New(s)

Sigh. I learn a little html and think I'm a programmer. So, just to keep me humble, the universe turns half of my latest blog posting green. The price of chutzpah. Sigh.

After a leisurely lunchtime walk through grounds of The Alamo, I’ve rejoined a gathering about Open Space in San Antonio, TX. The participants have gathered here because we want a deeper exploration of the issues and opportunities related to using Open Space Technology (OST) in American organizations and communities. Hence, Open Space on Open Space in US. (OsonOSinUS)

The morning started with a robust discussion of using wikis to capture the proceedings from the multiplicity of sessions that occur in Open Space. Ted mentioned Ward Cunningham as he was describing wikis to the rest of the group....

This week I’m working in Minneapolis with Esther Derby. We’re pair writing a book on retrospectives. Working on the book has me thinking about teams—the two-person team of Esther and me and the teams that benefit from retrospectives—and my October 11 list of criteria for being a team.

Interdependent work (the second criterion for “team” on my October 11 list) underscores team members’ need to work together to get their jobs done. When work is interdependent, team members rely on the contribution (skills, knowledge, talents, interaction) of others. They can’t do their part alone. Interdependent work requires rich communication, frequent...

Today I read a blog by Daragh Farrell at Thoughtworks. Daragh tells the story of a team that had returned to holding retrospectives and expresses amazement at the positive effect of the ritual on team development. Retrospective boosters (like me) tend to stress the role of retrospectives in process improvement and product quality because those have a more direct impact on ROI. I'm glad to be reminded of the more subtle contribution of retrospectives to accelerating team development. High performing, self-organizing teams also contribute to the bottom line through increased productivity, innovative thinking and lower absenteeism and...

This week I'm engaged and enlightened at the Consultants' Retreat and Network, held in Newport, Oregon, on the beautiful central Oregon coast. An impressive cast of consultants and brilliant significant others have gathered to discuss consulting in all its aspects. We use an Open Space format so that every session on our agenda holds compelling and current interest for a subset of us. So far our sessions have ranged from writing books to meditation to Agile artifacts to understanding the consulting context and more, with more to come. We're having a lot of fun. Wish you were here.