A screenshot of a cell phone  Description generated with very high confidenceFREE Agile leadership and management tools
for early purchasers of
The Age of Agile

A new age is upon us and it’s time to celebrate. Please join me as my partners and I fete the publication of The Age of Agile with a truly amazing array of FREE supplementary Agile leadership and management tools from all around the world, including US, UK, Germany, Austria, Portugal, and India. If you buy The Age of Agile now, then as of 4:00 pm Thursday February 8, you'll get access to all these gifts to at no extra cost to you. (Note: some bonus gifts are in LIMITED QUANTITIES and others for 48 HOURS ONLY.)

How do you get access to the gifts? Simple. After you order the book from Amazon, come back to this webpage and enter your Amazon order number in the form at the bottom of this page and as of Thursday February 8, 2018 at 4:00 pm (US EST), you will be given access to all these FREE supplementary Agile leadership and management tools,. Make a note of that day and time, because some of the gifts are limited in time or number, and they will go fast. For details of the tools and gifts, scroll down this webpage. Here’s a quick overview of this amazing array:


    GET ACCESS TO ALL THESE FREE TOOLS

FREE CONSULTATIONS, WEBINARS AND WORKSHOPS
Bonus gift #1: Richard Sheridan CEO: Seats in the 5-day Menlo Innovations Deep Dive (value $3,650) 
Bonus gift #2: Rita McGrath/S. Denning: Exclusive: Are your metrics leading you astray? (value $800) 
Bonus gift #3: Adrian Swinscoe: consultation wowing your customers (Value $2,500
Bonus gift #4: Stephen Forte/Steve Denning: inside Silicon Valley: Exclusive consultation (Value $2,000)
Bonus gift #5: Agile For All's Bob Hartman: Certified Agile Leadership (CAL) course (Value $2,500))
Bonus gift #6: Andrew Holm: 2 X 1 Hour Video Conferences (value $3,000)
Bonus gift #7: Victoria Ward: Makeshift: 2-hour 1-on-1 or small group sessions ($2,000 value) 
Bonus gift #8: Peter Stevens: Performance through Agility: Online Group Mentoring (Value $1800) 
Bonus gift #9; Maria Matarelli/Nic Sementa: Oneline training: Agile Marketing ($497 value)
Bonus gift #10: Thomas Juli: “Agile MVP’s: Setting up Agile projects for success” (Value $2,500) 
Bonus gift #11: Robby Slaughter: Productivity coaching (Value @100) 
Bonus gift #12: Jay Goldstein: Agile Leadership Live Video Conference and Consultation (Value $550)
Bonus gift #13: Araceli De Leon: Free Documentary Filmmaking workshop (A $750 value) 
Bonus gift #14: Madelyn Blair free consultation: creating a resilient solution to a challenge (Value $500
Bonus gift #15: Arnaldo Romanos-Hofer: Access to software & consulting session (Value $1,200) 
Bonus gift #16: Tony DiGioia: Free consultation on patient-centered design & goShadow (Value $600
Bonus gift #17: CA Technologies offers free 1-hour agile expert consultation with Laureen Knudsen
Bonus gift #18: Dawna Jones: Bridging the gap between Agile and traditional management. (value $500)
Bonus gift #19: A Compact, Online Toyota Kata Course (Value $80

FREE CONFERENCES 
Bonus gift #20: Business Agility Conference in NY: Two free places (Value $1,600)
Bonus gift #21: Hugo Lorenco: Free place at eXperience Agile 2018 Lisbon (Value $800)
Bonus gift #22: Naresh Jain: 10 free places in Agile India 2018, March 4-9 (A $330 value)
Bonus gift #23: Mike Rother: Annual Toyota Kata Summit: aka “Katacon” (Value $1795)

FREE BOOKS 
Bonus gift #24: Scrum.org offers book: Nexus Framework for Scaling Scrum (Value $35)
Bonus gift #25: Brian Shoemaker/Nancy Van Schooenderwoert: Agile medical devices (Value $40)
Bonus gift #26: InfoQ is offering the book, Why Agile Works
Bonus gift #27: Stan Garfield: Implementing a Successful Knowledge Management Program ($25 value)
Bonus gift #28: Rini Van Solingen: Free 154-page book: How to Lead Self-Managing Teams (A $20 value)
Bonus gift #29: Mike Rother: Free book: Toyota Kata Practice Guide (TKPG) (Value $31)

FREE VIDEOS 
Bonus gift #30: Seth Kahan: Free video training, Getting Association Strategy Right (A $398 value)
Bonus gift #31: Dawna Jones: closing the gap between Agile and traditional management. (value $500)

FREE TOOLS 
Bonus gift #32: Rita McGrath: Assessment: Are you at risk of excessive exploitation focus? (Value $100)
Bonus gift #33: Ellen Gottesdiener: Agile Product Requirements Discovery Guide
Bonus gift #34: Rick Wartzman: Preface to The End of Loyalty
Bonus gift #35: Amanda Setili The New Rules for Fearless Growth (16 pages)
Bonus gift #36: Tony DiGioia: goShadow improvement bundle and license (Value $600)
Bonus gift #37: Arthur Shelley: opening chapter from KNOWledge SUCCESSion
Bonus gift #38: BlueBottleBiz free tailored Discovery Path for business professionals

LATE BREAKING GIFTS
Bonus gift #39: Simon Roberts offers 3 places in his Agile Leadership Training Program (value 1500 EUR)
Bonus gift #40: Agility Scales Community/beta app access, private Agile Quests and Experiments
Bonus gift #41: Amanda Setili: free consultation: attacking a strategic challenge with agility ($600 value)

 

"You mean I get all these gifts?"

Yes. And here's how!

First, order the book from AMAZON.

Then return to this website and fill out the form below with your purchase order number from Amazon.

Once you press SUBMIT (after February 8, 4pm US EST), you will get access to ALL of the extraordinary workshops, consultations, videos and tools at no additional cost to you. (But don’t delay: some of the quantities are limited and these items will go fast.

In the meantime, you can scroll down to see details of all the gifts here.

P.S. Please feel free to share this extraordinary offer with your friends!

 

What The Age of Agile is all about ...

An unstoppable revolution is under way. Organizations have learned how to connect everyone and everything . . . all the time. They have found ways to deliver instant, intimate, frictionless value on a large scale. Here’s one sure sign that the revolution has already occurred: the five most-valuable  firms on the planet today—Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft—are by and large practicing Agile management. In effect, Agile is eating the world.

Agile ways of running organizations began emerging many decades ago, but truly took off in the software development industry over the last 15 years. Sparking dramatic improvements in quality, innovation, and speed-to-market, the Agile movement is now spreading quickly throughout all all parts and all kinds of companies.

Agile enables a team, a unit, or an enterprise to nimbly adapt and upgrade products and services to meet rapidly changing technology and customer needs. And the process is applicable anywhere—companies don’t need to be born Agile, like Spotify. Even century-old firms like Barclays and Ericsson are making the transition. Public sector organizations are also finding that they need Agile management to meet the challenges they face.

Filled with examples from every sector, The Age of Agile helps readers learn how to:

  • Master the three laws of Agile management
  • Embrace an Agile mindset
  • Make the entire organization Agile
  • Understand and master Strategic Agility
  • Overcome the strong headwinds to implementing Agile management

With this breakthrough approach, even lumbering industrial companies re learning how to act entrepreneurially. Their future depends on it.

In effect, we are at the dawn of a new age—the age of Agile. It’s an exhilarating time, because unprecedented change can happen very rapidly. The Age of Agile unpacks the groundbreaking ideas, values and practices that are remaking the very foundations of business and government. Agile isn’t simply a new “process” to be grafted onto current management practice. It’s a fundamentally different way of understanding and interacting with the world.

The author—Steve Denning—has written over 700 articles for Forbes.com on the Agile revolution. His book draws on the varied experience of the firms in the SD Learning Consortium, which he helped create. He serves on the advisory board of the Drucker Forum. He is a former World Bank executive and the author of seven business books including The Leader’s Guide to Radical Management (2010) and The Leader's Guide to Storytelling (2nd edition, 2011)

Here are details of your free Agile leadership and management tools.
To get access to all of them, go to the form below, after purchasing your copy of The Age of Agile.

Tools for The Age of Agile

 

FREE CONSULTATIONS, WEBINARS & WORKSHOPS


Bonus gift #1: Richard Sheridan CEO: Seats in the 5-day Menlo Innovations Deep Dive (value $3,650)

Richard Sheridan is offering up to 3 seats in one of Menlo Innovations 5-day Deep Dive Workshops.  Menlo Innovations is a custom software design and development company with a radically different approach to workplace culture— one intentionally designed to produce joy. Every year, thousands of visitors come to Ann Arbor, Michigan to see to learn how to create a workplace people love. Deep Dive Into the Menlo Way™ is an in-depth experience of everything Menlo. This 5-day overview and workshop combine hands-on experience with world-class instruction in three focused sessions: Intro to The Menlo Way™ (Day 1), Project Management: The Menlo Way™ (Day 2), and High-Tech Anthropology® (Day 3-5). You will receive up to 40 credit hours towards a PMP certification. Throughout this week-long excursion, you will learn about Menlo’s unique culture, discover and practice specific processes and walk away with strategies for implementing Menlo’s processes in your organization  [LIMITED NUMBERS]

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Bonus gift #2: Rita McGrath & Steve Denning: Invitation only webinar: Are your metrics leading you astray? (value $800)

A common complaint among executives trying, and failing, to drive profitable growth in their organizations is that short-term quarterly pressures prevent them from making longer-term investments.  In this interactive, in person webinar, Columbia Business School Professor Rita McGrath and Author, columnist and management expert Steven Denning, challenge this core assumption.  McGrath will present a new metric, the Imagination Premium ™ that provides executives with an alternative to the straitjacket of conventional metrics, and she and Steve will discuss how differently leaders need to manage in the future.  Provide your contact details for an exclusive invitation.  [LIMITED NUMBERS]

Bonus gift #3: Adrian Swinscoe: A 1-hour consultation on wowing your customers & a signed copy of his best-selling book (Value $2,500)

Want to learn how to wow your customers and make their experience amazing? Customer experience is at the heart of the Agile revolution. It is the battleground on which companies and brands compete to thrive—or die. Adrian Swinscoe, a leading consultant, Forbes contributor and best-selling author on customer service and customer experience, is offering seven 1-hour consultations in which you can pick his brains on anything to do with customer service and customers experience. Each consultation will be accompanied by a signed copy of his best-selling 2016 book ‘How To Wow: 68 Effortless Ways to Make Every Customer Experience Amazing’. [LIMITED PLACES]

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Bonus gift #4: Stephen Forte & Steve Denning: The inside story on Silicon Valley: Exclusive 1.5 hour conversation (Value $2,000)

Stephen Forte is a co-founder and Managing Partner of Fresco Capital. Prior to Fresco, he was Chief Strategy Officer of Telerik, a leading vendor of developer and team productivity tools and acquired by Progress Software in 2014. Previously, he founded and operated the Mach5 accelerator in Silicon Valley, AcceleratorHK, Hong Kong’s first startup accelerator, and the Laudato Si’ Challenge Accelerator, the Vatican’s first accelerator. He is also the co-founder of several startups. Steve Forte and Steve Denning are offering an exclusive 1.5 hour limited-place no-holds-barred conversation about what’s really going on in Silicon Valley and the venture capital world. It’s open to the first 20 applicants. Steve Forte will give his take on current trends in tech today, including  finance, regulation, AI, crypto, and AR/VR. [LIMITED PLACES]

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Bonus gift #5: Agile For All's Bob Hartman: Certified Agile Leadership (CAL) course (Value $2,500)

A person smiling for the camera  Description generated with very high confidenceBecome a certified Agile leader and discover how you can harness the benefits of Agile, Lean and other creative organizational approaches to achieve healthy business growth in the midst of unpredictable challenges—without burning out or sacrificing your personal life.   Bob Hartman, aka “Agile Bob", founder & partner of Agile For All, is offering five Certified Agile Leadership (CAL) course registrations.

 Bonus tool #6: Andrew Holm: 2 X 1 Hour Video Conferences (value $3,000)

Andrew Holm (the co-creator of the fractal work model) is offering a 2 x 1-hour Video Conferences. “How to Delight Customers, Increase Productivity 5x, Massively Reduce Costs” The answer lies in front of your eyes--if can you see it. The future is in network organizations, based on self-leadership. This is a unique opportunity to spend 2 hours with one of the most respected and influential business designers in the world. Learn what conditions must be in place for organizations to succeed. Andrew will show how to take what is already there and apply it at different scales within an organization and show how to eliminate between 25 to 50% of current organizational labor costs. (LIMITED SPACES)

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Bonus gift #7: Victoria Ward: Makeshift: 2-hour 1-on-1 or small group sessions ($2,000 value)

Victoria Ward, founder of Sparknow, is offering 3 2 hour 1:1 or small group sessions on knowhow to equip teams and groups to collaborate well. Based on 20 years of research and development led by Victoria Ward. Makeshift works with a live challenge to take you through a structured collaboration methodology. You’ll gain insight into pattern language of core principles, practical skills, tools and techniques to support collaborative working. This might be as an individual, as a leader, in groups and teams, as a project or programme, as a whole organisation.   The 2 hours is broken into 30 minutes of preparation, 45 minutes online session, 45 minutes followup. (LIMITED PLACES)

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Bonus tool #8: Peter Stevens: Performance through Agility: Online Group Mentoring (Value $1800)

Are you transitioning to Agile or Scrum? Would you like help with your transition challenges, to learn from other practitioners, to discuss specific challenges your peers, to develop & cultivate your own Agile Mindset? You can join a community of like-minded professionals. Under leadership of Certified Scrum Trainer Peter Stevens, you and your peers can celebrate your successes and collaborate to solve your problems. Mentoring is for Scrum Masters, Product Owners and other formal or informal leaders who are serious about wanting to create a high-performance Agile team or organization. FIVE free slots are available and FIFTEEN for 25% discount. More info at https://saat-network.ch/apa [LIMITED SPACES]

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Bonus gift #9: Maria Matarelli & Nic Sementa: Free training: Agile Marketing: (Value #497)

Agile Marketing is the first effective growth hacking strategy to be embraced by major corporations on a global level. It allows for massive increases in revenue by helping companies refocus on their ideal customers, apply Agile strategies, and create maximum ROI. Companies such as Coca-Cola, Xerox, Salesforce, Adobe, and other organizations across the world are using Agile Marketing today with great results. Join Maria Matarelli & Nic Sementa for a free online training "Intro to Agile Marketing" on Tuesday, February 20, 2018 at 7:30pm EST.

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Bonus gift #10: Thomas Juli: “Agile MVP’s: Setting up Agile projects for success” (Value $2,500)

Thomas Juli is offering a presentation, an initial one-hour consultation and a template. Guided by the belief that conscious and human-centric leadership is the cornerstone for succeeding in today’s Digital Age, Thomas Juli heads Motivate2B, an agency that motivates people and organizations to become more human, unfold organizational potentials and thus increase business value. In this presentation and consultation he shares his experiences about what it takes to set up Agile projects for success, namely motivation, vision and Agile practice for the project, the team and the business. In addition to the presentation he shares a free template ready for immediate use. [LIMITED PLACES]

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Bonus gift #11: Robby Slaughter: Productivity coaching (Value @100)

Robby Slaughter is offering Productivity Coaching – 30 minute telephone session (up to 50 people, must be scheduled by March 1, 2018). Robby Slaughter is the founder of AccelaWork, a company with over a dozen consultants and speakers that present on topics throughout the country. Robby is an expert on personal productivity and employee engagement, having written four books on the topic and spoken about it to hundreds of audiences. Take 30 minutes out of your day for a coaching session to make the rest of your year more efficient, more effective, and more satisfying. [LIMITED PLACES]

Jay S Goldstein

Bonus tool #12: Jay Goldstein: Agile Leadership Live Video Conference and Consultation (Value $550)

This live, interactive video conference is an Introduction to a Jay Goldstein’s two-day workshop at the University of Chicago’s Graham School of Continuing Education where he developed and delivers a two-day workshop course: Inspired by Steve Denning’s work, workshop covers The five shifts from Traditional Management to Agile Leadership. It is designed for leaders considering, or in the process of shifting, their organization to Agile leadership and operations. The one-hour session includes approximately 35 minutes of course content and allows for 25 minutes for consultation and Q&A personally interacting with your team. [LIMITED PLACES]

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Bonus gift #13: Araceli De Leon: Free Documentary Filmmaking workshop (A $750 value)

Have you been planning to make a documentary but don’t know where to start? In this 60 min webinar Araceli De Leon, the producer of the forthcoming documentary, “The Age of Agile: the movie” will be available to answer questions and give step-by-step guidelines for how to identify the story, launch your project, organize your work, write a funding proposal and negotiate a distribution deal. Araceli De Leon has an MFA in Film and Video from American University and is is a judge of the annual documentary competition for the Television, Internet and Video Association of DC.

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Bonus Gift #14: Madelyn Blair offers free free consultation on creating a resilient solution to an existing challenge (Value $500)

Imagine having an expert mentor who knows the details of running a business, sees the short term need without losing sight of the long term perspective. Resilient advice is efficient, to the point, taking only the time needed. Dr. Madelyn Blair, PhD is a speaker, author, resilience advisor, faculty at Columbia University, and the creator of the Riding the Current™ Program on creating an environment that builds resilience with creativity and innovation. She is offering three 30-minute free consultations on creating a resilient solution to an existing challenge. [LIMITED PLACES, BEFORE FEB 28]

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Bonus gift #15: Arnaldo Romanos-Hofer: Access to software & free consulting/coaching session (Value $1,200)

In the context of The Age of Agile´s ”Law of the Small Team” Arnaldo Romanos-Hofer is offering access to the software based DIALOGOS screening “Agile Complexity Surfing Team Work” plus one hour remote consulting session for three teams in German language as well as three teams in English language. (Teams not to exceed 7 people). The DIALOGOS remote screening tool is based on eight criteria for effective team work in complex environments. These criteria we have defined after working with intercultural teams and leadership development over 20 years in the course of our corporate culture development projects. (LIMITED PLACES)

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Bonus gift #16: Tony DiGioia: Free consultation on patient-centered design and the goShadow (Value $350)

The broken health care system can be transformed by patient-centered design, as explained in The Patient Centered Value System: Transforming Healthcare through Co-Design. goShadow is THE tool to capture processes and measure patient experience and engagement. Shadowing is the first step of the Patient Centered Value System (PCVS). With goShadow, you can easily collect data and report on impressions, shadow to capture qualitative and quantitative data points and gain a full 360-degree view of the patient experience. Use one-touch reporting to enable quick change and targeted improvements, while measuring and tracking outcomes. Use goShadow as part of an agile framework to quickly and iteratively measure change, and drive real results. Although goShadow has been used primarily in healthcare delivery redesign, it can also be used to determine any end users experiences in product design and/or process design. goShadow has been used, for instance, to redesign a food delivery systems in underserved neighborhoods. Up to 100 free 30-minute­ consultations [LIMITED NUMBERS]

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Bonus gift #17: CA Technologies: free agile expert consultation with Laureen Knudsen

Every organization undergoes different pain points during their agile transformation. We at CA Technologies have been a part of many of those transformations, and our experts can offer insights and best practices for your organization to overcome those pain points. Join Laureen Knudsen, co-author of "Modern Business Management: Creating a Built-to-Change Organization" and resident agile expert, for your opportunity to ask the questions on your mind as your organization starts, expands and scales agile across multiple teams and departments.  

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Bonus gift #18: Dawna Jones: One-hour insights strategy session for bridging the gap between Agile and traditional management. (value $500)

Insight to Action coach Dawna Jones brings more than 26 years of experience in learning, facilitating and designing organizational, teams, personal transformation - communication-leading from the moment. She is the author of Decision Making for Dummies and blogs monthly forHuffington Post on Creating Great Workplace Cultures. She is offering a one-hour insight strategy session to support you navigate a tricky dynamic organizationally and personally. Entering into a new context can be challenging especially when decisions defy rational logic and Agile principles.. Value $500 [LIMITED PLACES]

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Bonus gift #19: A Compact, Online Toyota Kata Course (Value $80)

The Online Improvement Kata & Coaching Kata Basics Course: This self-paced, module-based, 3-hour introductory course featuring Professor Jeffrey Liker helps you understand how to increase anyone’s scientific thinking skills through practice of the Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata. The first ten applicants get a coupon code to take this course for free.

 

FREE CONFERENCES>

Bonus gift #20: Business Agility Conference in NY: Two places (Value $1,600)

In the modern economy, companies do not have the luxury of stability. The impact of change, both technological and cultural, is greater and faster than ever before. In this environment, the Business Agility Conference (March 14-15) was created to guide the next generation of companies. Companies that are agile, innovative and dynamic - perfectly designed to thrive in today’s unpredictable markets. This is an intense 2-day conference bringing together the greatest speakers and practitioners of business agility to share their experiences and the benefits their organisations have gained from exploring new and agile practices. 

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Bonus gift #21: Hugo Lorenco: Free place at eXperience Agile 2018 & World Agility Awards

Over the last several years, industry leaders from around the world have been traveling to Lisbon, Portugal to share the latest revolutionary advancements in Agile management and leadership. eXperience Agile 2018 & World Agility Awards will take place on  October 1, 2018 in Lisbon. It will reflect the next wave of Agile as it expands into new applications such as Agile Marketing, Hardware and Personal Agility. As Business Agility continues to become a growing theme in the industry, we recognize that in order to maintain relevance, businesses and industry leaders need to adapt. We are offering two free places at this path-breaking conference in which you will not only in the experience agile but also improve your strategic agility roadmap. [LIMITED PLACES]

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Bonus gift #22: Naresh Jain: 10 free places in Agile India 2018, March 4-9 (A $330 value)

A star-studded cast of speakers and organizations at Agile India, Asia’s largest Agile/Lean conference, including Alan Cooper, Steve Denning, Linda Rising, Gregor Hophe, James Steward, Bjarte Bogsnes, Dr. Denis Bauer, Jeff Patton, Fred George, Josh Long and 70 more thought leaders from 16 countries from Amazon, CBA, Cooper, Ericsson, ExxonMobil, Google, ING, JP Morgan, Nordstrom, Pivotal, Red Hat, Shell, Standard Chartered, Statoil, Target Corporation, Thoughtworks, Twitter, Walmart Labs. The conference is offering 10 free passes and discounts. First TEN people will get a free single-day pass. Others will receive a 10% discount code. [LIMITED PLACES]

Bonus gift #23: Mike Rother: Participation in Annual Toyota Kata Conference: The Kata Summit aka “Katacon”

The fourth annual Kata Summit on February 22-23, 2018 in Atlanta is the opportunity to connect and learn with the rapidly growing world of Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata practitioners. The first applicant gets a free seat at the conference. (Value $1,795)

 

FREE BOOKS

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Bonus gift #24: Scrum.org is offering copies of the book,  Nexus Framework for Scaling Scrum (Value $35)

The Nexus Framework is a simple, effective approach to applying Scrum at scale. Created by Scrum co-creator Ken Schwaber and Scrum.org. Nexus draws on decades of experience to address the unique challenges teams face in coming together, sharing work, and managing and minimizing dependencies. Scrum.org is offering five hardcover copies of their book, Nexus Framework for Scaling Scrum, Continuously Delivering an Integrated Product with Multiple Scrum Teams. The bookprovides practical techniques and practices for adopting Scrum consistently across organizations.

Bonus gift #25:  Brian Shoemaker and Nancy Van Schooenderwoert: book on Agile methods in in medical devices (Value $40)

Brian Shoemaker and Nancy Van Schooenderwoert offer their book “Agile Methods for Safety-Critical Systems: A Primer Using Medical Device Examples.” This book, packed with real-world insights and direct experiences, is for managers who want the benefits of Agile but also must address regulatory compliance, integration of software with other disciplines, and product safety. In it, we combine our understanding of Agile development, hardware/software integration, and regulatory requirements. We know that Agile is simple but not easy; leadership is crucial to make this change spread. We show how to navigate the transition.

Bonus gift #26: InfoQ is offering the book, Why Agile Works

Why do some companies excel with agile and others see virtually no improvement? The difference is culture and an understanding that agile is a framework for deep cultural change instead of a process or set of practices to increase efficiency. Why Agile Works: The Values Behind the Results focuses on why and how agile works and where agile should take organizations in terms of values. InfoQ.com is facilitating the spread of knowledge and innovation in professional software development. InfoQ content is currently published in English, Chinese, Japanese and Brazilian Portuguese. With a readership base of over 1,400,000 unique visitors per month reading content from 100 locally-based editors across the globe, we continue to build localized communities. Stay on top of trends by subscribing to our newsletter or listening to the podcasts.

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Bonus gift #27: Stan Garfield’s book, Implementing a Successful KM Program ($25 value)

Stan Garfield is offering a free copy of his book, Implementing a Successful Knowledge Management Program. This book was designed specifically to provide a step-by-step guide to planning, launching, and leading a knowledge management initiative. Each of the key stages is explored, the potential pitfalls are explained, the necessary research is outlined, and all relevant resources that will help you in reaching your targets are listed at length. Stan is a KM professional for over 21 years at DEC, Compaq, HP, and Deloitte. He presents regularly at conferences such as KMWorldAPQC, and SLA; writes weekly LinkedIn articles; and delivers monthly webinars for Lucidea. He leads the SIKM Leaders Community and maintains a comprehensive KM resource site.

Bonus gift #28: Rini Van Solingen: Free 154-page book: How to Lead Self-Managing Teams (A $20 value)

More and more organizations introduce self-managing teams. Managers need to initiate and guide that transformation, although it's often unclear what their roles will be afterwards. How to Lead Self-Managing Teams is a business novel on changing leadership from sheepherding to beekeeping. It presents a story of a grandfather who teaches his grandson Mark how to lead self-managing teams, talking from his own experiences in transforming from a shepherd to a beekeeper. It is written by Rini van Solingen is an author, speaker and lecturer and professor at Delft University of Technology and CTO at Prowareness.

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Bonus Gift #29: Mike Rother: Free book: Toyota Kata Practice Guide (TKPG) (Value $31)

Take the Kata path to scientific thinking and superior results. In this long-awaited companion to the groundbreaking book Toyota Kata, Mike Rother takes you to the next level of developing business mindset and capability for the 21st Century. Much more than a list of management concepts, The Toyota Kata Practice Guide walks you through the process of making improvement, adaptation, and even innovation routine behavior. Designed to help a coach (the manager) and a learner work together for developing new skillsets, including forming habits that help you solve problems and achieve challenging goals and modifying the thought patterns that drive behavior.  Mike Rother is offering five hardcopies of The Toyota Kata Practice Guide: Practicing Scientific Thinking Skills for Superior Results in 20 Minutes a Day (2017) 

 

FREE VIDEOS

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Bonus tool #30: Seth Kahan: Free video training, Getting Association Strategy Right ($398 value)

A person smiling for the camera  Description generated with very high confidenceStrategy provides escape velocity for an association, the ability to break free of the current gravitational field to achieve new heights. These heights can be measured in three ways: growth, relevance, and market leadership. This 2-hour video series shows step-by-step how Seth Kahan does strategy for his association clients.

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Bonus gift #31: Dawna Jones: Video on skills for closing the gap between Agile and traditional management. (value $500)

Dawna Jones is offering her video on skills for closing the gap between Agile and traditional management. Agile and traditional management operate using separate world views that can collide and raise tensions when Agile is being implemented. In this video, Dawna explains the neuroscience of focus and how to, in brain friendly way, avoid creating resistance to the implementing of Agile. Dawna specializes in bringing insight to complex problems so that a broader perspective and higher level of leadership emerges. You'll hear how something as simple as a line of questioning can bridge internal goals to the customer experience.

 

FREE TOOLS

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Bonus gift #32: Rita McGrath: Assessment, Workbook and Presentation deck: Are you at risk of excessive exploitation focus? (Value $100)

 In her groundbreaking book, The End of Competitive Advantage, Columbia Business School professor Rita Gunther McGrath makes the case that focusing on exploiting existing advantages can be a deadly trap, and that even powerful companies such as Blackberry or Nokia can fall victim.  With this gift, you can perform an assessment of how biased toward exploitation your organization is.  The gift comes complete with a workbook that allows you to identify the causes and potential remedies given unsatisfactory answers as well as a presentation deck you can use to explain the analysis to others. 

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Bonus tool #33: Ellen Gottesdiener: Agile Product Requirements Discovery Guide

Build shared understanding of Agile Product Requirements: Get access to Ellen’s 2-part Agile Product Requirements Guide including “7 Product Dimensions Question Guide” and ““Focus Questions for the Structured Conversations.”  An Agile Product Coach and CEO of EBG Consulting, Ellen Gottesdiener helps product and development communities create valuable outcomes through product agility. Ellen is known in the agile community as an instigator and innovator for collaborative practices for agile product discovery and using skilled facilitation to enable healthy teamwork and strong organizations.  Ellen keenly focuses on amplifying discovery to accelerate delivery.  She is co-author of Discover to Deliver: Agile Product Planning and Analysis.

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Bonus Gift #34: Rick Wartzman: Preface to The End of Loyalty

In The End of Loyalty: The Rise and Fall of Good Jobs in America, Rick Wartzman examines how the social contract between employer and employee in America has changed since the end of World War II through the lens of four iconic companies: General Motors, General Electric, Kodak and Coca-Cola. strategy+business selected The End of Loyalty as one of the best books of 2017. Besides great storytelling, the book’s power comes from this: Often, the best way to shape the future is to understand the past. (The preface is excerpted from The End of Loyalty: Copyright © 2017. Available from PublicAffairs, an imprint of Perseus Books, LLC, a subsidiary of Hachette Book Group, Inc.)

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Bonus Gift #35: Amanda Setili The New Rules for Fearless Growth (16 pages)

Is your company fast, creative, and adaptable enough to survive in today’s volatile world? In our age of disruption, your company must be agile and courageous—yet it’s easy to react to today’s business climate with fear and indecision. Don’t make that mistake. To move quickly and intelligently to the changes unfolding around us, you must be sure all levels and functions in your businesses are creative and responsive. Amanda Setili is president of strategy consulting firm Setili & Associates. An internationally acclaimed expert on strategic agility®, she gives her clients—including Cardinal Health, Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines, The Home Depot, UPS, and Walmart—unbiased and laser-clear advice on how to respond quickly and intelligently to a changing marketplace. She offers two 15-page guides: “New Rules for Fearless Growth” and “Are You Ready to Grow Fearlessly?”

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Bonus gift #36: Tony DiGioia: Free goShadow improvement bundle, including free 6-month goShadow license (Value $600)

Our broken health care system can be transformed by patient-centered design, as explained in The Patient Centered Value System: Transforming Healthcare through Co-Design. goShadow is THE tool to capture processes and measure patient experience and engagement. Shadowing is the first step of the Patient Centered Value System (PCVS). With goShadow, you can easily collect data and report on impressions, shadow to capture qualitative and quantitative data points and gain a full 360-degree view of the patient experience. Use one-touch reporting to enable quick change and targeted improvements, while measuring and tracking outcomes. Use goShadow as part of an agile framework to quickly and iteratively measure change, and drive real results. Although goShadow has been used primarily in healthcare delivery redesign, it can also be used to determine any end users experiences in product design and/or process design. goShadow has been used, for instance, to redesign a food delivery systems in underserved neighborhoods. Tony is offering an unlimited number of goShadow free trials and a 6-month free license—a $600 value.

Bonus gift #37: Arthur Shelley: opening  chapter from KNOWledge SUCCESSion

KNOWledge SUCCESSion is an exploration of how to leverage projects as generators of new knowledge and capability development to sustain success. Structured to build from current knowledge foundations to connect interdependent aspects of development work in our complex world, it stimulates higher performance and competitive advantage at personal, team and organisational levels. Dr. Arthur Shelley is a capability development and knowledge strategy consultant with over 30 years experience. His professional roles include managing international projects in Australia, Europe, Asia and USA and professional development workshops with organisations as diverse as NASA, Cirque du Soleil, government and corporates. Arthur is offering the opening chapter of KNOWledge SUCCESSion.

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Bonus gift #38:  BlueBottleBiz offers free tailored Discovery Path for business professionals

Gain valuable business knowledge in short bites, when you need it! BlueBottleBiz is the first collaborative learning platform for business professionals. The most-read and the fastest-growing category of learning in 2017 across its platform is Management, Strategy and Leadership. BlueBottleBiz has tailored a free learning Discovery Path for all purchasers of The Age of Agile. You will join a group with access to books and articles from BlueBottleBiz’s library of 50,000 assets.

 

LATE BREAKING GIFTS

Bonus gift #39: Simon Roberts: Agile Leadership, Scrum and Enterprise Scrum training from ScrumCenter: Certified Scrum Trainer® (value 1500 EUR)

Whether you are just getting started with agile or looking to level up your implementation, you can benefit from this offer. Choose from Certified ScrumMaster®, Certified Scrum Product Owner®, Certified Scrum Developer®, Agile Leadership or Certified Enterprise Scrum Business Agility. Free places in the UK or Germany for the first three that apply. Others get a 20% discount for a course of their choice.

Simon has been helping organisations to adopt and succeed with agile since the early 2000s. Recent delegate: "Brilliant! Really informative, and broken into good size chunks. Made me very excited about agile!!" [LIMITED PLACES]

Bonus gift #40: Agility Scales Community/beta app access, private Agile Quests and Experiments to build agile mindsets

If you’re interested in helping teams develop true agility and helping individuals change their mindsets, join the Agility Scales venture, founded by Jurgen Appelo, author of Managing for Happiness, which includes a community dedicated to capturing, sharing and measuring the impact of actionable ideas, as well as the Mind Settlers app and platform with actionable guides. Join other agile changemakers on special quests and experiments supporting the 3 Laws of Agile described by Steve Denning.

Bonus gift #41: Amanda Setili: free consultation: attacking a strategic challenge with agility ($600 value)

In these times of fast market and technology change, many companies face strategic challenges of gargantuan proportions. They need to act quickly, but that can be difficult. Many forces, from incentives, to investor expectations, to employee readiness get in the way of fast strategic execution. Even your customers may balk at rapid change, rejecting opportunities to try new products, or to do things in new ways. Strategic agility® expert Amanda Setili, author of Fearless Growth, and The Agility Advantage is offering three free one-hour consultations to help you attack your biggest strategic challenge with speed and agility. [LIMITED PLACES]

To get access to all the leadership and management tools being offered here, go to the form below, after purchasing your copy of The Age of Agile.

A better way of getting things done…

Reporting from the frontlines, author Steve Denning takes you deep into the Agile management revolution. He provides specific, inspiring examples of how some of today’s enlightened companies are leveraging the power of Agile, including firms such as: Airbnb, Amazon, Etsy, Google, Menlo Innovations, Saab, and Spotify.

Drawing on lessons learned from these bold companies and the experience of the firms in the SD Learning Consortium, Denning demystifies Agile management by providing three “laws” that make it practical and clear:

The Law of the Customer flows from the epic shift in power in the marketplace from seller to buyer, and the need for firms to radically accelerate their ability to make decisions and change direction in light of unexpected events and new customer demands. It amounts to a Copernican revolution in management.

The Law of the Small Team shows how to operate in a “VUCA” world (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity). Using this law, difficult problems are split into manageable batches and performed by small cross-functional, self-governing teams, working iteratively in short cycles, with fast feedback from customers and end-users.

The Law of the Network (the linchpin of Agile) concerns what’s involved in making the entire organization Agile—a fluid interactive network, rather than a top-down command-and-control bureaucracy.

Becoming “Agile” is a continuing journey, not a finite accomplishment. You’ll know your company is on the journey when its goal has shifted from extracting value for shareholders to creating delighted customers. And paradoxically, you’ll find that the goal of adding value to customers rather than of “making money” ends up making more money.

To get access to all the leadership and management tools being offered here, go to the form below, after purchasing your copy of The Age of Agile.

What the experts are saying about this book…

The Age of Agile is an indispensable guide to building an organization that can thrive in a world of unrelenting change.”
Gary Hamel
Professor, London Business School and
Director, MLab

The Age of Agile should be a go-to reference for navigating the transient advantage economy.”
Rita Gunther McGrath
Professor, Columbia Business School

“This eye-opening book challenges us to think, not just about which technologies will shape the future, but about which organizations will be able to handle–and develop—them.
Carlota Perez
Author of Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital:
The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages

The Age of Agile vividly demonstrates why an organization needs a new management paradigm to thrive in a world of rapid and continuous change.:
W. Chan Kim
The BCG Professor of Strategy at INSEAD and New York Times bestselling co-author of Blue Ocean Shift

The Age of Agile demystifies a fuzzy topic, delivers a stinging critique of flawed management practices, provides practical advice, and is an enjoyable read. A great book.”
Scott Anthony
Managing Partner of Innosight and lead author of Dual Transformation

The Age of Agile provides a compelling and actionable overview of the new mindset that will create significant new value.”
John Hagel
Co-Chairman of the Deloitte Center for the Edge

“At a time when the quest for shareholder value is leading many companies to short-change their customers, employees, and everyone else, The Age of Agile envisions an economy that is more innovative, more humane, and more inclusive.”
Lynn S. Paine
John G. McLean Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School, and co-author of Capitalism at Risk: Rethinking the Role of Business

“An invaluable guide to transforming hierarchical management.”
—Robert M. Randall
Editor-in-Chief, Strategy & Leadership, and
editor/author of The Portable MBA in Strategy

“Steve Denning’s The Age of Agile is a call to arms for why we must improve our innovative performance and a manifesto for making that happen.”
Curtis R. Carlson
CEO Practice of Innovation, LLC
CEO of SRI international 1998-2014

“In The Age of Agile, Steve Denning demonstrates why and how a passion for products, not profits, is the key to successful business enterprise.”
Willliam Lazonick
Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, and codirector of its Center for Industrial Competitiveness

“In Silicon Valley, companies that grow big usually start to lose their way. Steve Denning in The Age of Agile, shows how to avoid the common pitfalls startups make as they scale into larger, more mature companies.”
Stephen Forte
Managing Partner, Fresco Capital 

The Age of Agile should be a key companion to guide business leaders in their quest to address the biggest challenge set out by Peter Drucker for management in the 21st century: achieving a step-change in the productivity of knowledge work.”
Richard Straub
Founder & President of the Global Peter Drucker Forum

The Age of Agile lays out the core principles and with the help of pertinent, easy to understand examples lays out what it takes to apply Agile to any organization.”
Seth Kahan
author of Getting Change Right and Getting Innovation Right

“Check this out. The Age of Agile: Steve Denning is always wise and offers great advice. I just pre-ordered.”
--Robert Sutton
Profess of Business Strategy, Stanford University and author of The No-Asshole Rule

To get access to all the leadership and management tools being offered here, go to the form below, after purchasing your copy of The Age of Agile.

From Operational to Strategic Agility

Strategic Agility is important because it’s central to the key business issue: how to make money from Agile? If the Agile movement was only about creating great workplaces for software developers (also important!) but didn’t generate better business outcomes, its life expectancy wouldn’t be long.

The Age of Agiledistinguishes between operational Agility— i.e. making the existing products better, faster, cheaper and so on for existing customers—and Strategic Agility— i.e. creating new markets with new products that reach new customers through market-creating innovation.

Much of what you see in Agile software development today is operational Agility. It’s about making the existing products better, faster, cheaper and so on for existing customers. There's nothing wrong with that. It’s a good thing. In fact, operational Agility is usually a requirement of staying in business, i.e. surviving. It’s also the foundation for Strategic Agility, i.e. for thriving. In general, a firm won’t be able to generate new products for new customers unless it has also mastered operational Agility.

But if a firm wants to make a lot of money today, it will usually need to go beyond operational Agility and pursue market-creating innovations, i.e. Strategic Agility. To accomplish that, it will generally need to be making decisions at a level higher than that of the team, and in a different way from many of the current approaches in Agile software development. That's because there are many pressures for a team or unit to focus on improving existing products and existing customers, rather than looking beyond that to the next big thing.

The Age of Agile explains the four key steps that you’ll need to achieve Strategic Agility—and a prosperous financial future.

In this respect, the five largest firms in the world today—Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft—are showing us the way. These firms have become Agile by applying Agile mindsets in an organic home-grown fashion, rather than following any externally imposed framework. Google talks about “incessantly making its products better.” Amazon’s “two-pizza teams" relentlessly focus on market dominance. Facebook seeks to preserve and enhance its "startup culture." The fact that, except for Microsoft, these firms usually don't use the label, “Agile” to describe their management practices, shouldn’t distract us from the reality: these firms have become the biggest firms in the world, and are growing bigger every day, not only because they are Agile: they also exemplify Strategic Agility.

To get access to all the leadership and management tools being offered here, go to the form below after purchasing your copy of The Age of Agile.

Headwinds to Agile management ….

Yet there’s also a dark side to the Agile story: an Agile transformation in a large firm is going swimmingly—until suddenly it isn’t. The Agile initiative has been gathering momentum as the people doing the work—and their managers—embrace the better way of getting things done. The progress in delivering more value to customers with less work is documented. Agile champions spread the word across the organization. The initiative prospers, until suddenly, out of nowhere, the C-suite pulls the plug. “We are Agile now,” the announcement goes. “Going forward, we will focus more closely on delivering shareholder value.”

Quiet protests ensue, but the axe comes down. An erstwhile sponsor of Agile in the C-suite is re-assigned. Agile champions are scattered or dismissed. Work becomes rule-based and perfunctory. Morale suffers. Good staff leave. Quality declines. Technical debt accumulates. Inexplicable system outages occur. Innovation slows. After a few years, someone in the C-suite—usually a newcomer—starts asking, “Why can’t we get anything done? Hasn’t anyone heard about Agile?” And so, the Agile transformation cycle begins again.

The first part of The Age of Agile (Chapters 1-7) deals with the positive principles of Agile management. The second part of the book (Chapters 8-11) is dedicated to understanding why such cyclical setbacks occur and what can be done to prevent them.

The sad fact is that Agile management is at odds with much of what is practiced in the lumbering industrial behemoths that we have inherited from the 20th Century. It has yet to permeate much of the mainstream thinking in leading business schools, even today. Generations of managers have built whole careers on outmoded assumptions. If Agile management is to prosper in a sustainable way, leaders not only need to learn about Agile goals, principles and practices. They also need to be aware of the beliefs, assumptions and processes that they will have to unlearn.

In particular, firms need to avoid falling into four management traps:

  • The trap of focusing the firm on maximizing shareholder value as reflected in the current stock price; (Chapter 8)
  • The trap of manipulating the firm’s share price through share buybacks; (Chapter 9)
  • The trap of cost-oriented economics that focuses on short-term profits at the expense of customers and the sustainability of the corporation; (Chapter 10)
  • The trap of backward-looking strategy that deduces the future from the past, rather than using abductive logic that derives the present from a different and more fruitful future. (Chapter 11)

To get access to all these leadership and management tools being offered here, go to the form below. after purchasing your copy of The Age of Agile.

What is the meaning of The Age of Agile?

The Age of Agile draws attention to a body of knowledge about how run organizations in a better way. Our understanding of how to do this is already substantial and it’s reflected in the practice of thousands of organizations around the world. We have deep knowledge as to what’s involved. We know what to do differently. In effect, a new way of getting things done has emerged. It’s not just a big idea—it’s a transformative idea.

Transformative ideas change our frame of reference. They can’t be evaluated within the existing frame of reference, because they create a new way of understanding and interacting with the world. They lead on to more productive hypotheses as to how to improve the future.

I believe that the Agile revolution in management—call it by whatever name you like—is such s set of ideas. It isn’t just one more competing thought for improving the way organizations are run—like a new team process or a better kind of brand or talent management. It’s a fundamentally different and better way of understanding how the world works and getting big things done in a better way. It generates a new frame for society in evaluating all other approaches for accomplishing that.

This different way of doing things generates a prospect that is genuinely exciting. It helps understand the present and points to a better future. It is a practical path towards a world that is potentially better for those doing the work, better for those for whom the work is being done, better for the organizations that coordinate the work and better for society,

The emerging age of Agile is the work of many minds, hands and hearts. It offers the possibility of a great awakening—a foreshadowing of a transformation in the way organizations—and our society—function. The ideas in this book constitute an invitation to recognize, applaud, encourage, nurture and disseminate that possibility and protect it from those entrenched interests that are intent on preventing it from happening.

One key to this future lies in keeping things on a human scale—human beings creating delight for other human beings. When a team, a unit, an organization, or  a society is populated by people with this mindset, it can be at one with itself, at one with those for whom the work is being done, at one with those who are doing the work and at one with the wider society in which it operates.

I hope you enjoy reading The Age of Agile as much as I did writing it.

Steve Denning


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