[OSList] Inviting non-invitation
Daniel Mezick via OSList
oslist at lists.openspacetech.org
Tue Sep 8 05:37:16 PDT 2015
A master chef and a new cook were discussing soup inside the expansive
kitchen of a rather comfortable prison. "Soup is interesting," said the
apprentice. "Everyone likes a good and hearty soup." While they chopped
the various ingredients, the subject of spice came up. "I like a spicy
soup," said the apprentice. The master nodded knowingly as the
apprentice enthusiastically added various spices to the broth. Soon,
they finished cooking. As the soup cooled, the master chef placed it
carefully in the refrigerator.
The next morning, the soup was reheated, and each tasted it. "This soup
is not spicy enough!" said the apprentice, studying the master for some
kind of reaction. "It needs something extra." The apprentice proceeded
to add all manner of spices.
The soup was served that day. Only a few of the inmates consumed the
soup, and many complained bitterly about it among themselves.
In the weeks that followed, only a few of the 235 prison inmates tried
any kind of soup that was offered to them.
"Why are the all the inmates avoiding our soups?", asked the apprentice.
"I notice that your soup is eaten only by those with no other choice,
and they do not finish it," said the Master.
On 9/4/15 2:48 AM, gerardo de luzenberger via OSList wrote:
> An invitation is "an invitation" if and only if you can refuse it.
> This is the core of it's relation with things like boundaries,
> constraints, power and control.
> ge
>
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> 2015-09-02 0:26 GMT+02:00 David Osborne via OSList
> <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org <mailto:oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>>:
>
> Building on the constraints conversation.Another lens I look at
> this same dynamic through is control. When leaders are
> establishing constraints they are often doing so to try to control
> the situation or outcome. When control is to tight it inhibits the
> innovation and emergence that can flow form self-organization.
> Similarly no boundaries can leave a system to loose for
> self-organization to coalesce around emerging innovation and so
> cohesion is less likely.
>
> My thoughts along the way.
>
> Enjoying the conversation.
>
> David
>
> On Tue, Sep 1, 2015 at 5:58 PM, Harrison via OSList
> <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org
> <mailto: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
> <mailto: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
> <mailto: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
> <mailto: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
> <mailto: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 <tel:917-528-1831>
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, Aug 31, 2015 at 5:07 AM, Paul Levy via
> OSList <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org
> <mailto: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.
>
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> Daniel Mezick, President
>
> New Technology Solutions Inc.
>
> (203) 915 7248 <tel:%28203%29%20915%207248> (cell)
>
> _Bio <http://newtechusa.net/dan-mezick/>_. Blog
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>
> Explore Agile Team Training
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> David
>
>
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