Esther Derby has recently published a book entitled: 7 Rules for Positive, Productive Change – Micro Shifts, Macro Results.
I delivered a keynote at the Gatineau Ottawa Agile Tour (GOAT) conference in Ottawa on November 22, 2019. Esther delivered the morning keynote and I the afternoon. I attended her keynote out of heavy interest because I’d purchased her new book, but hadn’t read it yet. So, I was looking for a bit of a peek under the covers of it.
Here’s the GOAT keynote description—
It may seem paradoxical that something small leads to something big. Yet this is the case. Big changes can feel like an existential threat and cause major disruption. Tiny changes, working obliquely, evolving towards a more desirable pattern may lack drama, but get you where you need to go. So how does this work? The same way agile does, iteratively, incrementally, with learning as you go. I’ll share some small ideas that will add up to a big change in how you go about changing your organization.
Just for context, I’ll share the 7 Rules from Esther’s book:
Strive for Congruence
Honor the Past, Present, and People
Assess What Is
Attend to Networks
Experiment
Guide, and Allow for Variation
Use Your Self
Instead of thinking of them as rules, think of them as heuristics. All of them with a focus on making micro shifts (changes) as a strategy within organizations.