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Sooner Safer Happier

By Jon Smart, Myles Ogilvie, Simon Rohrer, Zsolt Berend

Antipatterns and Patterns for Business Agility

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Winner of the Bronze Medal in Leadership from the 2021 Axiom Business Book Awards.

It’s no secret that we are living in the Digital Age. Technology companies make up seven of the world’s ten largest firms by market capitalization.
Jonathan Smart, business agility practitioner, thought leader, and coach, reveals the patterns and antipatterns that will help organizations from every industry deliver better value sooner, safer, and happier through high levels of engagement, inclusion, and empowerment. Through his decades of experience in the technology world, Smart provides business leaders with a blueprint for creating a world-class organization of the future.

  • Publication Date November 10, 2020
  • Pages Hardcover 416; Paperback 400
  • Dimensions 6 x 9 inches, 2-color interior
  • Hardcover ISBN 9781942788911
  • Paperback ISBN 9781950508419
  • eBook ISBN 9781942788928
  • Kindle ISBN 9781942788935
  • Audiobook ISBN 9781942788959

Features

  • #BVSSH

    Learn the definition of Better Value Soon Safer Happier and how antipatterns prevent you from achieving it.

  • Individual Context

    Written and designed with the reader in mind, this book is specifically written and designed to allow you to concentrate on each chapter and antipattern/pattern-set to fit your specific context.

  • Patterns & Principles

    Discover the 26 antipatterns, 26 patterns, and 29 principles that will help guide an organization to desired outcomes and Better Value Sooner Safer Happier.

  • All Levels

    This resource-rich book should be on the desk of every practitioner across the entire organization.

About the Book

It’s no secret that we are living in the Digital Age. Technology companies make up seven of the world’s ten largest firms by market capitalization.
And the key to their success is the key to all modern organizations.

Jonathan Smart, business agility practitioner, thought leader, and coach, reveals the patterns and antipatterns that will help organizations from every industry deliver better value sooner, safer, and happier through high levels of engagement, inclusion, and empowerment. Through his decades of experience in the technology world, Smart provides business leaders with a blueprint for creating a world-class organization of the future.

Through Agile and Lean ways of working, business leaders can empower teams to improve production, grow together, and create better services for their customers.

These better ways of working have overflowed from the IT department to every corner of successful organizations, taking root in every industry from aerospace to accounting, insurance to shipping.

This book is not about software development. It is not a book about the computer industry. This book is about applying agility across the entire organization. It’s a book that will put you at the front of change and ahead of the competition.

Jon Smart
Myles Ogilvie
Simon Rohrer
Zsolt Berend
1 4
Jon Smart

Jon Smart

Jon is co-founder and CEO of Sooner Safer Happier. Jon is a business agility practitioner, thought leader, and coach. Jon has been an agile and lean practitioner since the early 1990s. Jon helps large organizations deliver better value sooner, safer and happier through better ways of working. He is the lead author of the award-winning and bestselling Sooner Safer Happier: Patterns and Antipatterns for Business Agility.

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Myles Ogilvie

Myles Ogilvie

"MYLES OGILVIE has led, supported, and coached change initiatives within large and small enterprises for over twenty-five years. An advocate of no-nonsense problem-solving, he seeks to build transparency, improve collaboration, and enable outcomes that produce Better Value Sooner Safer Happier During 2016, when leading ways of working for a major UK investment bank during a period of intense regulatory and controls scrutiny, Myles applied lean and agile principles to risk management in the product development process. He is now a passionate advocate of patterns that can help foster a safer, leaner, and more innovative controls culture."

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Simon Rohrer

Simon Rohrer

SIMON ROHRER has been a hands on practitioner across both software engineering and enterprise architecture for over twenty-six years, and has had a passion for agile software development since picking up the eXtreme Programming white book in 1999. He’s passionate about an eclectic and pragmatic approach to modern ways of working, incorporating lean, agile, systems thinking, DevOps and other principles and practices at the right pace and in a human context in enterprises, typically with a legacy of existing technology and a drive to do things better.

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Zsolt Berend

Zsolt Berend

Zsolt Berend is a business agility practitioner, coach, and trainer. He helps global organizations on their journey to achieving Better Value Sooner Safer Happier. He began his early career as a research fellow in astronomy, and then spent twenty years across industry sectors in various roles applying agile and lean practices, mainly in telecom, healthcare, financial services, and consulting. He was the global chair of the Agile Community of Practice at Barclays with more than 2,500 members, and with the Ways of Working Center of Enablement team, won “Best Internal Agile Team” at the Agile Awards 2016. He writes on Medium and is a speaker at conferences and meetups. His passion is data, measurements, insights, and the creation of learning organizations.

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"One of the most important Agile books since The Phoenix Project."

Charles Betz

Principal Analyst, Forrester Research

"It is a real pleasure to read a book that doesn’t assume 'Agile is the solution, now what is your problem?' This is a realistic approach to adopting (or not adopting) agile in your organization. The theory is sound; the practice is extensive. I strongly recommend this book."

Dave Snowden

Chief Scientific Officer, Cognitive Edge, Creator of Cynefin

"Most organizations would say they have a solid strategy, and some are pursuing new ways of working to achieve that strategy; however, often not in an optimal way. BVSSH is the unlock for organizations, and this book gives the practical guidance to WIN."

Courtney Kissler

VP, Global Technology, Nike

"Sooner Safer Happier nails the point that many leaders miss—transformation in itself is not a worthy goal, it is a vehicle for optimizing business outcomes. This book provides an indispensable guide for leaders who wish to run truly agile organizations. Sooner Safer Happier is a must-read for any business leader looking to succeed in the digital age."

David Silverman

coauthor of Team of Teams and CEO of CrossLead

"I can’t recommend this book enough. BVSSH is kind of a 'meta framework'—flexible yet explainable, realistic yet capable of step changes in effectiveness. Jon is a master coach and guide. Read, read again, and share."

John Cutler

Product Evangelist, Amplitude

"This book provides an indispensable guide for leaders who with to run truly agile organizations."

David Silverman

Co-Author of Team of Teams, CEO of CrossLead

"This is a realistic approach to adopting (or not adopting) agile in your organization. The theory is sound; the practice is extensive. I strongly recommend this book."

Dave Snowden

Chief Scientific Officer, Cognitive Edge, and Creator of Cynefin

"There are many books on WHAT was done and WHAT excellent firms do in their quest for success...This gem of guidance is destined to become the manual on HOW to deliver better value, sooner, safer, and happier."

Michael Harte

Researcher, Advisor, Investor, Director, Ex-COO/CIO Santander, Barclays, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, PNC, Citi, Fonterra

"This book is not just a great handbook to draw from to assist you on your journey, it is also a great read!"

Sally Clark

Executive Coach, NED, Strategic Advisor and Avid Agilist

"If you want to improve how your organization works, read this book!"

Julian Birkinshaw

Professor and Deputy Dean, London Business School

"A true business-wide perspective on Digital Transformation and the need for the whole business agility."

Adam Banks

Non Executive Director and Former CTIO of AP Moller Maersk

"This book is a treasure trove for anyone involved or interested in the theory and practice of business agility...A game-changer for our organization and I'm confident for others' too."

Richard James

Ways of Working Enablement Leader, Nationwide Building Society

"...a handbook for overall organizational effectiveness and successful transformation..."

Werner Loots

EVP Transformation, U.S. Bank

"Highly recommended. This book is an absolute must-read for business leaders responsible for leading transformational change."

Brijesh Ammanath

CIO, Trade & Working Capital, Barclays

"This is a book that can be picked up by anyone across the business and is one that I will certainly be recommending to all our business and technology partners alike."

Chris Orson

Head of Digital and Data, HSBC Securities Services

"[Sooner Safer Happier] has so many valuable enterprise agility lessons that it could be used for an MBA course."

Leah Jochim

Experienced Enterprise Leader on Agile Ways of Working

"Better Value Sooner Safer Happier. These five words, taken to heart, could very well change everything...The book itself is a masterpiece of both insight and practical advice... I couldn't stop reading."

Evan Leybourn

Co-Founder and CEO, Business Agility Institute

"This advice comes 'from the trenches' and has been proven to work in practice. You will return over and over to this book for strategies to make your transformation a success."

Scott Ambler

Vice President and Chief Scientist of Disciplined Agile

"This book is essential reading for organizations stuck with large 'scaling' frameworks that treat people and teams as interchangeable units."

Manuel Pais

Co-Author of Team Topologies

"What [Jon] has achieved and created to help others succeed is nothing short of exceptional."

Barry O'Reilly

Business Advisor, Entrepreneur, and Author of Unlearn and Co-Author of Lean Enterprise

"[Jon] and his co-authors' observations and lessons succinctly summarize and teach what decades of books have failed to do."

Gene Kim

Bestselling Author of The Unicorn Project and The Phoenix Project, Researcher, and Multiple Award-Winning CTO

"... a very practical guide on how to embrace agility in an ever increasingly digital, chaotic, and challenging world where the path to delivering outcomes is uncertain."

Ian Buchanan

Independent Board Director and Advisor, Former CIO/COO Barclays, Societe Generale, Nomura

"Sooner Safer Happier covers business agility learnings thoroughly... Compelling."

Patrick Eltridge

Seek, Westpac, Telstra, RBS, Nationwide

"... a must-read for leaders who have recognized the need to connect the cultural and the technological aspects of digital transformation."

Mik Kersten

CEO, Tasktop

"This is as close to a field guide as I have seen, and speaks of real and practical experience."

Dawie Olivier

GM for Enterprise Transformation, Westpac

"[Sooner Safer Happier] describes a set of patterns and antipatterns—with a great set of skills—to help you understand what is happening to stop teams delivering SSH and why it may be happening."

Jenny Wood

Delivering Customer Value

"BVSSh is kind of a 'meta framework'—flexible yet explainable, realistic yet capable of step changes in effectiveness."

John Cutler

Product Evangelist, Amplitude

"[Sooner Safer Happier] is a must-read book if you want to stay relevant in your market and run a forward thinking organization."

Christian Metzner

CIO, Volkswagon Financial Services UK

"BVSSH is the unlock for organizations, and this book gives the practical guidance to WIN."

Courtney Kissler

VP, Global Technology, Nike

"Truly a great and essential book for every agilist, leader, or change agent!"

Ahmed Sidkey PhD

President of the International Consortium for Agile (ICAgile) and Head of Business Agility at Riot Games

"This book is an invaluable guide for change agents looking to help organizations to remain relevant and indeed thrive in an increasingly challenging business environment."

Mark Lines

Co-Creator of Discipline Agile

"Jonathan Smart's book is a timely call to action for organizations that wish to survive and thrive in the emerging digitally enabled, people-centric landscape."

Matthew Skelton

Co-Author of Team Topologies

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