<div dir="ltr">Yes, great story, Daniel! <div><br></div><div>One of the ways that my experiences with OST have profoundly influenced me, </div><div>is in making very apparent, the futility and sheer madness of attempting to "get everyone to agree" to anything... </div>
<div><br></div><div>One place where I often find people still deluded into thinking that it's "how many" that matters,</div><div>is in some old-style social change circles… it's amazing how much energy can be freed up, when people </div>
<div>are willing to reconsider the assumption of needing to come up with "a single action" that everyone will subscribe to…</div><div>and instead begin to open to the possibility of having a multiplicity of actions emerge.</div>
<div><br></div><div>The old idea of "strength in numbers" can be a hard one for people to let go of.. and yet there can be so much more power in small committed groups of people following their own inspiration… especially when there is reasonable communication among them. </div>
<div><div class="gmail_extra"><br clear="all"><div><div dir="ltr"><br>
<div><br></div></div></div><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Aug 4, 2014 at 6:01 PM, Harrison Owen <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:hhowen@verizon.net" target="_blank">hhowen@verizon.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="white" lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="purple"><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d">Wonderful story, and marvelous lesson: It is never about “how many” – but always about “Who cares, and how much.” Those who care ALWAYS make the difference. I think. Have fun!<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d">Harrison<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d">Winter Address<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d">7808 River Falls Drive<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d">Potomac, MD 20854<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d"><a href="tel:301-365-2093" value="+13013652093" target="_blank">301-365-2093</a><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d">Summer Address<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d">189 Beaucaire Ave.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d">Camden, ME 04843<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d"><a href="tel:207-763-3261" value="+12077633261" target="_blank">207-763-3261</a><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d">Websites<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d"><a href="http://%20www.openspaceworld.com" target="_blank"><span style="color:blue"> www.openspaceworld.com</span></a><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d"><a href="http://www.ho-image.com" target="_blank"><span style="color:blue">www.ho-image.com</span></a><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d">OSLIST </span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:#1f497d">To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of OSLIST Go to:<a href="http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org" target="_blank"><span style="color:blue">http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org</span></a></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
</div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><div><div style="border:none;border-top:solid #b5c4df 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in"><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:windowtext">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:windowtext"> OSList [mailto:<a href="mailto:oslist-bounces@lists.openspacetech.org" target="_blank">oslist-bounces@lists.openspacetech.org</a>] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Daniel Mezick<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Monday, August 04, 2014 4:50 PM<br><b>To:</b> <a href="mailto:oslist@lists.openspacetech.org" target="_blank">oslist@lists.openspacetech.org</a><br><b>Subject:</b> [OSList] Open Agile Adoption experience report<u></u><u></u></span></p>
</div></div><div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">As some of you may know, ASCAP (The American Society of Composers Authors and Publishers) recently won the coveted CIO100 award from CIO MAGAZINE. <u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br>You can learn more about that here:<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"> <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.ascap.com/press/2014/0610-ascap-to-receive-cio-100-award.aspx" target="_blank">http://www.ascap.com/press/2014/0610-ascap-to-receive-cio-100-award.aspx</a><u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">ASCAP is an organization that uses Open Agile Adoption with Open Space. They are one of the 1<sup>st</sup> to stick their necks out, and avoid mandates, and try the self-organized approach to figuring out what Agile adoption might actually mean to their organization. <u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">When we did the 2<sup>nd</sup> Open Space (“OST2”) at ASCAP, the event was not as well attended, and had a smaller closing circle than the 1<sup>st</sup> OAA Open Space or “OST1”. <u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br>At the time, I felt like we failed. However, a couple of interesting patterns emerged:<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"> <u></u><u></u></p><p><span style="font-family:Symbol">·</span><span style="font-size:7.0pt"> </span>The people who participated all the way to the closing circle were full of passion and responsibility<u></u><u></u></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Symbol">·</span><span style="font-size:7.0pt"> </span>Those same people were the people who took the whole Agile adoption forward from there !<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"> <u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Imagine my astonishment as ASCAP completed their mission-critical task of delivering a new business operating system- the system that pays royalties to hundreds of thousands of members. AND they got this done at a time when the business was under tremendous pressure to perform. Furthermore they got this done using agile ideas inside a 100-year-old-culture that was highly resistant to change. <u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">What looked like a total failure in the closing Open Space was actually the beginning of very significant culture change inside the company. <u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">
<br><br><u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"> <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">The next client to use OAA was a progressive, FORTUNE Top-20 employer, a software company. You would think they would NOT have a 2<sup>nd</sup> Open Space that was less attended than the 1<sup>st</sup>, but they did. I recognized the pattern again—the really passionate and responsible people were there, in the closing circle. Furthermore, while the numbers of people were down, the level of intensity was way UP—one participant remarking in the closing circle said “I don’t understand why the whole company isn’t here right now. We are making tremendous improvements!”<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Moral of Story: If you use Open Agile Adoption, expect the 2<sup>nd</sup> Open Space (about 3 to 4 months later) to have lower attendance. This is a normal pattern. The people who are present in the closing circle are your new leaders- the people who are going to carry the culture change forward. <u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">I welcome your questions as you ponder the futility of mandates (and the power of invitation) in your own work with organizations that are working hard to improve their culture-- and their results. <u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><u></u> <u></u></span></p><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">-- <br>
<br><u></u><u></u></span></p><p>Daniel Mezick, President<u></u><u></u></p><p>New Technology Solutions Inc.<u></u><u></u></p><p><a href="tel:%28203%29%20915%207248" value="+12039157248" target="_blank">(203) 915 7248</a> (cell)<u></u><u></u></p>
<p><span><a href="http://newtechusa.net/dan-mezick/" target="_blank">Bio</a></span><span>. <a href="http://newtechusa.net/blog/" target="_blank"><span>Blog</span></a>. <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/danmezick/" target="_blank"><span>Twitter</span></a>.</span><span><span style="color:black"> </span></span><u></u><u></u></p>
<p><span>Examine my new book:</span><span><span style="color:black"> </span></span><span><a href="http://newtechusa.net/about/the-culture-game-book/" target="_blank"><span>The Culture Game </span></a></span><span>: Tools for the Agile Manager</span><span>.</span><u></u><u></u></p>
<p>Explore Agile Team <a href="http://newtechusa.net/services/agile-scrum-training/" target="_blank"><span>Training</span></a> and <a href="http://newtechusa.net/services/agile-scrum-coaching/" target="_blank"><span>Coaching.</span></a><u></u><u></u></p>
<p>Explore the <a href="http://newtechusa.net/user-groups/ma/" target="_blank"><span>Agile Boston </span></a>Community.<span> </span><u></u><u></u></p></div></div></div></div></div><br>_______________________________________________<br>
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