Agile Inspiring Quotes

But I should caution that if you seek to plot out all your moves before you make them—if you put your faith in slow, deliberative planning in the hopes it will spare you failure down the line—well, you’re deluding yourself. For one thing, it’s easier to plan derivative work—things that copy or repeat something already out there. So if your primary goal is to have a fully worked out, set-in-stone plan, you are only upping your chances of being unoriginal.

If you wait for the mango fruits to fall, you'd be wasting your time while others are learning how to climb the tree

Our contract with life is a contract that is brokered with fragility, and with sadness, and with anxiety. And if we’re going to authentically and meaningfully be in this world, we cannot focus on one dimension of life and expect that focusing on that dimension is going to then give us a well-rounded life.

You don’t need to be rescued or saved. You just need spaces that allow you to expand and rebuild.

GET OFF the paved path. It’s way too BASIC for you. There’s AIR to BREATHE. Oceans to FLOAT in. Dances to be DANCED. Songs to SING. Splendor to BEHOLD. Stop WAITING for PERMISSION.

What you're really seeing is Agile for delivery, but the rest of the organization and context is anything but Agile.

Being real is the power skill of the century, but we’re taught to be otherwise in the places that should hold it most sacred: our families, schools, workplaces, communities, houses of worship, and governments.

Stop searching for wizards and wands. Don’t buy into the belief that you don’t have the brains, heart, and courage to make it. Link arms with your fellow travelers and never let go. Hold each other up so that you can see your own magic.

It’s okay to be messy. Like sunflowers, galaxies, and fingerprints, your life is an intricately designed spiral. Your wrinkles, bumps, and bruises show the world you are a force of nature. Forget linear. When you embrace chaos, it brings its own kind of order.

We need leadership books that offer information as well as inspiration. Pop leadership is one of the most destructive forces today.

Stop letting people shove you into the binary. There’s not enough room for your soul to fit into the narrow box being forced upon you.

Stop trying to bend your mind around someone else’s organizing framework.

When we continuously snuggle up to antiquated ideas, we shut our eyes against the light of our potential.

Intrinsically we humans want to be happy, and happiness derives from having purpose, pursuit towards interesting and challenging ‘something’ that is greater than oneself.

We choose and wear our clothes every morning. Attitude is the same. Positivity is an attitude – we can choose to wear it every morning

Stay woke. Jump out of bed, even if it makes you dizzy. Listen to your voice, even if it startles you. Breathe in the smelling salt, even if it stings you. Stare into the light of the reality before you, even if it burns. If you get weary, ask for help—whatever it takes to keep your eyes open. Bask in the glow of conscious living. You are awake. This is when change happens.

An awakened mind and heart will serve you well. Rigidity stalls upward progress. Be as expansive as you can. Even when you think you’ve reached your limit, there’s more to unlearn and relearn.

Frame your problem statements into actionable tasks and goals that lead to a solution. Problem statements incite procrastination and resistance whereas solution statements inspire hope and motivation.

Imagine a working culture where everyone is not looking at faults, but looking at positives. Encouragements are so lacking in today’s busy world. Start trying it first, and one day, someone will do the same for you!

Political participation has a unique agility to inspire idolatry in people precisely because it so often involves promises of protection and provision, require sacrifices, legitimizes authority, and inspires submission and worship.

A sound idea is a form of energy. It can not be destroyed. It evolves from inspiration, to a function of preparation, then determination - till the ideator's dream becomes actualized in real life At the very least, success is a second iteration of the original, unscripted Idea So your idea refinement process needs to be test-driven Test Determine on time if investment in terms of effort and time is worth it Work Smart Fail early, fail often, Success lies on the paths yet to be treaded, Open your mind, Think Disruption, Be Flexible Be AGILE I think this is an idea worth sharing

In her eyes, he could see the fear, but also the love. The need. Time to show her, that to him, she meant everything. “Before you shower me with kisses for saving you –” “I think it could be argued that I played a part.” “Not when I retell the story you won’t. But we can argue about that later, naked. As I was saying, I have something for you.” Remy pulled the sheet of paper out of his back pocket and unfolded it. Initially he’d worried about it being too short. But as Lucifer assured him when he made the contract and binding, the less clauses he put in, the more his promise would stick out. Handing it to her, he waited. Fidgeted when she didn’t say a word. Almost tore it from her grasp. Then stumbled back as she threw herself at him. I, Remy, the most awesome demon in Hell, do declare to love the witch Ysabel, fiery temper and all, for an eternity. I will never stray. Never betray her trust. Never do anything to cause her pain upon penalty of permanent death. This I do swear in blood, Remy A simple contract, which in its very lack of clauses and sub items, awed her. “You love me that much?” He peered at her with incredulity on his face. “Of course I love you that much. Would I have done all the things I did if I didn’t?” “Well, you are related to a mad woman.” “Yes, and maybe it’s madness for me to love you, but I do. Do you think just any woman would inspire me enough to take on a bloody painful curse. Or put up with the fact you have a giant, demon eating cat. I know you have trust issues, and that I might not have led the kind of life that inspires confidence, but I will show you that you can believe in me. I want you to love me.” “I know you do. And I do love you. Only for you would I come to the rescue wearing nothing to cover my bottom.” His eyebrows shot up. “You came to battle in a skirt without any underwear?” A slow nod was her answer. He grinned, then scowled. “You will not do that again. Do you know how many demons live in the sewer and could have looked up your skirt? I won’t have them looking at what’s mine. On second thought. Throw out all your underwear. I’ll lead the purge on the sewers myself so you can stroll around with your girl parts unencumbered for my enjoyment.” “You’re insane,” she laughed. “Crazy in love with you,” he agreed. “But I do warn you, we’ll have to have dinner with my crazy mother at least once a month.” “Or more often. I quite like your mom. She’s got a refreshing way of viewing the world.” “Oh fuck. Don’t tell me she’s already rubbing off,” he groaned, as he pulled her into his arms. She snuggled against him. This was where she belonged. But she did have a question. “As my new… what should I call you anyway? Boyfriend? Demon I sleep with?” “The following terms are acceptable to me. Yours. Mate. Husband. Divine taster of your –” She slapped a hand over his mouth. “I’ll stick to mate.” “And I’m going with my super, sexy, touch her and die, fabulous cougar, ass kicking witch.” “I dare you shout that five times in a row without stumbling.” He did to her eye popping disbelief. “I told you, I have a very agile tongue.” “I remember.

A lot of people wait for their moment of inspiration before they start, but what they don’t realize is that simply by starting, the inspiration can follow. It’s

The kingdom of Bosnia forms a division of the Ottoman empire, and is a key to the countries of Roumeli (or Romeli). Although its length and breadth be of unequal dimensions, yet it is not improper to say it is equal in climate to Misr and Sham (Egypt and Syria). Each one of its lofty mountains, exalted to Ayuk, (a bright red star that * The peace of Belgrade was signed on the first of September, 1739. By this peace the treaty of Passarowitz was nullified, and the rivers Danube, Save, and Una re-established, as the boundaries of the two empires. See note to page 1. always follows the Hyades,) is an eye-sore to a foe. By reason of this country's vicinity to the infidel nations, such as the deceitful Germans, Hungarians, Serbs (Sclavonians), the tribes of Croats, and the Venetians, strong and powerful, and furnished with abundance of cannon, muskets, and other weapons of destruction, it has had to carry on fierce war from time to time with one or other, or more, of these deceitful enemies—enemies accustomed to mischief, inured to deeds of violence, resembling wild mountaineers in asperity, and inflamed with the rage of seeking opportunities of putting their machinations into practice; but the inhabitants of Bosnia know this. The greater part of her peasants are strong, courageous, ardent, lion-hearted, professionally fond of war, and revengeful: if the enemy but only show himself in any quarter, they, never seeking any pretext for declining, hasten to the aid of each other. Though in general they are harmless, yet in conflict with an enemy they are particularly vehement and obstinate; in battle they are strong-hearted ; to high commands they are obedient, and submissive as sheep; they are free from injustice and wickedness; they commit no villany, and are never guilty of high-way robbery; and they are ready to sacrifice their lives in behalf of their religion and the emperor. This is an honour which the people of Bosnia have received as an inheritance from their forefathers, and which every parent bequeaths to his son at his death. By far the greater number of the inhabitants, but especially the warlike chiefs, capudans, and veterans of the borders, in order to mount and dismount without inconvenience, and to walk with greater freedom and agility, wear short and closely fitted garments: they wear the fur of the wolf and leopard about their shoulders, and eagles' wings in their caps, which are made of wolf-skins. The ornaments of their horses are wolf and bearskins: their weapons of defence are the sword, the javelin, the axe, the spear, pistols, and muskets : their cavalry are swift, and their foot nimble and quick. Thus dressed and accoutred they present a formidable appearance, and never fail to inspire their enemies with a dread of their valour and heroism. So much for the events which have taken place within so short a space of time.* It is not in our power to write and describe every thing connected with the war, or which came to pass during that eventful period. Let this suffice. * It will be seen by the dates given in page 1, that the war lasted about two years and five months. Prepared and printed from the rare and valuable collection of Omer EfFendi of Novi, a native of Bosnia, by Ibrahim.* * This Ibrahim was called Basmajee^ the printer. He is mentioned in history as a renegado, and to have been associated with the son of Mehemet Effendi, the negotiator of the peace of Paasarowitz, and who was, in 1721, deputed on a special em-, bassy to Louis XV. Seyd Effendi, who introduced the art of printing into Turkey. Ibrahim, under the auspices of the government, and by the munificence of Seyd Effendi aiding his labours^ succeeded in sending from the newly instituted presses several works, besides the Account of the War in Bosnia.

At its core, Agile is a mindset.

The Manifesto for Agile Software Development was put together by a group of developers at a ski resort in Utah in 2001. It contains four simple but powerful value comparisons: individuals and interactions over processes and tools, working software over comprehensive documentation, customer collaboration over contract negotiation, and responding to change over following a plan. You can apply these principles to any kind of subscription service. Innovation doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It’s the result of iterating a concept over a period of time. Big “boom or bust” product launches can actually be a recipe for burnout: they result in unhealthy peaks and troughs of productivity and inspiration. The idea is to create an environment that supports sustainable development—the team should be able to maintain a constant pace of innovation indefinitely. That’s the only way to stay responsive, to stay agile.

Our fleshly eyes are already much more than receptors for light rays, colors, and lines. They are computers of the world, which have the gift of the visible as it was once said that the inspired man had the gift of tongues. Of course this gift is earned by exercise; it is not in a few months, or in solitude, that a painter comes into full possession of his vision... The eye sees the world, sees what inadequacies keep the world from being a painting, sees what keeps a painting from being itself, sees—on the palette—the colors awaited by the painting, and sees, once it is done, the painting that answers to all these inadequacies just as it sees the paintings of others as other answers to other inadequacies...The eye is an instrument that moves itself, a means which invents its own ends; it is that which has been moved by some impact of the world, which it then restores to the visible through the offices of an agile hand.

When I started exploring what flag I should plant back in 2009, there was a confluence of events in the works. The business world was increasingly using a methodology called Agile as its preferred product-development process while, at the same time, digital design was becoming increasingly important. Technology was rapidly evolving, and design was becoming a key differentiating factor for success—this was just a couple of years after the introduction of the iPhone. Companies were struggling to figure out how to integrate these two trends successfully, which created an opportunity for me—no one had solved this problem. This is where I decided to plant my flag—because I had the expertise, the opportunity, a real problem to solve that many people were dealing with, and the credibility to speak to it. I decided to work on solving this challenge and to bring everyone willing along with me on my journey. My teams and I started experimenting, trying different ways of working. We often failed, but as we were going through our ups and downs, I was sharing—publicly writing and giving talks about—what we were trying to do. Turned out I wasn’t the only one struggling with this issue. The more I wrote and the more I presented, the more widely I became known out in the world as someone who was not only working to solve this issue, but who was a source of ideas, honesty, and inspiration. So, when I left TheLadders, I had already planted my flag. I had found the thing I wanted to be known for and the work I was passionate about. A quick word of warning… Success on this path is a double-edged sword and you should approach this process with eyes open. The flag you plant today may very well be with you for the rest of your life—especially if you build widespread credibility on the topic. It’s going to follow you wherever you go and define you. No matter what else I do out in the world, I will forever be Jeff Gothelf—the Lean UX guy.

There are five ways technology can boost marketing practices: Make more informed decisions based on big data. The greatest side product of digitalization is big data. In the digital context, every customer touchpoint—transaction, call center inquiry, and email exchange—is recorded. Moreover, customers leave footprints every time they browse the Internet and post something on social media. Privacy concerns aside, those are mountains of insights to extract. With such a rich source of information, marketers can now profile the customers at a granular and individual level, allowing one-to-one marketing at scale. Predict outcomes of marketing strategies and tactics. No marketing investment is a sure bet. But the idea of calculating the return on every marketing action makes marketing more accountable. With artificial intelligence–powered analytics, it is now possible for marketers to predict the outcome before launching new products or releasing new campaigns. The predictive model aims to discover patterns from previous marketing endeavors and understand what works, and based on the learning, recommend the optimized design for future campaigns. It allows marketers to stay ahead of the curve without jeopardizing the brands from possible failures. Bring the contextual digital experience to the physical world. The tracking of Internet users enables digital marketers to provide highly contextual experiences, such as personalized landing pages, relevant ads, and custom-made content. It gives digital-native companies a significant advantage over their brick-and-mortar counterparts. Today, the connected devices and sensors—the Internet of Things—empowers businesses to bring contextual touchpoints to the physical space, leveling the playing field while facilitating seamless omnichannel experience. Sensors enable marketers to identify who is coming to the stores and provide personalized treatment. Augment frontline marketers’ capacity to deliver value. Instead of being drawn into the machine-versus-human debate, marketers can focus on building an optimized symbiosis between themselves and digital technologies. AI, along with NLP, can improve the productivity of customer-facing operations by taking over lower-value tasks and empowering frontline personnel to tailor their approach. Chatbots can handle simple, high-volume conversations with an instant response. AR and VR help companies deliver engaging products with minimum human involvement. Thus, frontline marketers can concentrate on delivering highly coveted social interactions only when they need to. Speed up marketing execution. The preferences of always-on customers constantly change, putting pressure on businesses to profit from a shorter window of opportunity. To cope with such a challenge, companies can draw inspiration from the agile practices of lean startups. These startups rely heavily on technology to perform rapid market experiments and real-time validation.

As with art, first impressions are not rigid or carved in stone. Rather they are agile and adaptable, depending on the inspiration, the artist, the observer, the medium, and the circumstance.

The true marker of learning is turning up with more questions than answers.

Everything is learning, learning is everything.

Being a puppet is overrated. Cut your strings. We are human beings, not doings. Knowing life is about impact, not performance, is the most badass kind of clarity you can have.

Perfect is annoying, boring, and impossible to sustain. Knowing how to translate conscientiousness into something beyond the fleeting satisfaction of “me” toward a “we” mindset is the best move you can make.

Be fearless with your questions. Don’t be afraid to get a little muddy. Keep your feet nimble and eyes open for new paths and perspectives. Ready yourself to be moved.

You can be all and none of the above all at once. Don’t feel obliged to check off little boxes for the sake of doing so, especially when they do not allow for realization of the beauty of the human spectrum.

Your consciousness will lead you home.

What if the theories in psychology that dominate our mainstream culture are flawed, rather than the people they diagnose? That we close our eyes to modern brain science and global context and pigeonhole human beings as “normal” or “abnormal” is one of the biggest shams of the century.

Our old methods of excavating for problems leaves us with more problems. Everything rides on changing the positions we hold, the questions we ask, and the answers we’re willing to accept. When we only mine for weaknesses, that’s exactly what we’ll find.

Sprint starts, sprint ends, and a lot gets changed in between! Once the sprint is over, you may not realize but one thing is for sure... You are not the same person who initiated last sprint, you grow with every sprint and that's what Agility is all about....So, not a good idea to count in years, the age of Agilist...now you know what to count!, didn't you? By the way, an Agilist never gets old, he just becomes more Agile!

Assumptions are Yes Buts that can cloud our judgement, and our ability to thank creativity.

Changes are not like for like, it already has an extra weight for the context switch & let’s not forget about the time already invested in the initial thought path that will no longer be valid.

To whomever is expressing that resistance do please explain briefly the intention of the benefits from the exercise, then add: “are you willing to give it a try?

Groups, teams and organisations are operating systems. Individuals don't exist as disconnected modules from others, from situations, from contexts... Build up perspective no only in yourself and your now, specially also to connections to others.

So if you are to measure something, measure what is fostering an environment of bringing that value faster in a safer and happier environment.

Help yourself with your workspace set up, reduction of notifications, block sections to achieve specific goals, reduce distractions and allow yourself to get into deep flow.

Different ideas are just that, another outlook to the same situation. And it all starts with oneself. Getting DEtached from being ATtached to one’s own ideas.

Having a path for the product is good, building that path in line of the vision is key, doing it together ‘makes or breaks it’, tuning and adjusting it as we go and learning from it is what wins in an ever changing environment.

Pushing the boundaries of knowledge from what proved us wrong, with courage to reveal flags, humility to test early & adapt rapidly.

Thinking of small tiny improvements would be exhausting if not impossible from the leadership team. Hence it has to happen at micro level, at each team level to control their own product & their own destiny. They are the closest, they know more about it.

Having regular check-ins to align direction is super powerful, the ability to tune and adjust reduces waste and deviation and realignment.

So instead of forcing top-down organisational charts, which is an outdated archaic legacy tool from the 1800’s and hasn't evolved, embrace organic growth with inter-related responsible teams that are autonomous and self-organised teams.

Switch to proving ourselves wrong. We don’t do this enough, it’s like developing only happy paths, charged with biases and own agendas and we know where that leads. That’s why we write negative tests, do the same with your product bets

Welcome change whilst there is return or a strong hypothesis of higher return than not doing so, that you can test on a small ring fenced effort so that you can faster validate or revoke your hypothesis.

Markets change, visions change, technologies change, teams change, settings change, relationships change… with an ever changing environment it will be naive to think that you can draw the future with a straight line.

People need to be challenged to reach their potential. They need work that inspires them to do and become better. Jim Rohn, entrepreneur and author said, "The ultimate reason for setting goals is to entice you to become the person it takes to achieve them." In other words, the result is only part of the reward.

The best product teams I know have already moved past how most teams practice these methods—leveraging the core principles of Lean and Agile, but raising the bar on what they're trying to achieve and how they work.

When you were a kid, do you remember the fun stuff you used to do, the imaginary life you lived, the imaginary friends you had, the games you used to play? That's creativity! Your own creativity!

Kahn’s thinking regarding “barbarians” was prescient. It not only partially inspires agile and other lightweight software development methods, but it also reinforces a theme big companies are often unintentionally trying to forget: hacking is important.

A lot of people wait for their moment of inspiration before they start, but what they don’t realize is that simply by starting, the inspiration can follow.

Being a cat means beautiful, agile, innocent, brave, curious and trust also honorable respect for as much as not so doing bribery.

Agile HR Manifesto We are uncovering better ways of developing an engaging workplace culture by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work, we have come to value: Collaborative networks over hierarchical structures Transparency over secrecy Adaptability over prescriptiveness Inspiration and engagement over management and retention Intrinsic motivation over extrinsic rewards Ambition over obligation That is, while there is value in the items on the right section of the sentence, we value the items on the left more.

An agile mindset incorporates incremental change over big risky moves. The agile careerist hedges her bets by exploring the landscape on the side, while holding down a job and pulling in the steady paycheck.

learning

As individuals and as leaders we need to embrace both emotional and strategic agility. The demands of our lives can create physical burnout and make us feel increasingly isolated and impoverished.

The practices and artifacts of Scrum –backlogs, sprints, stand ups, increments, burn charts –reflect an understanding of the need to strike a balance between planning and improvisation, and the value of engaging the entire team in both. As we’ll see later, Agile and Lean ideas can be useful beyond their original ecosystems, but translation must be done mindfully. The history of planning from Taylor to Agile reflects a shift in the zeitgeist –the spirit of the age –from manufacturing to software that affects all aspects of work and life. In business strategy, attention has shifted from formal strategic planning to more collaborative, agile methods. In part, this is due to the clear weakness of static plans as noted by Henry Mintzberg. Plans by their very nature are designed to promote inflexibility. They are meant to establish clear direction, to impose stability on an organization… planning is built around the categories that already exist in the organization.[ 43] But the resistance to plans is also fueled by fashion. In many organizations, the aversion to anything old is palpable. Project managers have burned their Gantt charts. Everything happens emergently in Trello and Slack. And this is not all good. As the pendulum swings out of control, chaos inevitably strikes. In organizations of all shapes and sizes, the failure to fit process to context hurts people and bottom lines. It’s time to realize we can’t not plan, and there is no one best way. Defining and embracing a process is planning, and it’s vital to find your fit. That’s why I believe in planning by design. As a professional practice, design exists across contexts. People design all sorts of objects, systems, services, and experiences. While each type of design has unique tools and methods, the creative process is inspired by commonalities. Designers make ideas tangible so we can see what we think. And as Steve Jobs noted, “It’s not just what it looks like and feels like.

While almost everyone today claims to be Agile, what I've just described is very much a waterfall process.

a species that has been inspired by pushing limits throughout the ages. Olympic games celebrate pushing the limits of strength, speed, agility and endurance. Science celebrates pushing the limits of knowledge and understanding. Literature and art celebrate pushing the limits of creating beautiful or life-enriching experiences. Many people, organizations and nations celebrate increasing resources, territory and longevity.

Educate your team on the usefulness of conflict as a signal for change and normalize conflict as part of change and evolution. Examples of language for this might be: “Conflicts in teams are normal. They are signals for change, and they indicate that something new wants to emerge. They point us to the need to innovate.” This softens the emotional field and creates openness for exploration.