Introduction

The oldest, deepest, and shortest book on agility in existence, the agile way is a guide to creative community for individuals and organizations experiencing times of extreme change. Written before the invention of paper, its interlocking patterns apply as well to the information and intelligence revolutions as the agricultural one in which it began.

How should you approach this little book? Later editions may detail modern implications, but this first one encourages readers to tease these out for themselves. In the manner of a koan, each pattern supports two readings. First, as a practical solution to a commonplace problem in one of the book’s six contexts. And then each pattern carries a deeper meaning through which, on reflection, the reader may not come away unchanged.

To avoid throwing you in at the deep end, here’s a frame for the list of agile qualities you’ll find in chapter 1:

• Listening as if crossing thin ice - because change, uncertainty, and ambiguity are everywhere.
• Testing like a boat on dark water - so that carelessness, haste and imbalance won’t sink you.
• Adapting like a stranger to a far shore - to give and take what the market takes and gives.
• Simplifying like a melting snowflake - as systems grow as rigid and inefficient as one.
• Connecting like the deep woods - to sustain continuous growth across cycles of change.
• Leading as a valley does the river - to quicken and join channels of mutual benefit.
• Sharing as its silt feeds the fields - to open bottlenecks and foster innovation.

There are further explanations at the back of the book concerning its journey at the hands of the current author and its line by line correspondence with the Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu.