All You Need To Know Is That It's Possible

Bill Gaiennie
Trained over 5,000 people in Agile methods
Agile Trainer over the last 5 years

Personally coached 30 different teams in various
Agile Coach industries to successfully transition to an Agile approach

Davisbase Consulting Developing People Who Develop Software.

Website: davisbase.org Agile Blog: theagileadvisors.com Email: bill@davisbase.org

Sunday, July 25, 2010

“Whether
you
believe
“Because a “Success is
you thing
can seems determined by
do
a diﬃcult those whom prove
thing for you,
or the impossible,
do not
not,
you think it possible.”
- James W. Pence
Agile sounds great, but... are impossible
"We the willing,
Agile sounds great, but...
Agile sounds great, but... right.” for anyone else
led by the unknowing,
Agile sounds great, but... - Henry Ford
are doing the impossible
to accomplish.” We
for the ungrateful.
Agile sounds great, but... - Marcus Aurelius
can’t
We have done so much,
Agile sounds great, but... But, we tried do
with ,
“Impossible only
so little
it,
for so l o n g ,

means that you haven’t we
we are now qualified
to do anything,
with nothing." are
found the solution yet.”
Agile sounds great, but... - Mother Theresa
too
Agile sounds great, but... different!

“Whether
you
believe
“Because a “Success is
you thing
can seems determined by
do
a diﬃcult those whom prove
thing for you,
or the impossible,
do not
you
not,
think it possible.”
The only thing we can do consistently, it seems, is get it wrong when
are
- James W. Pence
Agile sounds great, but... impossible
it"We the willing,predicting our inability to overcome the impossible.
comes to
Agile sounds great, but... right.” for anyone else
led by the unknowing,
Agile sounds great, but... - Henry Ford
are doing the impossible
to accomplish.” We
for the ungrateful.
Agile sounds great, but... - Marcus Aurelius
can’t
We have done so much,
Agile sounds great, but... But, we tried do
with ,
“Impossible only
so little
it,
for so l o n g ,

means that you haven’t we
we are now qualified
to do anything,
with nothing." are
found the solution yet.”
Agile sounds great, but... - Mother Theresa
too
Agile sounds great, but... different!

“Inventions have long since reached their limit,
and I see no hope for future improvements.”
- Julius Frontenus
10 A.D.


“What can be more palpably absurd than the
prospect held out of locomotives traveling
twice the speed of stagecoaches?”
1825
- Quarterly Review


“This ‘telephone’
has too many
shortcomings
to be seriously
considered as a
means of
communication.
The device is
inherently of
no value
to us.”
- Western Union internal memo

1876

“The ordinary
‘horseless carriage’
is at present a luxury
for the wealthy;
although its prices
will probably fall in
the future, it will
never, of course,
come into as
common use as
the bicycle.”

- Literary Digest 1899

“The ordinary “The actual building
‘horseless carriage’ of roads devoted
is at present a luxury to motor cars
for the wealthy;
is not likely to
although its prices
ever happen,
will probably fall in
the future, it will in spite of many
never, of course, rumors to that effect.”
- Harper’s Weekly
come into as
common use as
the bicycle.”

- Literary Digest 1899 1902

Flight
by
machines
heavier
than
air
is

and
IMPRACTICAL
if
INSIGNIFICANT
not
utterly

IMPOSSIBLE
1902
- Simon Newcomb, Director, U.S. Naval Observatory

"There is no hope for the fanciful idea of reaching the
Moon because of insurmountable barriers
1932
to escaping the Earth's gravity." - Forest Ray Moulton
Astronomer

"Landing and moving about on the moon offers so many
serious problems for human beings that it may take

1948
science another 200 years to lick them."
- Science Digest

Where would we be
today
if the many
chose to be convinced
by the limiting beliefs
of the few?


561 540 582

461 488 510

288 314 426

CULTIVATE THIS
582
561
540
510
488
461 The Belief
Secret Intention
426 For Support
314 Astonishing Teach
Team Perseverance
288 Success... Forgive Failure

Agile
Baked In Over Time
Reactive He Knows
Responsive How His
Orientation World Works
Corporate Initiatives Prescribed Processes
Project Processes Project Failures
Governance A CYA Expert
Compliance Must Satisfy Process
Process Engineering Don’t Question
Speciﬁcations Things Don’t Change
Etc. Etc. Etc. Be a Good Soldier
World View Set

Tucker
Average
Corporate
Citizen

What Tucker is told Agile

IMPROVEMENT
Current
State


?
Agile =
Another corporate

IMPROVEMENT
THIS initiative IS STUPID!! A friend
WHY?
THIS IS STUPID!!
What’s wrong I’ll go along with of mine
with what until it fails,andtried this
THIS NOW? and it will! it failed!
IS this STUPID!!
we’re doing
THIS IS STUPID!!
This is going to fail, like everything else we try!

"Scratch the surface of most
cynics and you ﬁnd a frustrated
idealist, someone who made
the mistake of converting
ideals into expectations."
- Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline

What Tucker believes Agile
Current
State


PAST = FUTURE
EXPERIENCES P O S S I B I L I T I E S


IMPROVEMENT
Agile

ns ion
Te
ative
Cre

BELIEF
e
i tiv
Pos

Current
State


Short-Term Belief use it wisely)
(this state has a short life span,
Building

Faith Hoping Imagining
...that my organization will ...that the success that others ...what success will look like,
forgive small failures in our have found will also be how we might try to achieve it,
quest for better results. Success experienced by our team. and how we will know we
rarely happens overnight. found it.

Long Term Belief Building


Long Term Belief Building
Companies must invest enough time
and patience in the transition process.
Provide guidance, training,
and effective tools for teams to
have the best chance at success.
Be aware of the effect this type of change
will have on the corporate culture.
Those unprepared for this speciﬁc change
will likely fail.

But Most Important of All...

Communicate consistently
that Agile is the chosen
direction of the company.

Problems will need to be
solved, no other possible
way forward except
through our challenges.

Expect your teams to fall
down, then help pick
them up.

Reward a team’s ability to
risk a small failure in turn
for the possibility for a
better result.

Put in place a mechanism
the teams can use to
achieve continuous
improvement.

A deﬁciency of knowledge A deﬁciency of execution

You Must Also Resolve

“Organization learning and change
is eventually always about action.
One basic reﬂective skill involves
using the gaps between what we say
and what we do as a vehicle for
becoming more aware.
Until the gap between Organizations
espoused theory and that struggle with
current behavior is recognized, learning how to
do old things in
no learning can occur.” new ways, will
- Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline
struggle with Agile.

What What
We We

Say Do

All
You
Need
To
Know
Is
That
It’s
Possible
To
Go
From

Here
to

Here

...And if your team or
organization chooses to stay
in the desert, they will need to
recognize that it is a decision,
not an unavoidable circumstance.


Break the law of organizational inertia.
Necessity may be the mother of invention,
but imagination for something better is the
fountainhead for greatness.
All That You Need To Know Is That It’s Possible

Bill Gaiennie bill@davisbase.ORG

All You Need To Know Is That It's Possible

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