Jim talks with Daniel Mezick on the theme of games and their relationship to governance. They discuss Jane McGonigal's four properties of games, the nature of authority, position-based vs role-based authority, formal vs. informal authority structures, finite & infinite games, mutable games, the paradox of self-amendment, the U.S. Constitution as a game, progress tracking in governance systems, roles, artifacts, rules, events, Constitutional reforms, problems with a two-party system, unintended consequences in rule design, game theory & system design, gaming virtue, and much more.

Episode Transcript

JRS EP151: Daniel Mezick on Ritual and Hierarchy

JRS EP219: Katherine Gehl on Breaking Partisan Gridlock

Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World, by Jane McGonigal

Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior, by Christopher Boehm

Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization, by Dave Logan

"The Tyranny of Structurelessness," by Jo Freeman

Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility, by James Carse

"The Paradox of Self-Amendment," by Peter Suber

"Designing the Future," by Jay Forrester

Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture, by Johan Huizinga

Coaching executives and teams in Agile since 2006, Daniel Mezick leads Improving Agility. Daniel has guided dozens of organizations in the art and science of Agile improvement. An author and co-author of three books on organization change, Daniel is a frequent keynote speaker at industry conferences and events. He is the originator of OpenSpace Agility, an engagement model for enabling authentic and lasting organizational improvement. He is also an Advisory Board member and co-Founder of The Open Leadership Network, a certification body and community of practice dedicated to implementing Open patterns and practices inside business enterprises worldwide.