Over the past decade, innovative companies, software industry thought leaders and lean/agile pioneers have discovered simpler, sturdier, more streamlined ways to be agile. These modern approaches share a focus on producing exceptional outcomes and growing an outstanding culture. Today, it makes far more sense to bypass antiquated agility in favor of modern approaches. Modern agile methods are defined by four guiding principles: Make People Awesome; Make Safety a Prerequisite; Experiment and Learn Rapidly and Deliver Value Continuously. World famous organizations like Google, Amazon, AirBnB, Etsy and others are living proof of the power of these four principles. However, you don’t need to be a name brand company to leverage modern agile wisdom.
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Interview with Karl Scotland
Episode 24 of the Modern Agile Show features an interview with Karl Scotland, veteran agile/lean leader, focused on helping to build learning organizations. Karl discusses how to work with agile strategically. He recognized that four statements I’d written in the first Modern Agile blog were actually strategies and he observed that they might be a better guide than even the four values of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development. He observes that strategies are generative and enable constraints rather than govern us. He explains what the phrase, “Don’t be a tabby cat trying to be a cheetah” means. He mentions the importance of Richard Rumelt’s book, Good Strategy Bad Strategy. Finally, Karl discusses his work on what he calls the X Matrix.