This is a field report of various Agile community events during the week of August 3, 2015 as well as an update on what is working well for socializing the idea of openness and Open Space and OSA in Agile adoptions and remakes/reboots.
This is based on experience at the AGILE COACH CAMP US (“ACCUS”) and the AGILE2015 conference in 2015.
What is working very, very well is using the word INVITATION. It spreads easily and quickly. This is the word that people are using after they are introduced to the OSA ideas.
At the ACCUS event, people stood up in the closing circle and expressed how the invitation concept was their main and biggest takeaway from the event. At the Agile2015 event on August 2 the keynote Luke Hohmann explained games and opt-in participation as core ideas for creating good Agile adoptions.
So here we can see how the meme of invitation is spreading – and SPREADING.
We have learned Invitation is the language to use!
- The meme and the theme of invitation is catchy, and spreads; this is language to use.
- Discussions about Open Space and/or OSA are premature until and unless a discussion of invitation is welcome.
- The Agile coaching community is signaling that it is ready to seriously discuss invitation
What does this mean?
- Invitation connects to important topics: mutual respect, opt-in participation, boundary management, Open Space, game mechanics, and Open Space Agility. By leading with invitation, all of these conversations are possible.
- The community is receptive and ready to receive this idea in the conversation space as a serious and important subject.
- All of us can help spread the idea in blog posts, on social media, at conferences, and in conversations
Summary
- When discussing openness as applied to Agile adoptions, start with discussing invitation
- Use that discussion in blog posts, on social media, at conferences, and in conversations to lead the conversation towards more complicated yet strongly related topics: good games, Open Space, opt-in participation, Open Space Agility