Category: Quotes
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Homo sapiens is a small-tribe species
Here’s the core of the issue, as I see it. I think of homo sapiens as a small-tribe species. The large social structures we’ve learned to build are not agile, or resilient, or people-friendly. They don’t suit us. And mostly they no longer work well. The evidence that they are not working has been around…
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Agile software development in the 1970s
Here is Dee Hock’s own story of the development of VISA’s first electronic authorization system (BASE 1) which was launched in 1973. We were determined that the needs of our members and cardholders would be served, not the needs of technology or vendors. That required internal responsibility. We decided to become our own prime contractor,…
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Dee Hock on control
Life is not about control. It’s not about getting. It’s not about having. It’s not about knowing. It’s not even about being. Life is eternal, perpetual becoming, or it is nothing. Becoming is not a thing to be known, commanded, or controlled. It is a magnificent, mysterious odyssey to be experienced.1 … I have long…
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Harrison Owen on control
Here are quotes of Harrison Owen from an email to the World wide Open Space Technology email list August 30, 2015. (My highlights in bold.) It has taken me a lifetime of living. But. I have learned two things, or maybe better, come to two conclusions. 1) All Systems are open. 2) All systems are…
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A vision for the future
We can either… Allow humans to become harnessed…so they become just more effective… Or Re-assess our world view and work…towards human needs. —Charles Tolman1 Note 1 Charles Tolman, ACCU 2013 Exploration of Phenomenology of Software Development, p. 19.
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Fritz Perls on change
… deliberate change never, never, never functions. As soons as you say, “I want to change” — make a program — a counter-force is created that prevents you from change. Changes are taking place by themselves. If you go deeper into what you are, if you accept what is here, then a change automatically occurs…
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Fritz Perls on control
Every external control, even internalized external control—”you should”—interferes with the healthy working of the organism. There is only one thing that should control: the situation. If you understand the situation you are in and let the situation you are in control your actions, then you learn to cope with life.1 The less confident we are…
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What if control is inappropriate?
My conclusion after having read Brian Robertson’s new book on Holacracy and Gerard Endenburg’s first book on Sociocracy is that neither Holacracy nor Sociocracy replace Command & Control (C&C). Both use C&C within limits. This triggered feedback from Holacracy people that the Lead Link Role doesn’t manage day-to-day work and doesn’t manage others, but that…
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Principles vs. methods
The man who knows how will always have a job. The man who also know why will always be his boss. As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is…
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What is Dialogue?
The following quotes are from posts by Susan Taylor at What Is Dialogue (emphasis mine). The process of Dialogue is designed to create opportunities for new understandings — a space where new knowledge can be born. Through active listening, treating people equally, balancing opinions with inquiry and suspending judgement — by speaking honestly, noticing your…