The Problem with PLAY
The word play is a big, big problem. The ambiguity of current definitions are holding back serious discourse that can advance the social sciences. The essential problem is that the word play is both a noun and a verb. This terminology is not precise and leads to all sorts of problems, debates and misunderstandings in figuring out what play is, what ...
Gamification Is Broken
"Gamification" is the supposed application of game mechanics and game thinking to supposedly non-game domains. Please don't take my word for it. Investigate this for yourself using the related links at the end of this post. This is at best a misinformed definition and may even be misleading. At a minimum, the definition encourages unclear thinking about the reality of social ...
Deviation From the Norm
It's obvious that the Agile movement is not producing the kind of transformative results that are entirely possible. If current approaches actually worked well, then by now, thousands of organizations would have reached a state of self-sustaining, "freestanding" agility. Clearly, that is not the case. Stories abound about typical failure patterns. Organizations that seem to start well eventually slide ...
Perfect Agile Coaching
Imagine if it was possible to for an organization to reach a state of self-sustaining, freestanding agility after just 5 coaching days. Just FIVE. What might that mean for the spread of agility throughout the world? I met Chris Rufer, Paul Green and Doug Kirkpatrick last May when I presented a session on Gaming Happiness At ...
OFFICE HOURS concall for Q&A on The Culture Game Book
Starting in May 2013, you can get direct real-time answers to your questions about implementing the patterns and practices in THE CULTURE GAME book. Every week, you can now hop on a 'Office Hours' conference call where I will take questions, provide guidance, and help you use the book in a bigger way. Perhaps most importantly, you'll also hear directly ...
Safety, Engagement and Productivity
There's a Gallup poll out there that says disengaged workers are costing the US economy 300 BILLION DOLLARS per year. Now let's get clear on what is happening. Productivity is being lost. Productivity is correlated with engagement. Engagement is nil. Engagement is associated with a space where it is safe to say when you think, want, feel, etc. What we have here is ...
Agile Coaching and Sports
Question: why do sport teams employ coaches past training camp? Aren't the athletes professionals capable of their own learning? This is a question I received recently when I explained that 'embedded" or "integrated" coaching (where a Agile coach is present 5 days a week for 3 months or more) is probably a very bad idea. For those of you new to ...
Agile Coaching: Core Values & Supporting Principles
The idea of hammering out a set of guiding Values and Principles for Agile Coaches is an idea whose time has come. Increasing reports of problems in Agile Coaching are tarnishing our profession and diluting our effectiveness as change agents. This is a very serious problem. A set of community-built, open-source Values and Principles is one solution we can all act ...
Organizational Permaculture: An Idea Whose Time Has Come
Organizational permaculture is a concept whose time has come. The idea of doing planned, predictable, scheduled, and altogether LARGE campaigns of culture change in organizations is not useful. It does not work. It is ineffective. It is misguided. This idea is analogous to clear-cutting a forest, bringing in bulldozers, moving colossal amounts of earth, and repurposing the land for a ...
Organizational Permaculture: The 12 Design Principles
The principles of permaculture are an important and perhaps even essential in working rationally with organizational culture. For those of you intrigued by the Organizational Permaculture concept, I am providing you with a detailed enumeration of the 12 essential principles of permaculture design. NOTE: These detailed essays come from http://permacultureprinciples.com You might want to think about your teams,
