After attending Daniel Mezick's inaugural (and excellent) Open Agile
Adoption (OAA) workshop, I got to drive just a couple hours to a beach
in North Carolina. As I walked my head was swimming with how powerful
Open Space can be, how much the Agile space is at this tipping point for
realizing how forced Agile is just not working, and just can't work, and
that OST can be a crucial ingredient, used effectively, in getting high
engagement and a successful agile adoption.
At Carolina Beach where I walked for miles and even got to swim, I
watched dolphins and sting rays leap as I walked under the high fishing
lines of hundreds of people with lines reaching high above me into the
waters. Many storks and sea birds made dive bombing runs into the waves.
Very fertile waters!
I'm very excited about Prime-OS as to how it applies to engaging a
client in Montana that are already sold on an Open Space. Unfortunately
the IT centric leadership are more aware of unconferencing than of OST,
and they're also ambivalent about Agile because of the frequent lukewarm
or failed Agile adoptions at other enterprises.
When Daniel unfurled the Prime-OS idea it was especially exciting -
because the wisdom of Open Space goes well beyond any specific idea of
how to improve the workplace - either Lean, Agile, Kanban, or what have
you. OAA and Prime-OS fits so well with open space philosophy in letting
the attendees figure it out. And since Prime-OS is using open source
licensing, it's free to use, but illegal to derive works without giving
attribution so people will always know where it comes from. And when
OAA/Prime-OS infuses through the Agile community and beyond, it will
help everyone know that OST is the true source of Unconferencing so they
can benefit from the wisdom of Harrison Owen and this magnificent OSLIST
community of practice.
I hope folks take a little time to investigate and be ready to fish the
fertile waters!
Regards,
Harold
On 10/29/14 7:43 PM, Daniel Mezick via OSList wrote:
Hi Suzanne,
Thank you for your kind and encouraging response to these videos. It
means a lot.
We presented the course "Agile Success with Open Agile Adoption" at
the Scrum Retreat in Raleigh NC on 10/27-28, sponsored and arranged by
the Scrum Alliance. This event offered a huge opportunity to bring OAA
with Open Space to the attention of about 85 external and internal
Agile coaches. These are influential connectors who collectively touch
thousands of people as they do their work. I printed 100 copies of the
Open Agile Adoption Handbook, and gifted every single attendee with a
copy.
It is important to note at this time your observation, Suzanne:
/"...introducing Agile in an Agile Open way is far better than
mandating it. The same would apply to all change management
approaches outside of Scrum and Agile. "/
YES, and, so interesting: others in the USA and Europe have made the
very same observation. Coaches in Europe are using the OAA approach to
introduce non-Agile process change. And early reports indicate it is
working great. The OAA approach is broadly applicable, as the
'introducer' of any kind of process change.
In light of the foregoing, the following developments are well underway:
1. The core structure (begin in Open Space, experimentation with
new-process for 3++ months, then another Open Space to terminate a
passage rite structure) has been isolated as a base class or
foundation, called Prime/OS. This is now being published under an open
source license, with all that open-source licensing implies. I have
spoken about this here, in some detail, earlier. The core idea is
found here:
http://newtechusa.net/agile/culture-technology-wants-to-be-free/
2. OAA is built on top of Prime/OS and is in fact a derivative work.
As such, OAA is also being published under an open source license, per
the rules of the Prime/OS license. You can see that here:
www.prime-os.com. What this means is that innovators are strongly
encouraged to innovate, using Prime/OS as a foundation. Also to modify
it and thus to improve it. OAA is an instance of an application that
inherits Prime/OS as a basic foundation. The "OS" in Prime/OS stands
for Open Space and Open Source.
3. Others who wish to create innovative derivative works like OAA are
strongly encouraged to do so. As such they are first required to honor
the terms of the Prime/OS open source license, or opt-out. Details on
open source licensing here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_license
4. There are others with substantial "culture tech" that will soon be
announcing availability of their work under open source licensing.
This is an emerging movement, and is not a flash in the pan. "Culture
technology wants to be free."
It is important to understand that the opt-in invitational approach,
inspired by Open Space (with the goal being learning via
experimentation, with the only constraint being the 12 principles of
the Agile Manifesto) is considered a heresy by the mainstream of the
Agile movement. Repeat, this is considered heresy, as in "it cant
work. It will not sell."
Really?
The "mainstreaming" of mandated Agile practices and forced-Agile
adoptions and related Agile coaching is a huge industry now. There are
lots of transactions and very few genuine transformations at scale.
Yet the top-down mandate is easily generating at least $US 100MM per
annum. I know of 2 outfits that are generating over 20MM each. This
100MM number is quite conservative.
One consequence of OAA is that new demand for OST facilitation is
being generated. The OAA method guides coaches to avoid the OST
Facilitator role completely, in service to the org's overall learning.
The guidance is to bring a skilled Facilitator in, instead. Coaches
become "members of the family" and as such probably cannot be
effective in the OST facilitator role. Since a typical OAA
implementaton includes at least 3 OST events, the arithmetic is very
simple: 1000 OAA implementations worldwide per year implies 3000 or
more OST events inside organizations. OAA's guidance to coaches is to
bring a new Facilitator into each event. This translates into much
higher demand for skilled OST Facilitator services.
It appears the Agile coaching community is about to tip, away from
mandates and towards invitations. At the Scrum Coaching Retreat, I
have found a core group of about 20 of the 80 attending who totally,
totally get this and are making moves. The rest are getting introduced
to the concepts via the book.
This story is emerging, and the early adopters who bring this forward
are writing it. It's these coaches from the Scrum Retreat and others
who are IN. They are the emerging /authors/ of the story and also the
emerging /characters/ in the story.
The next thing to happen is the publication of many short testimonial
videos along the lines of the 2 I have posted today. These will be
posted as public YouTube videos that anyone anywhere can embed in
their blogs and web pages.
These are some exciting times we live in.
Regards,
Daniel
On 10/29/14 7:20 PM, Suzanne Daigle wrote:
Dan,
No questions on "what the heck" you are doing just unabashed kudos on
these very compelling videos. A great gift! Why was I so hooked?
Because of the seriousness of the discussions, the level of detail
shared which demonstrates unequivocally the value and impact of Open
Space to the work at hand. I also appreciated the comments around the
difficulties of adjusting to the level of autonomy and freedom that
is such a contrast to how organizations traditionally operate. You
opened the space beautifully in the interviews which made it very
safe for the interviewees to share so honestly and openly.
These videos also make the point in ways that words and assertions
may not do as well, that introducing Agile in an Agile Open way is
far better than mandating it. The same would apply to all change
management approaches outside of Scrum and Agile.
I was also so pleased to hear how what Agile was doing was also being
felt by other areas (engineering I think is what one of the
interviewees quoted). I guess it is time for me to say: glad you've
stuck to your guns. You were right which I never doubted though you
also know how passionate I am introducing Open Space to other parts
of the organization. Your work will indeed pave the way. Bravo!
Giving you full credit, do I have your permission to share these with
clients? I look forward to seeing the other videos.
Thanks again Dan. So very very cool!
On Wed, Oct 29, 2014 at 5:18 PM, Daniel Mezick via OSList
<oslist@lists.openspacetech.org
<mailto:oslist@lists.openspacetech.org>> wrote:
Here are two short videos of people telling the tale of Open
Agile Adoption in their own words.
The Open Agile Adoption process
(http://www.OpenAgileAdoption.com) begins and ends in Open Space.
In between, people /*play*/...er, I mean /experiment/...with
Agile practices. For 3 or 4 months.
They are free.
However, the game does have one small constraint: the Agile
Manifesto. So long as what they are doing does not obviously
conflict with the Agile Manifesto principles, they are absolutely
free to try absolutely any new practice they want to try, in
service to continuous improvement.
Video #1: Length 13 minutes.
A UX/Experience Design pro explains his skepticism and ultimate
shift... powered by Open Space.
https://twitter.com/DanielMezick/status/527506795968069632
Video #2: Length 15 minutes.
A Product person explains what he thinks and feels before and
after the Open Agile Adoption process.
https://twitter.com/DanielMezick/status/527566037211176960
Dozens more videos are on the way.
I hope you find these 2 initial narratives interesting, and I
welcome your questions about what the heck I am doing.
Regards,
Daniel
New to the Manifesto? Here it is:
http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html
--
Daniel Mezick, President
New Technology Solutions Inc.
(203) 915 7248 <tel:%28203%29%20915%207248> (cell)
Bio <http://newtechusa.net/dan-mezick/>. Blog
<http://newtechusa.net/blog/>. Twitter
<http://twitter.com/#%21/danmezick/>.
Examine my new book:The Culture Game
<http://newtechusa.net/about/the-culture-game-book/>: Tools for
the Agile Manager.
Explore Agile Team Training
<http://newtechusa.net/services/agile-scrum-training/> and
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Bio <http://newtechusa.net/dan-mezick/>. Blog
<http://newtechusa.net/blog/>. Twitter
<http://twitter.com/#%21/danmezick/>.
Examine my new book:The Culture Game
<http://newtechusa.net/about/the-culture-game-book/>: Tools for the
Agile Manager.
Explore Agile Team Training
<http://newtechusa.net/services/agile-scrum-training/> and Coaching.
<http://newtechusa.net/services/agile-scrum-coaching/>
Explore the Agile Boston
<http://newtechusa.net//user-groups/ma/>Community.
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