Change
This first section hinges on the phrase sheng ren, traditionally translated as “the sage”. Sheng means perceptive, competent and responsive, and ren is just people or person, so here it’s agile person, agile people, or just “agility”.
1. The River (xv)
Agility is practical, not mystical.
A way of life, not a state of grace.
Listening like a man on thin ice,
Testing like a boat in strange waters,
Adapting like a traveller to a distant land,
Connecting like the deep woods,
Simplifying like a melting snowflake,
Leading as a valley does the river,
Sharing as its silt feeds the fields.
Imagine the ice solid or the water clear,
Stop to plan your way ahead,
Ignore what moves underfoot;
You fall and disappear.
2. Embracing Change (xxiii)
Great changes happen fast.
A storm may last a night,
Or a flood a day,
And change the world forever.
As nature’s forms change, so must our own.
Embracing change, we lead it
Like a ship sailing on the tide.
Anchored to forms, or set adrift,
The tides overwhelm us.
3. Throughput (lxxviii)
Though nothing is so soft and flexible,
Water carves mountains and drowns cities
Which cannot control it.
Glaciers and floods -
People see in these the force of water
And fail to grasp its real power.
The agile channel water to irrigate fields
To multiply grain so people won’t go hungry
And fight over it.
4. Floating Boats (v/viii/vii)
Like a river, agility aligns people,
Dissolves differences,
Clarifies confusions,
Quickens growth,
Opens bottlenecks,
Fills opportunity,
And speeds flow.
As water runs where it’s not blocked,
The agile carve channels of mutual benefit,
Learning by sharing learning,
Letting go old ways to find better ones,
And trusting in those trusting in them.
As a rising tide floats all boats
Agility supports community.
5. Learning (xlviii/xli)
Like children when they play,
And students when they question,
The agile share learning.
Laughter comes with their delight
As learning discovers ways
To reduce the work
Of adapting to each other.
As learning makes work easier
It increases the work you don’t do.
So, the less you work at learning,
The more work remains to do.
6. Agile Ways (lxvii)
People often talk about agility;
Often, talk is all there is to it;
But there are three ways
Agile people think and work differently:
Connection, adaptation, and simplicity.
Connection generates strength,
Adaptation, flexibility,
And simplicity, ease.
Strength without an open hand,
Flexibility without a coiled spine,
Ease without a quiet heart,
Spell the end of agility.
7. Open Hand (xlix)
Agility connects people like a family
By fostering them.
The agile are fair to the fair,
And the unfair,
Fostering fairness.
They’re trustworthy to the trustworthy,
And the untrustworthy,
Fostering trust.
They’re kind to people within their community,
And without,
Fostering kindness.
No matter what someone says or seems,
They treat each like each other.
8. Coiled Spine (xlv)
As nature adapts without end or intent,
Effort or limit,
Reason or regret,
Agile people adapt their forms
To the flow of forms.
Bending to straighten,
Emptying to fill,
Failing to learn,
Risking to gain,
Leaving to return.
XXX the form of this chapter has grown out of hand and needs to be restored to meet the originals.
9. Quiet Heart (xxiv/xxii)
Vanity loses respect;
Deceit loses trust;
Debt loses choice;
Bias loses integrity;
Habit loses opportunity.
Agility doesn’t respond in kind,
But sees these problems as damage,
And routes around them.
Losing sight of yourself, you see clearly.
Letting go your beliefs, you grasp X.
Forgetting your ambitions, you find purpose.
Without indulgence leaves nothing to deride;
Without conspiracy leaves nothing to expose;
Without usury leaves nothing to enslave;
Without prejudice leaves nothing to discredit;
Without reaction leaves nothing to manipulate.
10. The Watchmen (xxix/xxii)
You can’t control human nature no matter what you do;
People always find new ways to express it.
Stamp out one evil and another breeds;
Punish one rebel and others conspire;
Some will lead where others follow;
Some own what others owe;
Some gain what others lose;
Some make rules others obey.
Agility only makes rules to control motives
To compete, hoard, and exploit,
But even these are only effective
When they apply impartially,
For mutual benefit.
11. Growing The Pie (xxii/xxxiii)
Agile work achieves nothing
That doesn’t make all work easier.
Agile business profits no one
More than it profits everyone.
The agile care less for growing their slice than growing the pie,
Investing in others and partaking with them.
As nature flourishes where it doesn’t struggle
The agile prosper by not competing.
Where bureaucrats form hierarchies
The agile form communities.
Where philosophers develop ideas
The agile develop tools.
Where princes control empires
The agile control desires.
Where soldiers defend their homeland
The agile survive their homeland.