This book was authored by some good friends of mine. It touches on many of the experiences we have had and lessons we have learned trying to help organisations innovate at scale. I feel honoured to have been acknowledged in this book and that some of my ideas have found their way onto its pages.
Barry O'Reilly and I had several discussions with Jim Highsmith on both adaptive leadership and the definition of value within organisations.
Jez Humble and I have often discussed what I call an "airbag for innovation". Innovation can often be seen as risky, it is often considered high-cost. Many of the technical advances that Jez helped pioneer in terms of "continuous delivery" approaches, mean that getting software out into production becomes a non-event. This in turn opens the flood-gates for experimentation where teams can rapidly try experiments and get feedback from real customers almost instantaneously and with very little overhead.
I invited Joanne Molesky to visit Markel Digital together with Kaimar Karu to explore how Agile / Lean thinking could work within organisations trying to implement ITIL/ITSM.
All too often, the rhythms and rituals that have become the norm for governing large enterprise organisations are the very thing that gets in the way of them innovating at scale. Annual budgeting cycles, "Kiss-up, kick-down culture", organisational silos and the desire to protect existing revenue streams require are all things that require altogether different approaches in the digital marketplace.
The Lean Enterprise is a great book. Read it!
