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 is going on during play, and what the relationship between games and play actually is.

This situation is causing epic levels of confusion, debate and wasted energy in the social sciences. All the energy going into debates on what play is and is not could be used to seriously advance the state of the art in the social sciences. Instead we are mired in petty debates because the terminology we are using is completely imprecise.

And that is a big problem.

Play: the Noun

The word play is a noun. A play is a move in a game. And there are SIX other definitions of the noun play. (See related links following this post.). Suffice to say that the word play is a noun. Most of do agree to the common noun definitions for play. Even so, because play is both a noun and a verb, we have problems using both the verb forms and the noun forms of the word when attempting to precisely describe social phenomena.

Play: The Verb

The word play is also a verb. Play is an activity, a verb, as in “playing a game.” This and FOUR additional verb definitions exist for the word play. (See related links.) Now we can begin to see the problem. The word play is at best a highly ambiguous one.

Here is an example: John Taylor Gatto is a highly accomplished and innovative educator, and book author. He is also a recognized authority on how people learn, and how to facilitate learning.

John Taylor Gatto is a very clear thinker.

Check out this quote from him in his essay on play (see related links):

“[Play is] something we do in between being serious, isn’t it? When machines “play” we get worried and say they’re broken, yet men and women and animals play all the time. What’s going on?

Even the term is ambiguous; what we mean by it isn’t automatically clear.” (emphasis added)

You might be wondering if I am planning to offer you a more precise definition for play. And, you also may also be wondering if I am planning to describe a complete vocabulary for discussing play, and games, in a much more precise and generative way.

The answer to both questions is most definitely YES.

Related Links:

Link: The 7 Noun and 5 Verb Definitions for Play in Merriam Webster’s Dictionary

Essay: The Curriculum of Play by John Taylor Gatto A very good example of how excellent writers struggle to write about play.

Wikipedia entry for John Taylor Gatto

***

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 interactions.

You cannot make a game out of something that already is one.

The reality is that every social interaction of a kind is a game. There are no non-game domains in social terms.

Any inherently social activity is a game, according to my current model of how things actually work.

For defining the word ‘game’ I am using the McGonigal definition as described on page 22 of her book, REALITY IS BROKEN. That definition from Jane says an activity is a game if it has just 4 essential properties:

• A clear goal
• Clear rules
• A way to get feedback
• Opt-in participation

This a a profoundly useful definition of the word game. Even if you disagree, let’s use it for now, and pretend that it works….

To say that “gamification” adds game mechanics to existing games such as  social interactions, meetings, and classes is just plain incorrect because the game mechanics are already there.

Gamification is broken. To be more precise, the definition of the term gamification is broken. It encourages unclear thinking about the world by implying that social interactions are games only after ‘gamification’. This is just plain incorrect. Not valid. Wrong.

In all social situations, for example: interactions, meetings, working on a team, working inside a company, participating in a CULTURE….in all of these situations, the game mechanics are present, they are simply weak, not well-designed, or both. ‘Gamification’ as currently defined can’t help, because all of these situations are already games. Usually, they are poorly formed and have incomplete or weak design of the game mechanics.

Are you a Teacher? If you are, realize that all meetings are games, and all classes are meetings, therefore: all classes are games. This means game mechanics are already present in your classroom. If the mechanics are weak and loose and not well-designed, your students disengage and check out. And if the game mechanics in your classroom are well-designed and tight, those same students start to get engaged and they “check in” and they have fun and get into it.

“Gamification” as defined does not ‘make a game’ out of your supposedly non-game classroom by adding game mechanics. That’s because the class IS A game, and the game mechanics are already present and simply need to be tuned up.

You cannot make a game out of something that already is one.

All classes are games. Now, not all games are fun to play. Not all classes are fun to attend. If the game mechanics are weak, you can forget about having any fun at all.

The definition of gamification is broken. In social terms, there are no ‘non-game domains’ because every social interaction is a game.

If you think about games seriously, there is little doubt this post is causing you some discomfort. How can explaining the world be this simple? In future related posts, I plan to answer that question.

Related Links:

Gamification Defined

How Games Deliver Happiness and Learning

The Agile Manifesto was drafted and ratified in 2001. The document specifies 4 values and 12 principles. In theory at least, these values and principles form the underlying philosophy of design behind every Agile practice.

It’s 12 years later. What’s changed?

Brought to you by the Agile Boston & Agile New England User Groups

In the present day, the value of the Manifesto is routinely called into question. Some folks want to add new content, or change existing content, and even DELETE some of it.

Some very vocal people in the Agile community are even on record as stating that “it does not say very much at all.”

Other “vocal locals”, from Boston, who we might call “Manifesto fundamentalists”, are saying that the 4 values and 12 principles are super-important, and as timely as ever.

Which is it?

What is the Agile Manifesto?

Why do you care?

Is the document a dead letter, or actually more important than ever before?

ALISTAIR COCKBURN was there when the Manifesto happened. He helped make it happen and is a signatory. He is one of a kind and has stories and lore about the origin of the Manifesto that you cannot make up.

During this event Alistair connects the past, present and future of the Manifesto, and explains how to translate the Manifesto principles into effective Agile practices you can use today.

And more. We have absolutely no idea what he might say next.

Can you DO a principle? A value?

What is a methodology?

What does certification on a practice have to do with the Agile Manifesto?

This is sure to be a highly informative and entertaining meeting. (Let the record show that previous conference sessions by this speaker have included dancing girls (on one occasion) and men in kilts playing bagpipes (on another.) Prepare to be surprised!

If you miss this one-of-a-kind event in Boston on 5/29 featuring Alistair Cockburn, you have no one to blame but yourself.

In this session, you’ll learn:

• The “story behind the story” of the Agile Manifesto
• How the form & content of the Manifesto got hammered out in 2001
• Why or why not the 4 values and 12 principles matter in 2013
• Whether Agile practices popular today actually honor the Manifesto, & what this might mean for your organization’s Agile adoption
• Why bagpipes and dancing girls are important

NOTE: REGISTER EARLY. The downtown event is being held at PayPal in Boston. To accommodate security, registration will be closed at 9:00 PM EST on Mon 5/27. Walk-ins will not be allowed to attend. Please be sure to register in advance for this event and bring a photo ID.

REGISTER: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/390948

NOTE: Do not register casually. Registering is an explicit commitment to attend. Registering casually is a disservice to everyone attending: as it throws off foo/beverage and seat counts & causes many woes for volunteers who are working to serve the Agile community in Boston. If you register we expect you to attend!

About The Presenter:
Dr. Cockburn (pronounced Co-burn, the Scottish way) is an internationally renowned project witchdoctor and IT strategist, best known for describing Software development as a Cooperative Game (discussion: Re: Cooperative game manifesto for software development), for helping craft the Agile Development Manifesto, for finally defining Use Cases (discussion: Re: Use cases) for developing the initial response technique relaxation/massage form, and for creating the oath of non-allegiance (discussion: Re: Oath of Non-Allegiance), which has been translated into dozens of languages.

NOTE: The meeting venue has formal security. Bring a picture ID. Plan to arrive at 6PM so you can be processed into the building, ride the elevator up to the 6th floor, and get situated.

JAMIE GAULL PLAYS LIVE: We are pleased to announce that Jamie Gaull of LeapFrog Systems will perform classic rock and acoustic rock-and-roll tunes during the break. He’s an Agile guy by day that plays in bars and clubs by night. You can use these links to listen to sample tunes, check out pictures, and visit the Plan B web site. We welcome Jamie Gaull!

Meeting Agenda:

6:00 pm Show up, grab a beverage, socialize (arrive on time!)

6:30 pm Main Event with Alistair Cockburn, PART ONE

7:15 pm BREAK. Music by Jamie Gaull (related link)

7:30 pm Main Event with Alistair Cockburn, PART TWO

8:10 pm Done

8:15 pm DONE DONE

Meeting Location:

PayPal
1 International Place (6th floor)
Boston, MA 02110

NOTE: REGISTER EARLY. The downtown event is being held at PayPal in Boston. To accommodate security, registration will be closed at 9:00 PM EST on Mon 5/27. Walk-ins will not be allowed to attend. Please be sure to register in advance for this event and bring a photo ID.

REGISTER: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/390948

NOTE: Do not register casually. Registering is an explicit commitment to attend. Registering casually is a disservice to everyone attending: as it throws off foo/beverage and seat counts & causes many woes for volunteers who are working to serve the Agile community in Boston. If you register we expect you to attend!

Clearly, that is not the case.

Stories abound about typical failure patterns.  Organizations that seem to start well eventually slide back to waterfall practices. Organizations employing coaches spend millions to obtain a mere 25 to 30% improvement in whatever they are measuring!

And they seem happy with that!

Meanwhile, the Agile-obtainable multiples of 2X, 3X, even 4X improvement in those same measures is not even discussed. It’s just left on the table.

Coaches in some cases are setting up camp for years in large client organizations. Organizations never actually realize the benefits of rapid learning and adaptation that the Agile approach purports to deliver. Clearly current coaching methods are not delivering lasting agility. If they were, we’d be celebrating hundreds– even thousands– of successful and sustained Agile transformations.

Clearly this is not happening.

Yet it’s possible. And almost within reach.

Software development at scale is a very difficult undertaking. The Agile mindset and related principles, patterns and practices can help tremendously. At issue is how to achieve this. What’s clear is that no one knows how to repeatedly generate long-lasting & sustained improvement at scale. How is this actually done? Who actually knows how? As a consulting and coaching community, we have failed to deliver the promise of Agile to our clients and the wider world. We are stuck.

Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible. - Frank Zappa (click here for 20 second video)

Without deviation from the Agile coaching norm, Agile progress is simply not possible. Coaching is the leverage point. Something has to give.

We need to throw out current “best practices” in Agile coaching and question everything we are doing. Because what we are currently doing is not creating any lasting progress. If it was, we would all know where to find hundreds, even thousands of case studies that document how organizations are sustaining genuine agility… long after the coaches leave.

The time has come to begin a new dialogue, a conversation that assumes nothing…and questions everything. A conversation that stops asking “why”…and starts asking “how“. A conversation that focuses on how to minimize coaching days…not increase them. With all due respect to “agile enablement firms” and well-established tools vendors, we need a better way. We need deviation from the norm. We need a new deal for organizations. A deal where they can take a legitimate shot…at rapidly reaching a state of self-sustaining agility…an agility that does not require an army of coaches to be lasting and sustainable over time.

One approach is to focus organizations on principles over practices.  And this is a difficult undertaking. It doesn’t sell well. Practices sell. Organizations and coaches are very happy to begin using practices without grounding them in the principles of the Agile Manifesto. With the practices-first approach, everyone is happy. And it does not last.

Likewise, coaches and client organizations are all too happy to convey way too much authority to external coaches while conveniently sidestepping the difficult business of making sure that the organization itself takes 100% responsibility for its own learning.

We need a principles-first approach that places responsibility for the organization’s learning within the organization itself, not on some external authority named “coach”.

Related Post:

Perfect Agile Coaching

Bio:

www.DanielMezick.com

At this session, you will learn:

•  How a global organization of distributed software development teams improved the quality of their deliverables and reduced their time to market for new features.
• How teams wrapped mechanisms and practices around the Scrum framework to ensure good synchronization of wider program activities.
• How teams created effective tracking and reporting processes for stakeholders.
• How they implemented Scrum in a product development company led by distribution, marketing, manufacturing, and support organizations with long histories of waterfall and Stage-Gate practices.

Register:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/384524

About The Presenter:

Chris Sullivan is a senior manager of software development at Markem-Imaje with more than 20 years of experience as a software engineer and system architect of industrial product identification equipment and solutions.  Chris has been leading and supporting the adoption of Agile and Scrum practices across a global software development organization for almost ten years.  He is now helping the wider product development organization leverage the lessons learned from the software development teams across the non-software functions.

Meeting Agenda:

6:30 pm Introduction

7:00 pm Food, beverages, and socializing

7:20 pm Main event

8:20 pm Done

8:30 pm Done Done

Meeting Location:

CORPORATE OFFICE PARK
200 West Street
Waltham, MA 02451

The event room is located on the 1st floor. Enter the building. Take the hallway to the left. Walk past the elevators. The door to the event room will be on your right before the restrooms.

Register:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/384524

In this session, you’ll learn:

• How they migrated from cowboys to Scrum teams
• The “one backlog” method used for working with multiple scrum teams
• The complexities of growth and working with off shored teams
• How they added a research team to the mix

NOTE: The downtown event is being held at PayPal in Boston. To accommodate security, registration will be closed at 9:00 PM EST on Tue 5/21. Walk-ins will not be allowed to attend. Please be sure to register in advance for this event and bring a photo ID.

Register:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/387949

About The Presenter:

Alan Murray is responsible for building Apperian’s brand and establishing the company as the clear leader in the mobile app management space. Alan is an expert at leveraging new marketing methods to accelerate the growth of Apperian and draws from his 20 years designing and bringing innovative software solutions to a global market.

John Caldas is a software developer turned Scrum Master at Apperian. After completing his computer science degree at Boston University he found the startup world and settled in. With experience in web, mobile, web services, devops, and systems administration, John enjoys working on all aspects of product development.

Meeting Agenda:

6:00 pm Introduction

6:30 pm Beverages and socializing

6:50 pm Main event

7:50 pm Done

8:00 pm Done Done

Meeting Location:

PayPal
1 International Place (6th floor)
Boston, MA 02110

Register:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/387949

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 Work at the Self-Management Symposium. One of the things I learned was that MORNINGSTARCO uses this concept of stepping-stones. Here are the steps:

1. For a given task or job, define perfection. For example, at MORNINGSTARCO, for maintaining machinery that processes tomatoes, “perfect” is defined as a maintenance cost of ZERO for processing an INFINITE volume of material.
2. Next, figure out your current performance numbers. For example, for machinery that processes tomatoes, the current score might be “one dollar of maintenance expense, on average, for  every 10 tons of product processing.”
3. Now define a stepping-stone goal, in the direction of perfection: How about trying to get the maintenance cost down to 92 cents per 10 tons of processing, instead of 1 dollar?  89 cents maybe? That’s a stepping stone. 89 cents. Its a small, achievable goal, in the direction of improvement…in the direction of perfection.

In golf, “perfect” is eighteen hole-in-ones. That’s it.  “18″ is the perfect golf score. Now, no one can actually achieve that. This actually does not matter. What does matter is that the ideal– the perfect–  is very clear.

Every golf pro is thinking about 18 as the ideal– as perfection. And they make small moves to get closer and closer. Thinking about perfection when aiming to improve is a very interesting idea. This idea from MORNINGSTARCO got me thinking about Agile coaching and perfection.

Perfection in Agile Coaching

What constitutes perfection in Agile coaching? How do we apply the MORNINGSTARCO stepping-stone concept to the execution of Agile coaching?

I think it has to do with client organizations reaching a state of self-sustaining, freestanding agility via the ABSOLUTE MINIMUM coaching engagement. What is that minimum exactly? Can a coach help get an org to a state of self-sustaining, freestanding agility with 30 days of coaching? 20 days? 10 days?

How about FIVE days?

I am actively seeking and working with clients who want to  explore this idea with me. We are working from the premise that “perfect” is no more than FIVE TOTAL DAYS  of coaching to reach a goal of org-wide self-sustaining Agility.

Is this definition of perfect even remotely possible to reach? We are finding out.

Currently, we in the Agile community consider it normal for a coach to set up camp at an organization and “embed” or “integrate” there for months on end. Sometimes even years. This makes absolutely no sense to me given the lack of genuine and lasting results these client organizations are actually getting.

So instead, I am working with clients, and doing many small experiments, in service to the idea of absolutely minimizing the number of coaching days required. To do this, radical new techniques have to be identified, developed and completely tested out. The old ways of doing things that are getting poor results have to be thrown out in favor of a all-new and radical approaches that can help get us there.

Current techniques are obviously deficient, because coaches are setting up camp, for YEARS in some cases, supposedly enabling an ‘Agile transformation’. These ‘Agile transformations’ are obviously NOT HAPPENING. Meanwhile, no one is sounding an alarm. Companies seem willing. Money is changing hands. Everyone is happy.

The problem of course is that there is no progress. In some of these organizations, dozens of coaches are working for years with results that are dubious at best. Something obviously has to change here.

Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible. That’s what Frank Zappa once said. We need to embody this idea. We need to throw out old assumptions, define perfection for the task of Agile coaching, and define and then achieve stepping stones in the direction of perfect. That’s exactly what I am doing with some of my clients in Boston and it is super-interesting to try out some of these new and radical ideas.

I plan to report the results to you, over the summer, as events unfold.

This meeting is an experiental workshop.  You’ll be one of a team of 4 or 5 people, thrown into the deep end of the pool to explore spikes, story sizing, team dynamics, sprints, pulling the “what”, defining the “how”, conducting Sprint reviews including demos and retros. In the workshop you build a very complex product in a timebox with your team. Each iteration ends in minutes and you must deliver a value when the iterations are over. There are all sorts of surprises in this workshop, including some key learnings about team dynamics, team composition, experimentation, and some mid-course corrections. This is a fast-paced Scrum simulation experience.

Because of the limited space, only THIRTY participants will get in. Your registration is an EXPLICIT commitment to attend. This is first-come, first served. There is no money cost to attend and you are expected to be present if you register. Please do not register casually.

About The Presenter:

Daniel Mezick is an Executive and Agile Coach at www.FreeStandingAgility.com, a team of Agile coaches based in New England. Daniel has coached hundreds of teams adopting Agile since 2008. He is a frequent speaker at Agile conferences and a founder of the www.AgileBoston.org user group. His book www.TheCultureGame.com describes 16 patterns and practices derived from Agile that any team can use to bring more learning, engagement and productivity to the world of work. Learn more at www.DanielMezick.com, reach Daniel on Twitter @DanMezick, emailhim at dan@newtechusa.net, or call him at 203 915 7248.

Where:

MICROSOFT CORPORATION

Pondview Corporate Center
74 Batterson Park Rd., #100
Farmington, CT 06032

Need driving directions? Click here for directions

When:

Tuesday evening, MAY 21 2013 from 6:00PM to 8:45PM

NOTE: This is a start time change. Starts at 6:00PM

Register HERE:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/378510

 
Meeting Agenda:

6:00 pm Introduction to Workshop; Team formation

6:10 pm Execution of an experiental “spike” with the kit with your team

6:20pm Sprint Planning

6:35pm Iteration 1 with Demo and Retro

6:55pm Iteration 2 with Demo and Retro

7:15pm Iteration 3 with Demo and Retro

7:35pm PAUSE MODE: We get out the simulation & examine it

7:55pm Iteration 4 with Demo and Retro

8:15pm Grand Demo, Retro and Cleanup

8:30pm DONE

8:45pm DONE DONE

Meeting Location:

MICROSOFT OFFICE in FARMINGTON CT
74 Batterson Park Rd, Farmington CT 06032 (Directions)

NOTE: The event room is located on the 1st floor. Enter the building. Take the hallway then go left. The door to the event room is on your right.

Register HERE:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/378510

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 from other readers who are implementing the 16 Tribal Learning patterns and practices.

Users of the book are having great success testing the hypothesis that all meetings are games, and that these meetings can be improved by tuning up the game mechanics of meetings.  You’ll hear some success stories on these calls, from readers getting real traction using the guidance in the book. You’ll also hear about what is not working, and participate in dialogue around solutions. We are actually implementing these Office Hours calls as a meeting, one that implements many of the very patterns and practices from the book that we are discussing.

Please watch @DanMezick on Twitter and also this blog post for details on the date and time of the next call. Please save the date of Wednesday April 1 at 630PM Eastern Standard Time for the first CULTURE GAME Office Hours conference call. I plan to post the link for signing up here.

The CULTURE GAME Office Hours calls are limited to just 25 participants. Therefore, do not register casually. Registering is an explicit commitment to attend and participate.  We’ll be doing serious work on these calls, and hearing stories of how readers are employing the book at work, and getting questions answered.

I look forward to speaking with you during the 1st Office Hours call on April 1. Check here and on Twitter for the details on how to dial in!

Next Call:

Wednesday, May 1 at 630PM EST

Phone number and credentials:

Learn More Here and REGISTER

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 a crisis in safety in the American workplace. People are afraid to say what they think, presumably because of the financial risk of doing so. If I say what I really think, I may offend someone in authority (like my boss) and eventually get a bad review and/or be fired.

This is a crisis of epic proportions. Take the case of Scrum, a framework for building complex products in teams. Jeff Sutherland’s data says that teams can double ‘velocity’, a measure of productivity. He says that teams can double this velocity number, and THEN DOUBLE IT AGAIN. How is this possible?

One explanation may be that the people doing the work get more ENGAGED. If this is true, then maybe Scrum done well creates safe space to speak candidly. But lets get back to this double-then-double-again dynamic. What gives here?

I think what is going on is, these team members start out about 20 percent engaged.

Then they double to 40 percent.

Then they integrate the new learning and principles they are learning.

Then they double again to 80%.

I think this is what is going on.

Related Links:

Scrum: The rules of the game

Flow

300 BILLION is lost productivity