Learning Agile from Shakespeare

William Shakespeare, a prolific, and perhaps the greatest writer the English language has ever known, wrote 39 plays, over a hundred sonnets, and poems - all in a short timespan of 24 years. Underpinning his creative and productive prowess was a mastery of Agile mechanism, and a far sighted understanding of their strategic implications. In his works, Shakespeare offers us little vignettes to his mastery. It is indeed another remarkable and as yet unexplored dimension to this man's great work that places his genius beyond par in the history of mankind. Today we explore two. 

 

1) Shakespeare had mastered the mechanism of delivery cycles - cleverly interspersing his big master pieces with shorter works - such as sonnets and poems. This approach allowed him to build mental cadence, and while he took a breather from his master plays, his creativity flourished in smaller batch sizes, exploring new material that could spark a new insight for his next major play.

 

2) As he created his master pieces, Shakespeare also managed to keep his creative capacities from being preoccupied with loose ends or lingering presence of personas from characters past. Yes, Shakespeare had mastered the art of minimizing technical debt, and  in Hamlet, Shakespeare alludes to this in Polonius' maxims to his son Laertes prior to his departure to France,

 

Neither a borrower nor a lender be;

For technical debt  oft loses both agility and micro serviceability,

And remediation dulls the edge of business value

The power of inquiry

It is late evening on an icy wintery January weekend  at Toronto's Pearson International terminal 1, and a crowd is building up to board a jumbo 747 en route to Frankfurt. The boarding area is packed with the elderly, children, vacationers, and road warriors, eagerly waiting to be on their way.

The jumbo is delayed by an hour, and the weary travellers grow impatient. Children squat over the floor, some run around, while others test the patience of their parents. Weariness permeates the air - one whiff, and your shoulders droop, you slump back into your chair, the energy draining out from your feet.

A family of five - parents with two young children and a little baby walk in. The baby is about a year old, and the two sibling brothers, tired and exhausted from a long day, about 5 and 7. The children drop on the floor, grumpy and tired. The parents are just as tired. They take turns going to the rest room, and while the mum is away with the baby, the father tries to keep his two little ones from having a meltdown.

Toronto's terminal 1, renovated and re opened in 2004 was developed by Skidmore, Owings, and Merill(SOM), who have led the design of many famous architectural landmarks, including the sears tower, the Bhurj Khailfa, and pioneered the widespread use of the "glass box" skyscraper. Terminal 1, in similar vein,  displays a bold, curvilinear form with large spaces and long, arched roof spans.



As the father tries to engage his two little ones, he invites them to explore the intricacies of the terminal, simultaneously heightening their attention to detail, sparking their imagination, and querying their creativity.

"Look at this terminal, wow isn't it beautiful, someone built it, how do you think they came up with the idea to build it like this? How did they even know where to put the beams, and the glass - why do you think they chose glass? look at the roof and the way it curves down.  Doesn't this remind you of  Guggenheim? Why do you think they built it this way?

The family had previously been to The Guggenheim Bilbao. The museum is an architectural marvel, designed by Frank Ghery. The structure is famous for its use of random curves - designed to catch the light, and extensive use of glass.


Recorre from Museo Guggenheim Bilbao on Vimeo.

There may not be much similarity between a departure gate in terminal 1 and an architectural landmark like Guggenheim, but the father creates linkages between elements in the terminal, and an inspiring experience the children previously had. He is working their imagination, and the children begin to come alive.  The weary look gives way to curiosity. "They have a lot of people here just like in the Museum"' they try to explain. The creative instinct sparkles through their eyes. The transformation is profound. Every question, every detail commands their attention, and their imagination strives to understand and explain what they see. Soon they are deeply engrossed in dialogue with their father. "They should have had more sitting area for such a big place", chimes in the elder one bringing his present need into his exploration.

What this father did with his children demonstrates perfectly the power of a inquiry. A good inquiry focusses the mind, takes us to our most resourceful, creative self, and brings us into the present. The children have forgotten their fatigue, their distractions. They are engrossed in the father's questions, they see every little detail, absorb their surrounding intricacies. and attempt to make meaning of it all.

Marcel Proust, the French novelist once said that the real act of discovery consists not in finding new lands, but in seeing with new eyes. A well directed inquiry does just that - it  opens us to possibility and affords us the opportunity to see with new eyes. And in a world increasingly prone to distractions, multitasking, and spectatorship, inquiries are a powerful tool to foster focus, curiosity and enthusiasm, and instill a sense of purpose - individually or within a group.

In the book, Launch, the author Scott Duffy describes a conversation with Richard Branson during "the Gathering" - an event where Virgin's global leadership team gathers to share and exchange information and grow from each others experiences. At one point during the event, there is a passionate discussion about buying the rainforest ("The Amazon"). Richard Branson, who has demonstrated a dedication to environmental protection, argues for the positive impact it could have - stopping the slashing and burning of vegetation, and saving precious animals. The conversation heats up, and despite the many benefits, someone finally summons up the courage to say what many have been thinking, "you could never buy the rainforest".

Branson views it as an obstacle in the way of possibility. He cleverly switches to inquiry to help his team move to their most resourceful and creative self to find a way - "first of all, imagine you wanted to buy the rainforest. How would you do it?" followed by a series of questions to help focus their attention, and build on their creativity to overcome obstacles. Do we have to buy it? What if we could lease it? How many people do we know with significant wealth who would get behind the cause and contribute? Better yet, how many people in this world would rally behind the cause? His probes inspire a deeper belief and greater confidence that it could actually be done. And with that there is a profound shift in perspective. Creative ideas flow and within 5 minutes everyone seems to find buying the rainforest as easy as eating a bowl of soup.

What Branson's inquiries created was the blueprint for crowd sourced environmental protection, an idea similar to what was tried later in Ecuador to protect the Yasuni park rainforest.

So, the next time you find yourself at a cross road, fatigued by the task at hand, and not seeing a way out, an inquiry may be just what you need to muster your most resourceful self, and overcome the issue at hand.

Calling a fault on Fawlty

In the March 2014 edition of Harvard Business Review, Adi Ignatius interviews John Cleese, who became a comedy icon in the 1970s for his work on Monty Python’s Flying Circus and Fawlty Towers. Asked about improvisation, John responded:

Adi: As a scripted comedian, what do you think about the rise of improv?

  


John: The delights of improv have always rather escaped me. I don’t know why it’s considered a major art form. I don’t mean that it’s not interesting or skillful. But over the years all the comedians that I’ve respected—I could also say all the comic writers—are people who put words down on paper and went on working on them until they felt they couldn’t improve them anymore. That seems to me the most important and interesting part of comedy. The other is sort of a party trick, which I respect, but it doesn’t seem to me that it should be regarded at the same level. I got an Oscar nomination for the script of A Fish Called Wanda, which had been through 13 drafts, and by the end of it, I really felt I had brought it all together. That is not a feeling I have with improv. They don’t really build to any kind of dramatic climax or comedic climax.

Admittedly, John's comedic efforts rank as some of the best ever produced. Fawlty towers is my personal all-time favorite. Yet, as I read the paragraph above, I get the distinct feeling that John's remark about improv being a "sort of a party trick" seems to have come out twelve revisions too soon.

I have a lot of respect for John's great achievements in comedy. I also have a lot of respect for Improvisation, and so I accept his statement as an offer, and true to my improv roots, present an "in the moment, on the spot, and one hundred percent spontaneous" improvised response.

Improvisation's popularity lies in two key abilities that scripted comedy can hardly match

1) Audience engagement: The essential ingredient in an improv performance is that the audience and the actors work together to create theatre. Suggestions from the audience are used to shape the action that unfolds on stage. Spontaneity and unpredictability are the hallmarks of Improvisation, and make improv a unique and an inescapably delightful and exciting experience for the performers and the audience.

As someone who has watched, learned, and performed improv, I am always amazed at the level of audience engagement improv fosters. Audience participation can range from offering suggestions to actually joining the performers on the stage, as they work with you to perform a scene. You can see it in their faces - the exhilaration from participating, and shaping the scene, rather than just being passive observers.

2) Personal transformation: Improvisation has a few key principles that performers follow to create fun and comedy:

· Say "Yes" and build upon the previous action or conversation (offer)

· Be spontaneous

· Stay present

· Make your partners look good, and,

· Embrace failures.

These simple principles can also effect a profound personal transformation in the performer, foster teamwork, and build creativity.

In improvisation there is no script to guide the scene, and performers are dependent on each other to shape the scene. Improvisers learn quickly the value of spontaneity and being in the moment. Over time, they overcome their hesitation and fear that holds them back at the side of the stage, let go of their self-censure, their judgments, their notions of what the scene is, and begin to trust their spontaneity and jump onto the scene to carry it forward.

The impact of becoming spontaneous and in the moment grows over time. I recall many an occasion, where after a performance, I have been in a state of heightened awareness, without a thought going through my mind for a long period of time. Improvisation and meditation are perhaps only two activities that have the ability to foster spontaneity and "in the moment" alertness . And this ability to be in the present is a very powerful experience - quite possibly the greatest therapeutic remedy out there.

Additionally, performers become aware of how reality is socially constructed. As there is no script, there is no single reality out there that the performers are acting out. Instead, they have to work with each other’s notions of what the scene is, and actively construct a shared reality. Performers pay attention to their partners, and work with each other’s offers to move the scene forward, and in turn, act into a new reality.

This notion of ensemble, and the ability to develop a shared understanding and self-organization is finding value in the corporate world, and making its way into business schools. Improv has benefits that are well documented in literally hundreds of articles ranging from topics such as therapy for mental illnesses to fire fighters using Improv techniques for improved performance in high risk, uncertain situations. I personally have used it in business settings to improve team dynamics, and facilitate resolution of difficult problems in diverse groups. Participants are appreciative of the deeper insights and shared perspective they develop as a result of using improv.

Published without a second revision, with respect to John Cleese and Improvisation.

The Birbal way - unleashing creativity and change through positive personas

Birbal was a minister in the court of Emperor Akbar, who ruled India during the 15th century. Birbal became famous across the land for his wit, and ingenuity in problem solving. Subjects, courtiers, and kings alike sought his help in solving difficult problems. Birbal's stories of cleverly helping his king, and his people solve many a dilemma are folklore, and popular as comics, cartoons, and story books amongst children of all ages.

My work keeps me regularly out of town, and I find myself frequently parenting my young daughter over the phone. As any parent can imagine, the issues that crop up are sometimes unpredictable and complex, and not the most amenable to guidance over a phone call - especially when you are pressed for time.

And then my daughter had the opportunity to go to school halfway across the earth in a remote area of India for a few months. We spoke once during weekends. Over long phone conversations an anxious parent began a ritual of reading stories to his little one every week. Birbal's stories were the most popular, and I observed how my daughter remarked that he was so smart, and  he had such a creative way to solve every problem that came his way.

Gradually I introduced an inquiry into our conversations. As she shared her challenges and difficulties, I would ask, " if Birbal were here with us, what would you ask him to do? ....And how do you think he'd go about solving it?"

 These two inquiries, simulated step by step for many a problem, gradually created a shift in the conversation. I began to notice her moving away from just sharing her problems to leveraging her imagination - describing not just challenges, but how she would approach the situation. She started talking about other broader issues that did not impact her directly per se, and pose possible alternatives to how we could better these situations. The mindset was shifting away from a problem to a solution orientation, and Birbal's persona was there to help spark her imagination and creative side.

Our conditionings, inhibitions, and fears, accumulated since childhood, become an inner voice (or inner critic) that holds us back when we want to be creative, try new approaches, or resolve to make a change in our life.  This inner critic is seeded during our formative years, for example by parental instruction  (rightfully or wrongly - parents are trying to instill survival skills in us, "don't touch that, it can give you a shock"), and criticisms. Such external interactions become internalized  and acquire a persona of their own - our inner critic - residing as a voice in our head, and constantly carrying on a conversation in the background. The background conversation modulates our natural instincts, urges us to take the safe, well beaten path, or undermines our resolve to make changes, no matter how much we may wish to make them. (In an organizational setting, it is these individual background conversations, going on within every employee that makes organizational change so difficult)

As we seek change, as we seek to harness our creativity, we work to over come our inner critic - recognizing it, and making a conscious effort to keep it from holding us back.

Perhaps there is another persona that we can acquaint ourselves with as we deal with the inner critic. This is a persona that epitomizes our values, our purposes, and speaks to our most imaginative, creative, and resourceful self. We can name this persona, describe its values and abilities, maybe even find a real person, and use him in our inner conversations to help empower us to make choices that resonate with our deeper purpose and values.

Your inner critic can hold you back, but your positive persona is there to lead you. He has been where you wish to go, and knows the path well.

Ready to give it a try?

Effective persona building requires more than a superficial level of knowledge. Birbal to my daughter was an authentic individual who had used his ingenuity to overcome many an obstacle. His problems, deliberations, and tactics were vividly described in the stories and comic books that she had read.

 Likewise, if I pick an individual as a positive persona I need to know how he solved problems, what were his values, his deliberation in moments of choice. I have to be immersed in the situations about his persona that would appeal to me.

 A great example is in the movie Invictus, when  Matt Damon's character (Francois Pienaar) visits Robben Island days before the rugby world cup final (Robben Island is where Nelson Mandela had been imprisoned for twenty seven years during apartheid) . The moments of him imagining how Mandela spent his time there, getting a feel for the cramped space, the harsh environment, and yet the personal transformation that he underwent in that prison cell, connect him to Mandela's persona, and the higher purpose of his mission. Towards the end of the Rugby world cup final, this persona helps him inspire his team by appealing to something far greater than themselves ("Listen to your country...this is our destiny"), strengthen their resolve, and win the world cup.

 

Das Rocket

“If you want to take a trip, hop on to my rocket ship,

Zoom zoom zoom, we’re going to the moon,

Zoom zoom zoom, we’re leaving very soon”.

 

Ever since man first walked the earth, he has looked up to the sky and marvelled at the cosmic wonders above, and dreamt of rockets to explore this vast and fascinating unknown. SInce childhood, story books of rockets lined our bookshelves, and along with other favourites, like “Sam sheep can’t sleep” were always within reach for our cherished story time rituals. “Rocket fever” gripped us time and again, as we humans endeavoured through the ages to further the boundaries of rocketry and take us where only our imagination had gone before.

And so it was with Von Braun, the father of modern rocketry (and a bit of a checkered past). At the tender age of 12, he pursued his backyard rocket experiments with the zeal of one day using them for space exploration and interplanetary travel. A string of failures and explosions ensued as he launched the first purpose built industrial complex for rocketry, and perfected the design for the v2. With only crude tools on hand -  no advanced cameras, no space based systems,  no closed loop guidance, he managed to build systems that to this day - 70 years later - form the under pinning of the current generation of rockets.  The V2 design was the basis for the Saturn v that put the first man on the moon.

Today, the field of advanced rocketry is exploding again, and a string of advances – in technology, artistry, and philosophy (it's not all "rocket science" you know) have rekindled possibilities that were only a distant dream just a year or two ago.  

Yet, It is not the prizes and competitions announced by NASA and others - resulting in remarkable breakthroughs and initiatives such as spaceX (from none other than the electric car pioneer Elon Musk) that excite our passion.  No sir, these pale in comparison to what the Italians have achieved with the R58 rocket  (the WHO have achieved? Surely Mr. Improvator, you Jest. The land of olive oil and Pizza has leap frogged all advances in rocketry put together, and taken the lead from other more scientifically inclined and resourceful nations?… But read on gentle reader, and you will find this to be a remarkable story… the triumph of love and a shared innate human quest for artistry, passion, knowledge, discovery, and fulfilment of life’s eternal longing).

Nestled in Milan, a humble factory producing the R58 rockets has put in place something completely antithetical to the  hierarchical industrial complex of Von Braun’s beginnings, and all the institutions and organizations controlling rocketry today. Its  co- founder, Andrew Meo -  a new Zealander (from the land of Sam Sheep) and an ethnic Italian, is driven with love, and a single minded determination to democratize rocketry, and equip every household with an R58 rocket - to empower the masses to explore the full splendor of cosmic nectar, and fulfil their innate inner longing. (From the land of Sam Sheep! For goodness sakes maan, is there no scientist heading this sheep and pizza outfit).

This is the Rocket Espresso company (that’s right, espresso – what were you thinkin?), blending science, art, dreams, with full PID control, dual boilers, thermosyphoning, and  a commercial grade rotary pump to achieve exceptional thrust control and go from 0 to bliss in precisely 28 seconds. A sip of this wonderful espresso, blended with frothy steamed milk, and your taste buds are bound  for a geosynchronous launch into the outer realms of cosmic delight -  a bubbly zero gravity encounter with no G- suit required. Ahhh... finally, a close encounter of the mmmmm… kind.

The R58s are arriving in droves, and one landed at my doorstep recently. The espresso launch experience has been nothing short of heavenly. Fresh beans – roasted in an artisan roastery in upstate NY (www.heavenlycup.com), coupled with a new precision burr grinder, and the wizadry of the R58…. You have to try it to believe it. So, if you are still nurturing your childhood wonder of rockets, the lingering question of why Sam Sheep couldn’t sleep (hint : a double shot in the evening is strong for a sheep), and  the experience of 0 to bliss in 28 seconds, then drop on by sometime for a fresh cup of R58 espresso. And best of all…. there’s no permission required. Nope, this is democratized rocketry at its avant-garde best, and the only thing that can deny you this blissful experience is YOU.




The Rocket arrives

 

Unpacking the payload

 

Das Rocket



Houston, we have countdown

 



Rocket artistry

 

Eine uber super duper rocket