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Gereon Hermkes Books

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“There seems almost a shared society-wide delusion at play where we all accept that wasted effort is just a fact of life. And that is fine. Or rather, it would be fine if we had already conquered hunger in the world. Or if half of the world’s children would not live in poverty. Or had we become a multi-planetary species, protecting us from a planetary catastrophe. But we have not. Quite the opposite, our species is actually threatened from several quarters, yet we insist on having some of our best people waste their lives LARPing instead of contributing.”

Wasted TimeScrumScalingBusiness AgilityScrum Scale
Book:Scaling Done Right: How to Achieve Business Agility with Scrum@Scale and Make the Competition Irrelevant
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“While it is not unheard of, most sane people would be embarrassed to take an introductory martial arts class and then develop their own “martial art” from it and teach it to unsuspecting students, exposing them to the danger of miscalculating their effectiveness at defending themselves in a critical situation. Yet agile practitioners do this every day ― some do not even feel any sense of shame for calling themselves “agile coaches” after a year of practical experience.”

AgileAgile CoachScrum At Scale
Book:Scaling Done Right: How to Achieve Business Agility with Scrum@Scale and Make the Competition Irrelevant
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“When you decide to take a step to the right, you expect all parts of your body to work in unity to take that step. Actually, you do not even expect it; it is just as natural a feature of our existence as drawing breath. You would be dumbfounded if not outright terrorized if your left leg suddenly moved in the opposite direction. While this is an everyday occurrence in the corporate world, with organizations aimlessly ambling about like zombies, the problem of moving in unity becomes even more urgent if we truly aim to achieve business agility. It is only when we can harmonize the decentralized decision making in the teams with the intent of senior leadership that we can achieve real business agility. Imagine your organization moved like your body: If there is an unexpected noise in your environment, your whole body turns in that direction to assess the situation and address possible threats that might come towards you. How great would it be if your organization did the same? Flexibly reacting to changes in the environment without friction, discussion, or delay, just a seamless and natural response — would that not be true agility?”

Business Agility
Book:Scaling Done Right: How to Achieve Business Agility with Scrum@Scale and Make the Competition Irrelevant
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