide Open Space Technology email list
> *Subject:* Re: [OSList] Inviting non-invitation
>
>
>
> People who write sonnets accept constraints.  monks and nuns accept
> constraints.  Musicians accept constraints.  Athletes accept constraints.
> People who live on islands accept constraints.  The idea here is that in
> accepting sometimes extremely limiting constraints, you are forced to go
> deeper in your work.  AS a manager if you also offer invitations into a
> constrained space, you may indeed create the conditions for some amazing
> things to happen.  “You have $3000 to work with on your prototype, but you
> have to work with two other people and get it done in two days.  Do you
> accept this invitation?  OK! Go!”
>
>
>
> yes!  and there is the chance to notice that there can be a difference
> between a manager imposing random constraints versus clearly articulating
> and/or translating the constraints that ARE already existing in the
> environment.  there is also the possibility for managers to overreact in
> the transmitting of environment to system, to editorialize and use outside
> forces as excuses for imposing constraints.  people can opt in to
> constraints that are randomly or otherwise badly articulated, but i think
> the ideal to strive for is the very cleanest transmission of the bigger
> picture environmental constraints.  the practice of invitation is a kind of
> search for truth(s) about what is.
>
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> Michael Herman
> Michael Herman Associates
> http://MichaelHerman.com
> http://OpenSpaceWorld.org
>
>
>
> On Tue, Sep 1, 2015 at 12:03 PM, Chris Corrigan via OSList <
> oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:
>
> My pithy statement about how self-organization works was not meant to be a
> tossed off reduction, but rather it has important consequences for managing.
>
>
>
> Enabling constraints can indeed be very rigid.  And in accepting the
> invitation to step into that container, one can make a conscious choice to
> confront the stress and see what comes of it.  Deadlines, limited
> resources, restrictive mandates, policies and procedures are all
> constraints that are “forced’ upon people at work.  As a manager you can
> always frame these as an invitation: “your mission, should you choose to
> accept it, is…”  As a participant you can choose to accept it. Or not.
>
>
>
> People who write sonnets accept constraints.  monks and nuns accept
> constraints.  Musicians accept constraints.  Athletes accept constraints.
> People who live on islands accept constraints.  The idea here is that in
> accepting sometimes extremely limiting constraints, you are forced to go
> deeper in your work.  AS a manager if you also offer invitations into a
> constrained space, you may indeed create the conditions for some amazing
> things to happen.  “You have $3000 to work with on your prototype, but you
> have to work with two other people and get it done in two days.  Do you
> accept this invitation?  OK! Go!”
>
>
>
> The truly magnificent Open Space gatherings I have been a part of in my
> life have had a clear set of constraints (sometimes rigid and narrow,
> sometimes broad but still defined, as in “we are talking about anything you
> want, but if if you want to stop doing social services and start building
> Volvos, that isn’t going to make it into the plan…”) and a clear
> invitation.  Good invitations are both attractors AND boundaries.  They
> require intention to accept them; buy-in, if you will.  Peter Block says
> that a good invitation contains a barrier…people have to work to accept
> it.  They have to prioritize it to participate.  When those conditions are
> in place, “Whoever comes are the right people” loses all of its sometimes
> fatalistic tone: we don’t merely accept folks with a shrug and a “I guess
> this is the best we could do.”  Instead we see participants as folks who
> have decided to give something up in order to be there.  And that sharpens
> our attention to one another, creates the conditions for mutual respect and
> engagement, and gives creative and powerful conversations a real chance.
>
>
>
> By contrast imposing an invitation and constraints on people rarely
> works.  An invitation that uses a sexy door prize with a genuine attractor
> is a bribe: “come to this conversation you don’t want to have and win an
> iPad!".  And invitation that forces people to show up because “that’s what
> I’m paying you for” is coercion.
>
>
>
> When Michael Herman and I did trainings years ago, the training guide he
> put together had this Kurt Hahn quote on the cover: "There are three ways
> of trying to win the young. There is persuasion. There is compulsion and
> there is attraction. You can preach at them; that is a hook without a worm.
> You can say "you must volunteer." That is the devil. And you can tell them,
> "you are needed" that hardly ever fails.”  This is good advice.
>
>
>
> It’s easy, when your system is already command and control, to end up
> doing things like badly.  The art of invitation IS the art of Open Space.
> It’s a good practice to learn.
>
>
>
> Chris
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sep 1, 2015, at 9:19 AM, Daniel Mezick via OSList <
> oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:
>
>
>
> Ron,
>
> So interesting:
>
> You wrote one thing below, and that said, I know you mean you'd *stay* if
> it actually worked:
>
> "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. "
>
>
>
> Freedom
> -------
>
> The key is freedom. The key (I think) is that YOUR commitment was to an
> "experiment for 6 months", not "a forced march until further notice" ....
> at least in *your* mind. In your mind you were (and are) *free*...to
> "Law-of-2-Feet it" out of there !
>
> And so this is some small part of the (freedom) key: make a ....
>
>
>
>    - "a commitment to experiment" and then to
>    - "inspect results" and then
>    - "throw away what is not working" and
>    - "keep doing what is working and do more of that" and
>    - "do more experiments."
>
>
> In other words, to actually implement Agile ideas in an Agile way.
>
>
>
>
> "Until Further Notice"
> -----------------
>
> Last time I checked, typical Agile adoptions are of the forced-march,
> "until further notice" variety. Hello?
>
> Let's see: If the "until further notice" style of Agile adoption actually
> worked, then (in theory at least) we could now joyfully point to tens of
> thousands of verifiable, happy, healthy, whole, genuine, authentic,
> high-engagement Agile adoptions. Right? It would so be easy to locate ten
> thousand of them...if it actually worked in the long run....
>
> Houston...we have a problem?
>
>
>
> Committing to Emergence  (aka "experimentation and adaptation")
> --------------------------------------------------------
>
> Commit to *an experiment to be inspected*. So simple. Even joyful!
> Ironically, this IS the Agile mindset, but ... *not to be used when
> actually implementing Agile in large organizations* apparently !
>
> Is self-organization what actually scales? If so, why are we using any
> other approach?
>
>
> The alternative-- a mandated and forced march to process change-- is
> standard, and often the source of many sorrows.
>
> I really, really , REALLY like using Open Space in new Agile adoptions.
> Because it actually works. And also like using Open Space in  troubled
> Agile adoptions, of which I notice, there seems to be no shortage of supply.
>
> The good news is, we are getting the [invitation] meme out there into the
> Agile world. We invite everyone to give it a try !
>
>
> (If you like this rant, you may also enjoy:
> http://www.openspaceagility.com/about)
>
>
> Daniel
>
> PS Ron, nice suit !
>
>
>
>
> On 9/1/15 11:22 AM, Ron Quartel 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> 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
>
> New Technology Solutions Inc.
>
> (203) 915 7248 (cell)
>
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>
>
> --
>
> 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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