Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time

by Jeff Sutherland

Ben-Shahar writes: “We are not rewarded for enjoying the journey itself but for the successful completion of a journey. Society rewards results, not processes; arrivals, not journeys.”

Happy people simply do better—at home, at work, in life.

Happiness leads to success in nearly every domain of our lives, including marriage, health, friendship, community involvement, creativity, and, in particular, our jobs, careers, and businesses.

“Study after study shows that happiness precedes important outcomes and indicators of thriving.”

even small gestures can have great impact.

Forget trust-building exercises, and instead build trust every single day.

It is crucial that people as a team take responsibility for their process and outcomes, and seek solutions as a team.

True happiness is found in the process, not the result. Often we only reward results, but what we really want to reward is people striving toward greatness.

If a company isn’t making money, you don’t have a successful venture; you have a hobby.

If you concentrate only on what you can build, you can end up making something that nobody actually wants, even if you’re passionate about it.

If you concentrate only on what you can sell, you can promise things you can’t build.

As Scott Maxwell says, the difficult part isn’t figuring out what you want to accomplish; it’s figuring out what you can accomplish.

If you want any changes, it will cost you.”

Cynicism is perhaps a rational response to despair, but it is one of the most corrosive of human states.

People want to do something purposeful—to make the world, even if just in a small way, a better place. The key is getting rid of what stands in their way, removing the impediments to their becoming who they’re capable of becoming.

Scrum is the code of the anti-cynic.

Scrum is not wishing for a better world, or surrendering to the one that exists.

you can change things, that you don’t have to accept the way things are.

All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible. —T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom