Dan Mezick is going to be one of the keynote speakers at the Paris Scrum Gathering in September. His favorite theme is “culture hacking”. Hard to translate, let’s say hacking corporate culture to change it, but without the negative side of the word hacker (think of the likeable pirates in Polanski), it remains nonetheless a hijacking. A hijacking of corporate culture caused by the inoculation of new elements that spread. See, I still don’t have the right words to define “culture hacking”, and without clear words, no concepts, no real understanding. Without words you cannot truly grasp the idea. For now we have a sketch.

Dan is the author of The Culture Game. He develops a theory he calls OAA: Open Agile Adoption which relies heavily on openspaces. The openspace as a place of emancipation, passage and commitment toward this cultural change.

We’re talking about agile openspaces. These are events that

enable “on-the-fly” self-organization of sessions proposed by

the people present. These openspaces promulgate only one law

the law of two feet (you can at any moment use your two feet to move: to another session, to the exit, to the entrance, etc.). Having organized them several times within companies, I second Dan’s point, these were remarkable moments.

Dan makes the observation (which I share) that many agile adoptions fail due to the lack of sustained involvement of certain people. That constraint or the imposition of practices will never be a vector of lasting engagement. To address this, he will reveal his conclusions and his toolset over the summer to culminate at the Scrum Gathering (Dan’s announcement) then also, to finish in a more relaxed fashion, but no less interesting with two workshops at Convergenc.es. (I cannot attend the Scrum Gathering for professional reasons, and Oana & myself really wanted to meet Dan).

So it’s not without pride that we organized (with Oana) these two workshops with Dan Mezick (Paris, September 26 - Montpellier September 28). He tells us that this will be the first time that formalized teaching of his approach for sustainable agile adoptions will be offered. Hey!

We’re limiting to 15 the number of participants so that the sessions remain interesting for all those present. Naturally they will be conducted in English. To pre-register or send us a message, it’s here.

All the info (program, pricing, dates, locations, etc.) here: Convergenc.es.

And come with your Frank Zappa t-shirt.