Untapped Agility: Seven Leadership Moves to Take Your Transformation to the Next Level

by Jesse Fewell

Overview

This balanced guide to agility gets past the hype and frustration to help frustrated leaders transform their agile transformations.

Agile transformations are supposed to make organizations modern, competitive, and relevant. But in the well-intentioned effort to move into the future, change leaders find themselves frustrated by pushback, limited impact, poor practices, and unfair criticism. What's going on?

Jesse Fewell's book cuts through the "quick-fix" hype of agile theory and explains a recurring transformational pattern that unpacks what holds organizations back. The boost is the initial gains from logical first steps; the barrier is the unavoidable roadblock that must come next; and the rebound is the way forward to further gains by leaning against the concept of the original boost. With these counterintuitive rebounds, Fewell identifies seven leadership moves that can be used to unblock stalled agile transformations.

No, your transformation is not a failure. It turns out the buy-in, the talent, the alignment, and the growth you need to break through are already in front of you; it's all simply hidden under the surface—undiscovered, unutilized, and untapped.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781523088300
Publisher:	Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Publication date:	07/21/2020
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.06(w) x 9.06(h) x 0.43(d)

About the Author

Jesse Fewell is an author, coach, and trainer who helps senior leaders from Boston to Beijing transform their organizations to achieve more innovation, collaboration, and business agility. A management pioneer, he founded and grew the original Agile Community of Practice within the Project Management Institute (PMI), has served on leadership subcommittees for the Scrum Alliance, and has written publications reaching over half a million readers in eleven languages. Fewell has taught, keynoted, or coached thousands of leaders and practitioners across thirteen countries on five continents. His industry contributions earned him a 2013 IEEE Computer Society Golden Core Award.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Chapter 1 Transformation Frustration 1

Chapter 2 Stop Selling, Start Aligning 19

Chapter 3 Give It Away 43

Chapter 4 Throw the Textbook Away 65

Chapter 5 Master "No" 88

Chapter 6 Attack Culture and Structure Together 114

Chapter 7 Look in the Mirror 138

Chapter 8 Own the Narrative 167

Chapter 9 Transforming Your Transformation 186

Notes 199

Acknowledgments 207

Index 209

About the Author 215

Editorial Reviews

You can’t just tell people to be agile. It takes effort, commitment, and inspiration. In this book, Jesse Fewell shares his insights and experiences to help guide you on this journey.”
—Evan Leybourn, cofounder and CEO, Business Agility Institute
 
“In this practical and honest book, Jesse Fewell reminds us that true agility lies in our ability to sense and respond—even within the bounds of our own beautiful journey.”
—Melissa Boggs, Chief ScrumMaster, Scrum Alliance
 
“In this marvelous contribution to the Agile canon, Jesse Fewell shares powerful advice on how to start, monitor, and yes, if necessary, pivot your agile transformation to success.”
—from the foreword by Luke Hohmann, author of Innovation Games

From the Publisher