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!
Harrison Winter Address 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, MD 20854 301-365-2093 Summer Address 189 Beaucaire Ave. Camden, ME 04843 207-763-3261 Websites www.openspaceworld.com www.ho-image.com OSLIST To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of OSLIST Go to: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org> http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org From: OSList [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Daniel Mezick Sent: Monday, August 04, 2014 4:50 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [OSList] Open Agile Adoption experience report As some of you may know, ASCAP (The American Society of Composers Authors and Publishers) recently won the coveted CIO100 award from CIO MAGAZINE. You can learn more about that here: http://www.ascap.com/press/2014/0610-ascap-to-receive-cio-100-award.aspx ASCAP is an organization that uses Open Agile Adoption with Open Space. They are one of the 1st 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. When we did the 2nd Open Space ("OST2") at ASCAP, the event was not as well attended, and had a smaller closing circle than the 1st OAA Open Space or "OST1". At the time, I felt like we failed. However, a couple of interesting patterns emerged: . The people who participated all the way to the closing circle were full of passion and responsibility . Those same people were the people who took the whole Agile adoption forward from there ! 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. What looked like a total failure in the closing Open Space was actually the beginning of very significant culture change inside the company. The next client to use OAA was a progressive, FORTUNE Top-20 employer, a software company. You would think they would NOT have a 2nd Open Space that was less attended than the 1st, 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!" Moral of Story: If you use Open Agile Adoption, expect the 2nd 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. 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. -- Daniel Mezick, President New Technology Solutions Inc. (203) 915 7248 (cell) Bio <http://newtechusa.net/dan-mezick/> . <http://newtechusa.net/blog/> Blog. <http://twitter.com/#%21/danmezick/> Twitter. Examine my new book: <http://newtechusa.net/about/the-culture-game-book/> The Culture Game : Tools for the Agile Manager. Explore Agile Team <http://newtechusa.net/services/agile-scrum-training/> Training and <http://newtechusa.net/services/agile-scrum-coaching/> Coaching. Explore the <http://newtechusa.net/user-groups/ma/> Agile Boston Community.
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