The word ‘open’ now underpins everything we do at Teal Unicorn. We believe the words ‘agile’ and ‘agility’ are overworked, over-stretched to cover more than the words actually mean. What do we mean by ‘open’?
Open Work, Open Management, open architecture, open systems , open source, open access, open door, open space, open communication, open discussion, open leadership, open innovation, open for business, open ended, open up, open book, open eyes, open house, open minded, open hearted.
Openness can be described as a willingness to accept, engage with, and internalise the different perspectives, even paradigms, to be encountered when dealing with diverse participants in an interdisciplinary situation. An open frame of mind requires conscious acceptance that notions such as ambiguity, unpredictability, serendipity, and paradox will compete strongly, and legitimately, with knowledge, science, and fact
– Fostering complexity thinking in action research for change in social–ecological systems. Ecology and Society Rogers et al
We must be open: open society to higher consciousness; open organisations to greater transparency and inclusion; open teams to collaboration; open individuals to self-examination, honesty, and vulnerability.
To open up to better work, we are opening up the organisation like a flower, letting light and air in, making room to move and grow, exposing the workings, inviting others in, welcoming, creating possibilities, allowing pollination, letting the value out, letting us thrive.
The key to advancing work is the manager. We must open up management to be invitational, inclusive, serving, and transparent. Better ways of managing enable better ways of working.
This is an appeal to our better selves to advance work and society to greater humanity and a better world – better ways of being.
It is important that we stress right up front that Open isn’t another specific formula that can become a fad, then be mis-applied, then fade away in embarrassment. Open is a distillation of all that is good thinking about management, organisations, and systems. Open is as general and broad as possible. Every organisation – and person – finds their own way down a unique path. We don’t try to tell you what that path is. We describe the territory, the areas to avoid, the best directions to go, and the easiest terrain to follow. Everyone spreads out on their own unique journeys. Put another way, Open isn’t describing one possible solution to reality, it is simply describing reality in a better way so you can find your way more successfully with less risk. By understanding the complex nature of the world and the human needs of employees, you more clearly see what the best solutions are. In short, Open is a way of seeing and thinking. You figure out the doing on a case-by-case basis.
Here is how it all fits together, with links to the other pages:
See also
Here is an Open Manifesto
(The philosophy known as Agile is based on a famous “manifesto” which has at its heart four value statements of the format “we value A over B”. That is, we are not saying eliminate B, just that A is more important. Let’s get our priorities right.) Learn more here.
Here is how the keywords we chose for each level relate to each other:
