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 > <[email protected]> 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 > > 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 > > From: OSList [mailto:[email protected]] 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 > <[email protected]> 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 > <[email protected]> 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 - An agile software process incorporating Open Space Technology > > > On Mon, Aug 31, 2015 at 1:40 PM, Daniel Mezick via OSList > <[email protected]> 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 > Charlottesville, VA > Mobile: 917-528-1831 > > > > > On Mon, Aug 31, 2015 at 5:07 AM, Paul Levy via OSList > <[email protected]> wrote: > I think the clue lies in the wonderful word "self". > > We are the selves that organise. > > Beautiful. > > > _______________________________________________ > OSList mailing list > To post send emails to [email protected] > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] > To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: > http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org > Past archives can be viewed here: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] > > -- > Daniel Mezick, President > > New Technology Solutions Inc. > > (203) 915 7248 (cell) > > Bio. Blog. Twitter. > > Examine my new book: The Culture Game : Tools for the Agile Manager. > > Explore Agile Team Training and Coaching. > > Explore the Agile Boston Community. > > > _______________________________________________ > OSList mailing list > To post send emails to [email protected] > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] > To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: > http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org > Past archives can be viewed here: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] > > > -- > Daniel Mezick, President > > New Technology Solutions Inc. > > (203) 915 7248 (cell) > > Bio. Blog. Twitter. > Examine my new book: The Culture Game : Tools for the Agile Manager. > Explore Agile Team Training and Coaching. > > Explore the Agile Boston Community. > > _______________________________________________ > OSList mailing list > To post send emails to [email protected] > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] > To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: > http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org > Past archives can be viewed here: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] > > > _______________________________________________ > OSList mailing list > To post send emails to [email protected] > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] > To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: > http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org > Past archives can be viewed here: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] > > _______________________________________________ > OSList mailing list > To post send emails to [email protected] > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] > To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: > http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org > Past archives can be viewed here: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
_______________________________________________ OSList mailing list To post send emails to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org Past archives can be viewed here: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
