Did Steve Jobs predict the rise of Agile?

• Quality Work – "Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected." ... Remain focused on customer values and accomplish high-priority tasks. Be known as reliability! Saying "No" is a big component of that. If you say "Yes" to everything customers ask of you, you will quickly become overwhelmed and not complete what you promised you would do.
• Working Software Is Your Primary Goal – "Customers don't measure you on how hard you tried. They measure you on what you deliver." ... Leaders focus on the key inputs for their business and deliver them with the right quality and in a timely fashion. Despite setbacks, they rise to the occasion and never settle.
• Embrace Change – "You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new." ... Rapid prototyping can potentially accelerate the entire process of product development, enabling a high level of customer involvement and hence new product success. Examine how customers are involved in product development. Customers involvement is needed in the early phases of the product development process.
• Incremental Change vs. Revolutionary Change – "I have a great respect for incremental improvement, and I’ve done that sort of thing in my life, but I’ve always been attracted to the more revolutionary changes. I don’t know why. Because they’re harder. They’re much more stressful emotionally. And you usually go through a period where everybody tells you that you’ve completely failed."
• Planning – "Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life." ... As much as we try to plan our lives ahead in advance, there’s always something that’s completely unpredictable about life. What seems like bitter anguish and defeat in the moment can turn out to sow the seeds of your unimaginable success years from now. You can’t be too attached to how you think your life is supposed to work out and instead trust that all the dots will be connected in the future. This is all part of the plan.
• Assume Simplicity – "That’s been one of my mantras – focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains." ... Leaders expect and require innovation and invention from their teams and always find ways to simplify. They are externally aware, look for new ideas from everywhere, and are not limited by "not invented here". As we do new things, we accept that we may be misunderstood for long periods of time.
• Model with Purpose – "Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works." and "Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service."
• Active Stakeholder Participation – "Details matter, it's worth waiting to get it right."
• Empowered and Self-organizing Teams – "Authority should be vested in the people doing the work to improve their own processes, to teach them how to measure them, to understand them and improve them." ... Leaders are owners. They think long term and don’t sacrifice long-term value for short-term results. They act on behalf of the entire company, beyond just their own team. They never say "that’s not my job".
• Big Picture – "A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have." ... Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Leaders create and communicate a bold direction that inspires results. They think differently and look around corners for ways to serve customers.

Does he embody many of the characteristics of an effective Agile Leader?

How Amazon Stays More Agile Than Most Startups

• Stay Decentralized and Moving Fast - "Small teams make it easier to communicate more effectively rather than more" ... Communication gets terrible as team size grows. Worse, the vulnerability of a group to such difficulties increases sharply as size increases.
• Customer Obsession - "Start with the customer & work backwards" ... Leaders start with the customer and work backwards. They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. Although leaders pay attention to competitors, they obsess over customers.
• Ownership - "Don’t sacrifice long-term value for short-term results" ... Leaders are owners. They think long term and don’t sacrifice long-term value for short-term results. They act on behalf of the entire company, beyond just their own team. They never say "that’s not my job."
• Invent and Simplify - "not limited by 'not invented here'" ... Leaders expect and require innovation and invention from their teams and always find ways to simplify. They are externally aware, look for new ideas from everywhere, and are not limited by “not invented here.” As we do new things, we accept that we may be misunderstood for long periods of time.
• Are Right, A Lot - "Have strong business judgment & good instincts" ... Leaders are right a lot. They have strong business judgment and good instincts.
• Hire and Develop the Best - "Recognize exceptional talent & willingly move them" ... Leaders raise the performance bar with every hire and promotion. They recognize exceptional talent, and willingly move them throughout the organization. Leaders develop leaders and take seriously their role in coaching others.
• Insist on the Highest Standards - "Ensure that defects do not go down the line" ... Leaders have relentlessly high standards – many people may think these standards are unreasonably high. Leaders are continually raising the bar and driving their teams to deliver high quality products, services and processes. Leaders ensure that defects do not get sent down the line and that problems are fixed so they stay fixed.
• Think Big - "Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy" ... Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Leaders create and communicate a bold direction that inspires results. They think differently and look around corners for ways to serve customers.
• Bias for Action - "We value calculated risk taking" ... Speed matters in business. Many decisions and actions are reversible and do not need extensive study. We value calculated risk taking.
• Frugality - "Resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, & invention" ... We try not to spend money on things that don’t matter to customers. Frugality breeds resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, and invention. There are no extra points for headcount, budget size, or fixed expense.
• Vocally Self Critical - "Benchmark themselves & team against the best" ... Leaders do not believe their or their team’s body odor smells of perfume. Leaders come forward with problems or information, even when doing so is awkward or embarrassing. Leaders benchmark themselves and their teams against the best.
• Earn Trust of Others - "Willing to examine their strongest convictions with humility" ... Leaders are sincerely open-minded, genuinely listen, and are willing to examine their strongest convictions with humility.
• Dive Deep - "Operate at all levels – no task is beneath them" ... Leaders operate at all levels, stay connected to the details, and audit frequently. No task is beneath them.
• Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit - "Do not compromise for the sake of social cohesion" ... Leaders are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable or exhausting. Leaders have conviction and are tenacious. They do not compromise for the sake of social cohesion. Once a decision is determined, they commit wholly.
• Deliver Results - "Despite setbacks, they rise to the occasion & never settle" ... Leaders focus on the key inputs for their business and deliver them with the right quality and in a timely fashion. Despite setbacks, they rise to the occasion and never settle.

References

• Leadership Principles »

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