Projects that involve value creation contain "open" and "closes" modes. Any process that squashes the "open" mode and only has "closed" modes will stagnate, fail or acquire technical/creative/product debt.

A great talk that I make everyone watch is John Cleese on Creativity In Management, it is a must watch for value extractors dealing with value creation that ultimately is creative work [1][2].

The open mode is allowing space, time and confidence. Closed mode is finishing/ship it mode.

"CLOSED" MODE

> By the "closed mode" I mean the mode that we are in most of the time when {we are} at work.

> We have inside us a feeling that there's lots to be done and we have to get on with it if we're going to get through it all.

> It's an active (probably slightly anxious) mode, although the anxiety can be exciting and pleasurable.

> It's a mode which we're probably a little impatient, if only with ourselves.

> It has a little tension in it, not much humor.

> It's a mode in which we're very purposeful, and it's a mode in which we can get very stressed and even a bit manic, but not creative.

"OPEN" MODE

> The open mode, is relaxed… expansive… less purposeful mode… in which we're probably more contemplative, more inclined to humor (which always accompanies a wider perspective) and, consequently, more playful.

> It's a mood in which curiosity for its own sake can operate because we're not under pressure to get a specific thing done quickly. We can play, and that is what allows our natural creativity to surface.

...

> Humor is a natural concomitant in the open mode, but it's a luxury in the closed {mode}.

COMBINING OPEN and CLOSED MODE

> Once we've taken a decision we should narrow our focus while we're implementing it, and then after it's been carried out we should once again switch back to the open mode to review the feedback rising from our action, in order to decide whether the course that we have taken is successful, or whether we should continue with the next stage of our plan. Whether we should create an alternative plan to correct any error we perceive.

> And then back into the closed mode to implement that next stage, and so on.

EXAMPLE

> ...one of Alfred Hitchcock's regular co-writers has described working with him on screenplays.

> He says, "When we came up against a block and our discussions became very heated and intense, Hitchcock would suddenly stop and tell a story that had nothing to do with the work at hand. At first, I was almost outraged, and then I discovered that he did this intentionally. He mistrusted working under pressure. He would say "We're pressing, we're pressing, we're working too hard. Relax, it will come." And, says the writer, of course it finally always did. We need both modes.

The world is value creators (product/engineer/creative/imagination) and value extractors (business/management/finance). Once the latter group get control, they end up squashing the "open" mode that is so key to making good products. The value extractors increase pressure but sometimes lowering pressure will let the product iterations flow to a better product end result.

Value must be created first before value can be extracted, but you can't force value creation with only the "closed" mode.

Value creation processes that make sure there is an "open" mode along with the "closed" mode are always more successful, and sometimes the "open" mode doesn't look like work so the value extractors cut it first unknowingly killing the product slowly.

The wrong type of Agile removes the "open" mode and cuts prototyping, iterations and refinement of creative value creation. A more open type of iterative development is always better.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb5oIIPO62g

[2] https://genius.com/John-cleese-lecture-on-creativity-annotat...