Foreword

We live in uncertain times created by the move from the age of mass production to the digital or software age. Traditional management and leadership practices were developed to manage work, to build the process, and to provide the intelligence for work to be done. Workers were cogs, resources to be applied along with other assets such as tools and capital to get work done. The management was the king, directing and leading the work. That is all changing. We are moving to a world where, by necessity, teams have to be empowered to respond to their environment. Agility is turning the world upside down with traditional hierarchical, Taylorism management, which is being replaced with something new. Agile leadership is the future. But what does an agile leader do?

There have been many books written about what agile leadership is. They describe the change to servant leadership, the role of organization, and even behaviors that we expect from these new leaders. But they do not provide you with tools you need to work as an agile leader. In this book, Peter has provided an integrated toolkit for agile leadership. He has provided a set of tools that ask the right questions, provide focus, raise transparency, and allow adaption. They can be thought of as a set of tools that provide a foundation for agile leadership. That does not mean that if you use the tools you will be “agile.” The path to building the right environment for agility to thrive is a hard one. But this is a great place to start.

To thrive in the digital age requires a step change, not just in terms of the adoption of new technology, team practices, or process but also the environment those “things” are brought into. Leadership needs to change, and the framework that Peter describes not only provides practical tools but also focuses the leader on the right things. Ownership, time to learn, building the right habits, and setting the right goals are the fundamental elements for agility.

—Dave West

Dave West is the CEO and Product Owner at Scrum.org. He is a frequent keynote speaker at major industry conferences and is a widely published author of articles and research reports. He led the development of the Rational Unified Process (RUP) for IBM/Rational. After IBM/Rational, West returned to consulting and managed Ivar Jacobson Consulting for North America. Next, he served as VP and research director at Forrester, where he ran the software development and delivery practice. Prior to joining Scrum.org, he was Chief Product Officer at Tasktop where he was responsible for product management, engineering, and architecture.