Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software. Agile Manifesto: Principle #1 Given the IT backgrounds of the people who developed the Agile Manifesto, it’s no surprise that their first principle focuses on early, continuous delivery of value. At the time, IT programs were notorious for taking […]
Start Here: Rapid Learning Cycles 101
Five Benefits of Virtual Rapid Learning Cycles
I’ll never forget the week of March 9, 2020. For us, that was the week that everything changed. In that week, we cancelled all of our face-to-face workshops for 2020. I also agreed to facilitate my own first virtual Kickoff Event. The workshops are central to our ability to build enough working knowledge about Rapid […]
Decision-Making in a Pandemic: Lessons from Rapid Learning Cycles
In early March of 2020, I had to send out final notices postponing all the Rapid Learning Cycles Program Manager workshops we had on the calendar for spring — a scary thing, since this is our primary source of revenue. This was definitely a Key Decision for us — high impact and high unknown, with […]
Agile for Physical Products
Rapid Learning Cycles and the Agile Manifesto
The Agile Manifesto was published in 2001. Twenty years later, the web site, which still exists, looks like a relic of an earlier age. The simple web site design has not been updated, and the principles themselves have been frozen in time. For one thing, there were no women and no minorities among the seventeen white, […]
Rapid Learning Cycles: Agile for Knowledge Work
Rapid Learning Cycles is Agile for Knowledge Work. Many Agile experts would disagree with this statement. Rapid Learning Cycles has evolved far away from its roots in Scrum and dictates few of the tools that fall into the Agile toolkit. In fact, I’ve had clients — and prospective clients — tell me that they were […]
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Announcing: The Accelerate Net Zero Podcast
Accelerate Net Zero explores how we can accelerate the development and implementation of the technologies we need to address climate change and limit global warming. The podcast launches on November 2. Learn more and subscribe for an early visitor bonus here: Accelerate Net Zero
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Your Innovation Teams Need You
Five Ways Executive Sponsors Foster Innovations in Corporate Environments
Florence, Italy is known throughout the world for the quality of its art, architecture and craftsmanship. Florentines owe much of their present glory to the powerful merchant families that emerged in the 13th and 14th centuries. Those families sponsored artists, funded building projects and created a market for beautifully-crafted luxury goods that made Florence a cultural powerhouse during the Renaissance.
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Rapid Learning Cycle Events Don’t Move:
Three Ways the Rapid Learning Cycles Framework Reinforces Project Timeline
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted every team that I work with, in some way. My own staff left the office one Friday afternoon with laptops in mid-March, and I haven’t seen them in person since that day. The temptation in times like these is to put things on hold, to delay, to push things later in order to give the team time to adjust to the new realities.
Health Monitors for Rapid Learning Cycles
Indicators to Assess the Strength of Your Rapid Learning Cycles Program
I celebrated a major milestone in the project to write my second book by purchasing a small desktop fountain. It makes a nice gurgling sound that helps my concentration. Every time I empty it out to put in fresh water, I need to remove the rocks that decorate it, and then rearrange them until the fountain sounds right. If it’s too loud, it’s distracting and if it’s too soft, it does no good. When it’s just right, the room brightens up with its cheerful song.
I can tell when a Rapid Learning Cycles program is going well.
Three Ways to Replan When Your Learning Cycles Plan Needs Updating
How to Adjust Your Learning Cycles Plan
When I went in search of a tool to support virtual Rapid Learning Cycles kickoff events, the main requirement was that it duplicate the experience of working with sticky notes as closely as possible.