Today, agile is being hailed as the essential bridge across that chasm. Agile, say its enthusiasts, can transform your company, catapulting you to the head of the pack.Not so fast. In this clear-eyed and indispensable book, Bain & Company thought leader and HBR author Darrell Rigby and colleagues Sarah Elk and Steve Berez provide a much-needed reality check. They dispel the myths and misconceptions that have accompanied agile's growth--the idea that it can reshape your organization all at once, for instance, or that it should be used in every function and for all types of work. They affirm and illustrate that agile teams can indeed transform the work environment, make people's jobs more rewarding, and turbocharge innovation--but only if the method is fully understood and implemented the right way.The key, they argue, is balance. Every organization must optimize and tightly control some of its operations. At the same time, every organization must innovate. Agile, done well, frees and facilitates vigorous innovation without sacrificing the efficiency and reliability essential to traditional operations. The authors break down how agile really works, show what not to do, and explain the crucial importance of scaling agile properly in order to get its full benefit. They then lay out a road map for leading the transition to a truly agile enterprise.Agile isn't a goal in itself; it's a means to the end of a high-performance operation. Doing Agile Right is the must-have guide for any company trying to make the transition--and for those already there, a way to avoid or recover from its potential pitfalls.

    New

    Through four years of groundbreaking research, Dr. Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, and Gene Kim set out to find a way to measure software delivery performance—and what drives it—using rigorous statistical methods. This book presents both the findings and the science behind that research. Readers will discover how to measure the performance of their teams, and what capabilities they should invest in to drive higher performance.

    But how do you build the best team organization for your specific goals, culture, and needs? Team Topologies is a practical, step-by-step, adaptive model for organizational design and team interaction based on four fundamental team types and three team interaction patterns. It is a model that treats teams as the fundamental means of delivery, where team structures and communication pathways are able to evolve with technological and organizational maturity.In Team Topologies, IT consultants Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais share secrets of successful team patterns and interactions to help readers choose and evolve the right team patterns for their organization, making sure to keep the software healthy and optimize value streams.Team Topologies is a major step forward in organizational design for software, presenting a well-defined way for teams to interact and interrelate that helps make the resulting software architecture clearer and more sustainable, turning inter-team problems into valuable signals for the self-steering organization.

    The situations, characters and plant politics will ring true with many readers.In a cool, readable style, Andy & Me follows Tom's relationship with Andy Saito, a reclusive, retired Toyota guru whom Tom persuades to help save his plant through the teaching of the legendary Toyota Production System (TPS).On this journey, the reader learns that TPS is more than just a collection of tools; it entails a new way of thinking and behaving. Though Tom finds success -- both in his plant and in his personal life -- he learns from Andy that successful improvement is "endless and eternal."

    Today, software organizations are transforming the way work gets done through practices like Agile, Lean, and DevOps. But as commonly implemented as these methods are, many transformations still fail, largely because the organization misses a critical step: transforming their culture and the way people communicate. Agile Conversations brings a practical, step-by-step guide to using the human power of conversation to build effective, high-performing teams to achieve truly Agile results. Consultants Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick show readers how to utilize the Five Conversations to help teams build trust, alleviate fear, answer the "whys," define commitments, and hold everyone accountable.These five conversations give teams everything they need to reach peak performance, and they are exactly what's missing from too many teams today. Stop focusing on processes and practices that leave your organization stuck with culture-less rituals. Instead, unleash the unique human power of conversation.

    Through in-depth interviews and discussions, the common attributes of these elite project managers—from character and beliefs to organizational approaches—are uncovered and help to explain their achievements. Painstakingly researched, this guide offers key insights by providing multiple perspectives on the character makeup of the world’s most successful project managers.

    Yet many companies and organizations encourage their leaders to coach teams without ever teaching them how and without creating a culture that supports coaching.Nathan Jamail—a leading consultant, professional speaker, and the president of his own group of businesses—trains coaches at several Fortune 500 companies and learned that it takes not only different skills to achieve success, but a truly effective coach needs an organizational culture that creates and multiplies the success of every motivated team member. The Leadership Playbook shows leaders the skills necessary to be an effective coach and to build effective teams by:Fostering employees’ belief in the culture of a companyResolving issues proactively rather than reactively and creating an involvement that constantly pushes employees to be their bestFocusing on the more humane principles of leadership—gratitude, positivity, and recognition—that keep morale highHolding teams and individuals accountableConstantly recruiting talent ("building the bench") rather than filling positions only when they are emptyCombining research, interviews, and inspiring stories with the lessons that have earned Jamail the respect of the world’s foremost corporations including CISCO, FedEx, Sprint, the U.S. Army, and State Farm; The Leadership Playbook will dominate the category for years to come.

    Rather, other factors can be even more crucial such as identifying our passions and following through on our commitments.Drawing on her own powerful story as the daughter of a scientist who frequently bemoaned her lack of smarts, Duckworth describes her winding path through teaching, business consulting, and neuroscience, which led to the hypothesis that what really drives success is not genius, but a special blend of passion and long-term perseverance. As a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Duckworth created her own character lab and set out to test her theory.Here, she takes readers into the field to visit teachers working in some of the toughest schools, cadets struggling through their first days at West Point, and young finalists in the National Spelling Bee. She also mines fascinating insights from history and shows what can be gleaned from modern experiments in peak performance. Finally, she shares what she's learned from interviewing dozens of high achievers; from JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon to the cartoon editor of The New Yorker to Seattle Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll.Winningly personal, insightful, and even life-changing, Grit is a book about what goes through your head when you fall down, and how that not talent or luck makes all the difference.

    It covers six principles of Agile Project Management; its five phases: envision, speculate, explore, adapt, close; and, APM practices.

    Many leadership books can be boring. Instead of reading another repetitive book about 100 leadership essentials by a corporate CEO, search no more for the perfect leadership book. In "The Diary of a West Point Cadet," by Captain Preston Pysh, the author teaches essential West Point leadership through the most fun and unique reading of any book in its class. If you are an aspiring cadet, a small-group leader, or even an emerging leader in corporate America, this book is for you. Each intriguing firsthand account of Preston's most memorable stories from attending West Point will capture your interest and imagination. At the conclusion of each gripping story, Preston efficiently summarizes how the experience taught him lessons about leadership, which later prepared him to be a combat commander. If you like twists and turns while reading and learning, you are in for a treat. Prepare to be glued to your seat and the text as you experience unforgettable stories and lessons from "The Point."

    Great for individuals, great for groups -- large or small. Problems come in all shapes and sizes, yet most have common characteristics that can be addressed with the techniques found in this book. Rapid Problem-Solving with Post-it Notes shows you how to use six types of techniques:The Post-up-Provides methods for getting information into chunks The Swap Sort-Shows listing and organization methods The Top-down Tree-Works when the nature of the problem is unknown The Information Map-Maps messy problems and complex relationships The Action Map-Plans actions or maps an existing processMore than 70 diagrams and examples for solving everyday problems This refreshing book reminds us the simplest ideas are often the most effective. Solve problems, create solutions and find answers fast-all with the help of Post-it Notes. Tens of millions of Post-it®Notes users can now learn how to do far more with these great little tools. Post-it Notes can be used to help solve difficult problems because they:Are the right size to hold one piece of information from a problem Are easily to attached to flat surfaces and stay put Can be moved and reattached many times

    As Senge makes clear, in the long run the only sustainable competitive advantage is your organization’s ability to learn faster than the competition. The leadership stories in the book demonstrate the many ways that the core ideas in The Fifth Discipline, many of which seemed radical when first published in 1990, have become deeply integrated into people’s ways of seeing the world and their managerial practices. In The Fifth Discipline, Senge describes how companies can rid themselves of the learning “disabilities” that threaten their productivity and success by adopting the strategies of learning organizations—ones in which new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, collective aspiration is set free, and people are continually learning how to create results they truly desire. The updated and revised Currency edition of this business classic contains over one hundred pages of new material based on interviews with dozens of practitioners at companies like BP, Unilever, Intel, Ford, HP, Saudi Aramco, and organizations like Roca, Oxfam, and The World Bank. It features a new Foreword about the success Peter Senge has achieved with learning organizations since the book’s inception, as well as new chapters on Impetus (getting started), Strategies, Leaders’ New Work, Systems Citizens, and Frontiers for the Future. Mastering the disciplines Senge outlines in the book will:• Reignite the spark of genuine learning driven by people focused on what truly matters to them• Bridge teamwork into macro-creativity• Free you of confining assumptions and mindsets• Teach you to see the forest and the trees• End the struggle between work and personal time

    This book tackles the three universal and persistent questions of the profession: How do learners learn? Why do learners learn? And how do you make sure that learning sticks?

    If you have ever asked yourself why you do what you do, or wondered what your purpose is in leadership or in life, this book is for you. As the lives of a coach, a CEO, and a janitor intersect in this captivating parable you will journey deep into the heart of leadership where the answers to many of life's most important questions can be found.Whether you're leading in business, sports, or in your own family, this inspiring story will show you how to take the first - and most important - step in becoming the leader you were meant to be. Lead for God's Sake truly is much more than a simple statement. It's a calling!"Seldom have I found this kind of practical wisdom presented in such a delightful, engaging and compelling narrative. As a business leader, I found its "takeaways" right on targettouching life where the rubber meets the road. I wasn't able to put it down. It's that good!"John D. Beckett,