Birgitt -- How Nice to see you here! And great to hear your tale retold with all the added experience!
I would not even try to get in the middle of all that... but I do have some thoughts about Agile and Open Space. I get that Dan and many others understand Open Space to be a useful tool/mechanism/means for "Agile Introduction." Agile Introduction, is of course, magic words for the initiated and obscure for some of the rest of us... Be that as it may... I agree. It works. AND.... Just to be a little provocative.... I might suggest that Open Space is not the tool (means, mechanism), but the context. Of course I should probably remove the capitals and just do "os" -- pointing to what for me is "the magic sauce." That would be the process of Self Organization. Or as I said (sort of) in some other place: Real Agility is the fully conscious and intentional realization of the power of self organization. So open space (small o, s) is simply the context in which everything happens. And things work much better (agile, effective, efficient, etc) when we cheerfully align ourselves with the way things are -- as opposed to "fighting the system" to make it the way we think it should be. Could it then be that SCRUMMING is working much too hard? Might it be better to carefully note and study what we can do naturally before trying to improve it? We could then take all that as a "base" -- and who knows where we might end up? 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 -----Original Message----- From: OSList [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Birgitt Williams via OSList Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2016 11:30 AM To: 'Doug Marteinson'; 'World wide Open Space Technology email list' Subject: Re: [OSList] OpenSpace Agility: How Agile can be successful. First Workshop in Germany, June from 13th to 15th Hi Doug, Great to hear from you. I remember that we had follow on conversations after the OST training...and about 20 years have passed since. I have continued my exploration of what works and what doesn't work regarding what it takes to make the most of the outcomes of an OST meeting or other participatory meetings in organizations in ways that make a long term difference. I continue to experience that well planned and facilitated meetings are a catalyst for change, including transformative change in organizations. The results in this regard, however, are often not sustainable if other factors aren't taken into consideration. The primary factor, as you also note, is about leadership. It is not possible to share all that I have had the great privilege of learning and experiencing regarding this quest and exploration. I can share a few key points for now. 1. In the early 90's from my vantage point as the head staff of a multi-service social and health agency, I came to understand early that with repeated use of OST, we uncovered what is exists in every organization under the surface...the Open Space Organization. 2. We soon shifted to realizing that the benefit was gained, not from reaching outside of ourselves to something external, but to pulling off as many barriers as we could to getting to this Open Space Organization. We accepted the perspective that we needed to be aware of this existent organization, more conscious of its existence. I shifted the name to Conscious Open Space Organization. 3. Formal leaders who had the courage to lead with higher degrees of participation, more use of OST and in our case Whole Person Process Facilitated meetings discovered something that started to become counter-productive. The people within their organizations perceived that everything was meant to be open space, using the law of mobility (two feet) without the accompanying sense of responsibility to the results of the organization. We had not intended to convey that this was so as there are always givens, the formal leaders are held accountable for the performance of the organization either for their shareholders or in the public eye. We shifted the name to Genuine Contact Organization as an attempt to solve this, abandoning the words 'open space' in the title. Organizations that develop themselves certainly don't identify themselves as Genuine Contact organizations. There is no need. The title simply helps us to convey that there is a model, a system, a process, ingredients that need to be paid attention to. I am happy to say that there are an increasing number of leaders with the courage to lead differently and to embrace high levels of participation. 4. The key ingredient is always leadership, how it is carried out, how it is perceived. People in general still mix up 'management' with 'leadership', yet they are very different functions. I am referring to leadership. In the past few years, and covered in my first book The Genuine Contact Way: Nourishing a Culture of Leadership, I have focused on declaring a new leadership paradigm 'leading so people will lead' and its accompanying requirement to develop the skills, knowledge and capacity to 'nourish a culture of leadership'. Leadership gets perceived as a verb, an action, and not limited to a position. 5. For those interested in the longer term benefits of efforts made with OST, Agile, other methods, it is important to think beyond self organizing. The best that I can explain this is that formal leadership needs support to expand its leadership capacity for the additional skills and competencies needed while handling the paradox of high participation plus their personal accountability for performance. The people engaged in long term self organizing models of working (not just a meeting or two) ultimately need to wrestle with their perspectives of leadership, how to claim their personal leadership, how to work with it, and how to participate in nourishing a culture of leadership. 6. It turns out that 'leadership' is a very emotional topic...I discovered this at every leadership workshop I carried out in the past while. It is a topic seldom discussed in organizations including in families. 7. I am very passionate about leadership development being some of the most important work on the planet at this time. For those of us who love methods like OST, it is a worthy and important addition to getting more out of our work with these methods because we are on to something more important with these methods than we might currently understand. It is good to hear your perspective that Agile methods are complementary to Open Space Technology. I am understanding that the level of how complimentary they are to each other also depends on the perspective, attitude, etc of the persons who facilitate the combination of the methods, the depth of their understanding and commitment to the Agile Manifesto principles, and their depth and understanding of the essence of Open Space Technology as framed by the 5 principles, the one law. It seems to me that this would take some substantial understanding, self awareness, and of course that great feat of embracing the ego and then asking the ego to sit in the back seat of the car instead of being the driver. Warmly, Birgitt -----Original Message----- From: Doug Marteinson [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, March 07, 2016 10:15 PM To: Birgitt Williams; World wide Open Space Technology email list Cc: Rolf Schneidereit; Mark Sheffield Subject: Re: [OSList] OpenSpace Agility: How Agile can be successful. First Workshop in Germany, June from 13th to 15th Hello Birgitt, Thanks for opening the door to this dialogue. In the olden days, when I was formally learning Open Space Technology from you and Chris Corrigan, you planted a seed (for me) about Open Space Organization. Your personal story of hands-on leadership experience using OST in organizational transformation impacted me. I drank the koolaid. I am fairly new to Agile; my experience is much deeper in private sector utilization of OST for high performance. My attraction to Agile methods has to do with my perception of complementariness with Open Space Technology. It seems that true Agile practices enable people to choose with their feet what action to make happen. There seems to be alignment of principles with OST, and both invite people to bring their passion and responsibility to the table. Another aspect of the complementariness in my view is that OST is a great fit for the big-picture strategic action focus, while Agile methods may provide best fit for the tactical execution of that strategic action. In the end, as has been alluded to already, it is all about leadership. OpenSpace Agility, like Open Space Technology, requires extraordinary leadership in order for its utilization in organizations to have staying power beyond the inevitable leadership changes that happen. Thoughts? Cheers, Doug Marteinson +1-403-284-5144 > On Mar 7, 2016, at 8:19 AM, Birgitt Williams via OSList > <[email protected]> wrote: > > Dear Rolf, Mark and Leslie, > Thank you for showing up and participating in my invitation to explore, > converse, and be curious. I options for humanity to choose a more life > nurturing way to accomplish productivity and results. > > My own experimentation even before I learned OST in 1992, was my quest to > understand what it what we had already been working on, OST became the > turning point we needed. > > We were among the first, if not the first, to take the original 2 ½ day OST > meeting and experiment in the months that follow the OST meeting. > > I have learned over time the critical role of the leaders…they open the space > in their organizations for sustain leading a flexible, agile, and emergent > organization. > > And some years ago, after many years of working with WPPF and OST meetings in > tandem with each or other organization. > > It is my belief that what you are attempting to do with OpenSpace Agility has > some parallels to what we were working on over time in our own rich learning > and experience journey. > > Kind regards, > Birgitt > > Birgitt Williams > > President & Senior Consultant of Dalar International Consultancy, Inc. > http://www.dalarinternational.com > Co-founder of the Extraordinary Leadership Network > http://www.extraordinaryleadershipnetwork.com > Co-founder of the Genuine Contact™program and author of The Genuine Contact > Way: Nourishing a Culture of Leadershiphttp://www.genuinecontactway.com > > Co-owner of the Genuine Contact Co-owners Group Ltd. > http://www.genuinecontact.net > > Supporting leadership development for leading in a culture requiring agility > and flexibility in a performance environment of constant change. > > Leadership development at your own pace? Become a member of the Extraordinary > Leadership Network http://www.extraordinaryleadershipnetwork.com to > participate in an online leadership development program designed to increase > your leadership skills and capacity. > > PO Box 19373, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA 27619 > phone: 1-919-522-7750 > > > > > > > > From: Rolf Schneidereit [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Monday, March 07, 2016 4:24 AM > To: Mark Sheffield; World wide Open Space Technology email list > Cc: Birgitt Williams > Subject: Re: [OSList] OpenSpace Agility: How Agile can be successful. > First Workshop in Germany, June from 13th to 15th > > Hi Birgitt, > > > > Thank you for your invitation to an exploration of the OpenSpace Agility > concept. > > > > In the very first moment I was a little bit scared about your disagreement > and your definition of this as holistic and that as reductionist. > > Perhaps it is because that in my experience Open Space and World Cafe are not > "holistic“ per se. It seems to me that it result in a more holistic or in a > more reductionist frame. > > > > Similar seems to me with agile. How agile practices unfold depend on the > mindset and the commitment. I’m > wonderinghttp://openspaceagility.com/big-picture/agile-manifesto/) as the > deepest root of agile, I can’t see this perspective in it. I agree with how > Harrison Owen put it: "...being Agile“ is simply being fully, consciously, > intentionally self organizing” > > > > Where do I see the limitations? In OST: So far I have experienced it > as not a framework to organize the daily and weekly work of small > teams (sub-systems). But we have to get the work done (fo > > Limitations of agile: It’s not a container for the whole system. And normally > it’s enacted not by the people who have to work in the new agile way, and > this is what causes a lot of resistance. > > > > The promise of OpenSpace Agility is to allow all members/teams of the system > to find a way to self-organize their own people who have to do the work. > > > > I agree, we’re in our infancy and what do we really know? We have to know > that we’re not knowing. To keep open for reductionist frames. > > > > Warm regards > > Rolf > > > > > > Am 06.03.2016/ Kw09 um 20:37 schrieb Mark Sheffield via OSList > <[email protected]>: > > Birgitt - > > Thank you for your curiosity about combining Open Space with Agility. I offer > my perspective as a co-author of the OpenSpace Agility Handbook. > > One way of combining Open Space and Agility is to hold an Open Space event > whose theme is about Agile principles and understanding from participating in > this kind of event. > > Another way is to preface a period of experimentation with an Open Space > event and then follow the experimentation next. This is the Prime/OS > approach, which OpenSpace Agility applies to an Agile transformation or > journey. > > Open Space bookends around a period of experimentation serve to enhance the > learning rather than create dissonance - because of the power of Open Space, > which I do not fully understand. > > Open Space and Agile are about self-organization. Unfortunately many > organizations force Agile practices. Attempting to force self-organization > makes little sense and seldom works. > > OpenSpace Agility uses Open Space to empower the members of the organization > to self-organize around preferably by becoming active participants. > > > Sincerely, > > > Mark Sheffield > > On Mar 5, 2016, at 8:54 AM, Birgitt Williams via OSList > <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Hi Thomas…and colleagues who are following this thread, I hope you >> are open to having an exploration on this list about your concept of >> OpenSpace Agility each from our personal reflections and contemplations as >> social scientists. >> >> I see that you say that you assume we know the power of Open Space, World >> Café and other am curious about what you believe the power is. >> >> I see that you say that you assume we know the limitations of these methods >> in the daily work of an what you believe the limitations are. >> >> I have experienced methods such as Open Space, World Café etc to be rooted >> in a holistic capacity of leadership to cope with this mix. >> >> I look forward to your answers. >> >> Kind regards, >> Birgitt >> >> Birgitt Williams >> >> President & Senior Consultant of Dalar International Consultancy, Inc. >> http://www.dalarinternational.com >> Co-founder of the Extraordinary Leadership Network >> http://www.extraordinaryleadershipnetwork.com >> Co-founder of the Genuine Contact™program and author of The Genuine Contact >> Way: Nourishing a Culture of Leadership http://www.genuinecontactway.com >> >> Co-owner of the Genuine Contact Co-owners Group Ltd. >> http://www.genuinecontact.net >> >> Supporting leadership development for leading in a culture requiring agility >> and flexibility in a performance environment of constant change. >> >> Leadership development at your own pace? Become a member of the >> Extraordinary Leadership Network >> http://www.extraordinaryleadershipnetwork.com to participate in an online >> leadership development program designed to increase your leadership skills >> and capacity. >> >> PO Box 19373, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA 27619 >> phone: 1-919-522-7750 >> >> >> >> >> >> From: OSList [mailto:[email protected]] On >> Behalf Of Thomas Jäger via OSList >> Sent: Friday, March 04, 2016 1:40 PM >> To: [email protected] >> Subject: [OSList] OpenSpace Agility: How Agile can be successful. >> First Workshop in Germany, June from 13th to 15th >> >> Hello everyone! >> >> We would like to invite you to a new framework for organizational change: >> OpenSpace Agility, made of OpenSpace and agile methods. >> >> „Now, as long as I have known about Agile, Scrum, etc. – it has been >> clear to me that „being Agile“ is simply being fully, Self >> organizing.“ Harrison Owen >> >> Lean, Kanban, Scrum … all these young methods indicates the need for lean >> and fast processes. On the other hand we know the power of Open Space, World >> Café and other approaches, but also their limitations in the daily work of >> an organization. Daniel Mezick, the pioneer of OpenSpace Agility found a way >> to combine the strengths of both approaches. >> >> „OpenSpace Agility works for one simple reason: it generates extremely high >> levels of engagement across your entirethan the OpenSpace Agility method.” >> Daniel Mezick >> >> We’re happy to bring Daniel Mezick for the first time to Germany in June >> this year, where he will teach us the concept and methods of OpenSpace >> Agility (in english). >> >> Who is invited: >> - Leaders >> - Scrumteams, ProductOwners and ScrumMasters >> - People from HR department >> - (AoH)Hosts, Facilitators and Consultants >> >> If you’re looking for a framework which allows you to combine the Art of >> Hosting approach with Agile, have a look at these websites: >> - www.openspaceagility.de (in german) >> - www.openspaceagility.com >> >> We would be happy to meet you in Munich from June, 13th to 15th >> >> Thomas Jäger, Caroline Rennie and Rolf Schneidereit on behalf of the >> Hosting team >> >> >> Thomas Jäger >> Art of Hosting Praktizierender >> Certified Professional Scrum Master (PSM I) naturalconsult >> Brunnwartsweg 2 >> 82031 Grünwald >> [email protected] >> www.DieGastgeber.eu >> openspaceagility.de >> www.artofhosting-muenchen.org >> Tel: +49-89-64 94 99 12 >> Fax: +49-89-64 94 99 13 >> Mobil: +49-173-9263743 >> >> *** DieGastgeber.eu – Der Blog zum Art of Hosting für den >> deutschsprachigen Raum *** >> *** OpenSpaceAgilty – das Training! Zum erstenmal in Deutschland vom >> 13. bis 15. Juni in München *** >> >> No virus found in this message. >> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com >> Version: 2015.0.6189 / Virus Database: 4537/11694 - Release Date: >> 02/25/16 Internal Virus Database is out of date. >> _______________________________________________ >> 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] > > No virus found in this message. > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > Version: 2015.0.6189 / Virus Database: 4540/11769 - Release Date: > 03/07/16 > > _______________________________________________ > 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] ----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2015.0.6189 / Virus Database: 4540/11769 - Release Date: 03/07/16 _______________________________________________ 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]
