The Space Between

Recently I was at a conference and a presenter spoke briefly about the concept of "Liminal Space"


According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liminality:

"In anthropology, liminality (from the Latin word līmen, meaning "a threshold"^[1]) is the quality of ambiguity or disorientation that occurs in the middle stage of rituals, when participants no longer hold their pre-ritual status but have not yet begun the transition to the status they will hold when the ritual is complete. During a ritual's liminal stage, participants "stand at the threshold"^{[citation needed]} between their previous way of structuring their identity, time, or community, and a new way, which the ritual establishes."

The visual of standing on the threshold in a doorway is a powerful mental image for me.  Stuck in the in-between, comfortable with the safety and familiarity of what is behind, yet yearning for what is in front of you.  Without adequate inertia, the pull of past gravity makes stepping back such an easy decision, and makes the boldness of stepping forward into what's next even more difficult.  Many times, one can try to be in both places at once. 

In the agile space, we see this played out on a grand scale and in the granular. A few might be:

• Organizations moving from a traditional waterfall environment can lean on past planning a reporting structures while trying to release products incrementally and iteratively.  

• Individuals within teams want to believe what's to come, yet somehow don't fully trust the system in which they work to support a open and collaborative way of work. Therefore they do the motions of agility, while still holding back. 

• Leadership falls back to command and control style of leading, not yet trusting the empowerment that an agile leader must enable. 

As agile consultants, it becomes important to empathetically identify those items, practices, people in a liminal space, and to encourage them to step forward into what is to come.  We can be that inspiration for the inertia that can help people and companies work through the ambiguity and step across the threshold.  Our role becomes more than simply introducing the paradigm, but to assist in moving our clients from the space between. 

Does this concept resonate with you?  How can you see this in your work, your family, and you personally?

( Special thanks to Rebecca Yanez @bec4chen for seeding this idea at Keep Austin 2015)