After studying software engineering at the Delft University of Technology, and earning his Master’s degree in 1994, Jurgen busied himself either starting up or leading a variety of Dutch businesses, always in the position of team leader, manager, or executive.

Jurgen’s most recent occupation was CIO at ISM eCompany, one of the largest e-business solution providers in The Netherlands. As a manager, Jurgen has experience in leading software developers, development managers, project managers, quality managers, service managers, and kangaroos, some of which he hired accidentally.

He is primarily interested in software development and complexity theory, from a manager’s perspective. As a writer, he has published papers and articles in many magazines, and he maintains a blog at www.noop.nl. As a speaker, he is regularly invited to talk at seminars and conferences.

Last but not least, Jurgen is a trainer, with workshops based on the Management 3.0 model. His materials address the topics of energizing people, empowering teams, aligning constraints, developing competence, growing structure, and improving everything.

However, sometimes he puts all writing, speaking, and training aside to do some programming himself, or to spend time on his ever-growing collection of science fiction and fantasy literature, which he stacks in a self-designed book case that is four meters high.

Jurgen lives in Rotterdam (The Netherlands)–and sometimes in Brussels (Belgium)–with his partner Raoul. He has two kids and an imaginary hamster called George.

Acknowledgments    xxv

About the Author    xxvii

Preface    xxix

1   Why Things Are Not That Simple    1

Causality    2

Complexity     3

Our Linear Minds     5

Reductionism     7

Holism    8

Hierarchical Management    9

Agile Management    11

My Theory of Everything    12

The Book and the Model     13

Summary    14

Reflection and Action    14

2   Agile Software Development     17

Prelude to Agile     17

The Book of Agile    19

The Fundamentals of Agile    22

The Competition of Agile    24

The Obstacle to Agile    28

Line Management versus Project Management     28

Summary    30

Reflection and Action    31

3   Complex Systems Theory    33

Cross-Functional Science    34

General Systems Theory    35

Cybernetics    36

Dynamical Systems Theory     37

Game Theory    37

Evolutionary Theory     38

Chaos Theory     38

The Body of Knowledge of Systems    39

Simplicity: A New Model    41

Revisiting Simplification    44

Nonadaptive versus Adaptive     45

Are We Abusing Science?    46

A New Era: Complexity Thinking    48

Summary    50

Reflection and Action    50

4   The Information-Innovation System    51

Innovation Is the Key to Survival    52

Knowledge    54

Creativity    56

Motivation     58

Diversity    60

Personality     62

Only People Are Qualified for Control     64

From Ideas to Implementation    65

Summary    66

Reflection and Action    67

5   How to Energize People    69

Creative Phases     69

Manage a Creative Environment    72

Creative Techniques    74

Extrinsic Motivation    75

Intrinsic Motivation     78

Demotivation     79

Ten Desires of Team Members    80

What Motivates People: Find the Balance    83

Make Your Rewards Intrinsic    86

Diversity? You Mean Connectivity!     87

Personality Assessments    89

Four Steps toward Team Personality Assessment    90

Do-It-Yourself Team Values     92

Define Your Personal Values     94

The No Door Policy    95

Summary    97

Reflection and Action    97

6   The Basics of Self-Organization    99

Self-Organization within a Context     99

Self-Organization toward Value    101

Self-Organization versus Anarchy     102

Self-Organization versus Emergence    104

Emergence in Teams    106

Self-Organization versus Self-Direction

versus Self-Selection    107

Darkness Principle     108

Conant-Ashby Theorem     110

Distributed Control    111

Empowerment as a Concept    112

Empowerment as a Necessity    113

You Are (Like) a Gardener    115

Summary    117

Reflection and Action    118

7   How to Empower Teams    119

Don’t Create Motivational Debt    119

Wear a Wizard’s Hat    121

Pick a Wizard, Not a Politician    122

Empowerment versus Delegation     123

Reduce Your Fear, Increase Your Status    124

Choose the Right Maturity Level    125

Pick the Right Authority Level     127

Assign Teams or Individuals    131

The Delegation Checklist    132

If You Want Something Done, Practice Your Patience    133

Resist Your Manager’s Resistance    134

Address People’s Ten Intrinsic Desires    136

Gently Massage the Environment     136

Trust     138

Respect     141

Summary    144

Reflection and Action    144

8   Leading and Ruling on Purpose     147

Game of Life    147

Universality Classes    149

False Metaphor    150

You’re Not a Game Designer    151

But…Self-Organization Is Not Enough     152

Manage the System, Not the People    154

Managers or Leaders?    156

Right Distinction: Leadership versus Governance    156

Meaning of Life     158

Purpose of a Team     160

Assigning an Extrinsic Purpose     163

Summary    164

Reflection and Action    165

9   How to Align Constraints    167

Give People a Shared Goal    167

Checklist for Agile Goals     170

Communicate Your Goal    172

Vision versus Mission    174

Examples of Organizational Goals    176

Allow Your Team an Autonomous Goal    177

Compromise on Your Goal and Your Team’s Goal     178

Create a Boundary List of Authority    179

Choose the Proper Management Angle    180

Protect People    181

Protect Shared Resources     183

Constrain Quality     185

Create a Social Contract    186

Summary    188

Reflection and Action    188

10   The Craft of Rulemaking    191

Learning Systems    191

Rules versus Constraints     193

The Agile Blind Spot    196

What’s Important: Craftsmanship     198

Positive Feedback Loops    200

Negative Feedback Loops    201

Discipline * Skill = Competence    204

Diversity of Rules    206

Subsidiarity Principle    208

Risk Perception and False Security     209

Memetics    211

Broken Windows     215

Summary    216

Reflection and Action    217

11   How to Develop Competence    219

Seven Approaches to Competence Development    221

Optimize the Whole: Multiple Levels    223

Optimize the Whole: Multiple Dimensions     224

Tips for Performance Metrics    227

Four Ingredients for Self-Development     229

Managing versus Coaching versus Mentoring    231

Consider Certification    233

Harness Social Pressure    235

Use Adaptable Tools    237

Consider a Supervisor    238

Organize One-on-Ones    241

Organize 360-Degree Meetings    242

Grow Standards    245

Work the System, Not the Rules or the People    246

Summary    247

Reflection and Action    248

12   Communication on Structure     249

Is It a Bug or a Feature?    250

Communication and Feedback    250

Miscommunication Is the Norm    253

Capabilities of Communicators     254

Network Effects    258

Tuning Connectivity     260

Competition and Cooperation    262

Groups and Boundaries     264

Hyper-Productivity or Autocatalysis    266

Pattern-Formation    268

Scale Symmetry: Patterns Big and Small    270

How to Grow: More or Bigger?     272

Summary    274

Reflection and Action    274

13   How to Grow Structure     275

About Environment, Products, Size, and People     275

Consider Specialization First…    278

…And Generalization Second    279

Widen People’s Job Titles     281

Cultivate Informal Leadership     283

Watch Team Boundaries     284

The Optimal Team Size Is 5 (Maybe)    286

Functional Teams versus Cross-Functional Teams    288

Two Design Principles     290

Choose Your Organizational Style     292

Turn Each Team into a Little Value Unit    294

Move Stuff out to Separate Teams     295

Move Stuff up to Separate Layers    299

How Many Managers Does It Take to Change an Organization?     301

Create a Hybrid Organization    302

The Anarchy Is Dead, Long Live the Panarchy    303

Have No Secrets    305

Make Everything Visible    307

Connect People    308

Aim for Adaptability    308

Summary    309

Reflection and Action    310

14   The Landscape of Change    313

The Environment Is Not “Out There”    313

The Fear of Uncertainty     315

Laws of Change     317

Every Product Is a Success…Until It Fails    319

Success and Fitness: It’s All Relative    321

How to Embrace Change     321

Adaptation, Exploration, Anticipation     322

The Red Queen’s Race    325

Can We Measure Complexity?    327

Are Products Getting More Complex?    328

The Shape of Things: Phase Space     331

Attractors and Convergence    332

Stability and Disturbances    334

Fitness Landscapes    335

Shaping the Landscape     337

Directed versus Undirected Adaptation    339

Summary    340

Reflection and Action    341

15   How to Improve Everything    343

Linear versus Nonlinear Improvement    345

Know Where You Are    347

Travel Tips for Wobbly Landscapes    348

Change the Environment, Summon the Mountain    350

Make Change Desirable    353

Make Stagnation Painful    354

Honor Thy Errors    355

The Strategy of Noise    356

The Strategy of Sex     359

The Strategy of Broadcasts     360

Don’t Do Copy-Paste Improvement     362

Some Last Practical Tips for Continuous Change    364

Keep on Rolling    366

Summary    367

Reflection and Action    367

16   All Is Wrong, but Some Is Useful    369

The Six Views of Management 3.0     369

Yes, My Model Is “Wrong”     371

But Other Models Are “Wrong,” Too    373

The Fall and Decline of Agilists    376

The Complexity Pamphlet    377

Summary    380

Reflection and Action    380

Bibliography    381

Index    393

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