Scrum: How to do twice as much in half the time | Jeff Sutherland | TEDxAix

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Co-writer of the Agile Manifesto, Jeff Sutherland is one of the world's leading experts of organizational management. He'll explain how to be agile, not just in software development but in every business to disrupt the field.
A former US Air Force "Top Gun," Jeff Sutherland is the co-creator of the SCRUM process. This methodology, developed in 1993 and formalized in 1995 with Ken Schwaber, has since been adopted by the vast majority of software development companies around the world.

Jeff is a leading expert on how the framework has evolved to meet the needs of today's business. Realizing its benefits are not limited to software development, he has adapted this strategy to several other industries including: finance, healthcare and telecom. His processes are now widely used for managing challenging projects and hyperproductive development teams.

As the CEO of Scrum Inc. and the Senior Advisor and Agile Coach to OpenView Venture Partners, Jeff shares best practices with organisations around the globe.
About TEDx, x = independently organized event In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

[@BobKimball]

The real secret: watching TED talks in 2x.

[@Indigoway]

+Rob Kimball thats saved me so much time thank you !!

[@ToStand2]

+Rob Kimball lol

[@markusseyerl2435]

+Rob Kimball I really saved some time with x1.5 :-)

[@qisong1926]

+Rob Kimball Haha this is a good one!

[@sley_r]

Pushing our brains to work faster not only saves time but is pretty good mental training too! Beyond TED Talks, this is worth trying on any video (except maybe music ones)!

[@artysausagedog1588]

This did half as much as I expected in twice as long as I expected.

[@siddharthaarora3381]

Your comment : Gold! :D

[@artysausagedog1588]

Siddhartha Arora I have no recollection of me posting this, me three years younger was better at English than current me!

[@siddharthaarora3381]

@@artysausagedog1588 happens to the best of us mate.. : )

[@skaterdude14b]

this !

[@lowasteam5319]

Your comment saved me 15mins and 45 sec minus the time to say thanks!

[@kristinjarrett977]

Okay, here's my take on this talk. TL;DW(atch) 1. Make your problems visible to make it possible to find solutions. Listing them in real space 2. Solve them incrementally, rather than all at once. 3. If working on a team, make sure everyone's pulling their own weight within those pieces (I think?)

[@DarrenSemotiuk]

Good general identifying of the elements of the talk, the details aka "how" can be easily found if you search for "SCRUM" and "AGILE" even some under-10-minutes videos on YT illustrate practical activities to accomplish those goals...

[@funbigly]

... yeah, like common sense: break it down into blocks, solve one block at a time. Buncha yawners

[@chengseah6611]

I was hoping i'd find a comment that summarised the talk. thanks guys

[@NumbBlaze]

Your comment was more informative than this Ted-Talk

[@adaw332]

Pequeño detalle: coworkers NEVER work as teams. The day companies stop working in a way coworkers compete disgustingly, then bring his theory in

[@mattjreid]

This talk is more of a victory parade from the speaker, rather than an explanation of his methods.

[@pyrocolada]

It ends without a summary, and can leave you with that sense. However, his advice is simple and powerful: 1) Make work visible, ie. Show people how they're doing, 2) Let go! Don't micro manage them, let them self-organize.

[@scottclowe]

I don't know what I'm supposed to do, but I know I'm supposed to do it like I'm landing a jet plane.

[@GreeshmaRamakrishna]

+Scott Lowe Too bad I've never flew or sat in one.

[@scottford7676]

Do it like a G6

[@neocollective5959]

LOL...!...why aren't there more former fighter jet pilots curing cancer, fixing the banking system and every problem in the world out there ??

[@tropingreenhorn]

Scott Lowe read his book

[@jiggersotoole7823]

Scott Lowe yep. you said in 10 se ones what took him 15 minutes . of self promotion.lol

[@DobrawaWinnicka]

Guys, the title is wrong that is why you misunderstood what it is about. This is Jeff Sutherland, the inventor of SCRUM. The words he says are pure gold for every IT guy. KZbin, Facebook, Instagram - those are HUGE projects and you can use those applications thanks to THIS man. It can be even said that agile project management made it possible to finish big IT projects that otherwise could never end...

[@BrandonTWills]

Dobrawa Winnicka Maybe he should have explained how that works then...

[@veganaiZe]

It's called DevOps. Agility is a key component of it. The "Agile" movement is about breaking the old, traditional, waterfall style of development (based more on guesswork, lacking ample feedback along the way, and over-bearing management) to replace it with better precision, faster time to delivery, and to improve facilitation of the modern "lean" approach to business/project management.

[@veganaiZe]

Waterfall is "guesswork" because nobody really knows whether or not the assumptions, which go into such detailed design specifications, are necessary. Once you realize that a design is misaligned with its goals, when does the team really get a chance to re-align & re-design? All stakeholders would need to be present. Agile software development, for instance, allows for constant tweaks & improvements along the way; Because development is transparent, stakeholders can check in any time that they'd like (through the "product owner", as the individual developers manage themselves and are mostly shielded from unscheduled/outside interruptions.)

[@veganaiZe]

Exactly. Since there is no such thing as "perfect" management and/or planning we need to expect that things will be changing, along the way, and we want to adapt to & overcome those changes as quickly & simply as possible. The agile development process is, in reality, just a bunch of little waterfalls. That way we don't spend enormous amounts of effort & resources trying to solve the wrong problem, only to find out months (instead of weeks) later. Imagine that you are developing a product for a customer. The product is a vegan baseball glove. The client gives you the (waterfall) requirements and development begins. Several months down the road your client finds out that their customer actually needs only left-handed gloves. However manufacturing of a right-handed prototype has already begun. It's not the best example but I think you can see where I'm going with it. A simple sketch of a right-handed glove, handed off to your client (in the first week), could have been presented to their customer for immediate (negative) feedback and the development team could have concentrated more of their effort on what was really needed.

[@KingTrayTovine]

Dobrawa Winnicka Thank you I actually broke everything down and if you research everything you can come to a good deduction and formulate a plan for success it's just a presentation of hard work for hard workers

[@SymonSaysTV]

Did he just tried to convince us for close to 16 mins that he knew how to be efficient without telling us how?

[@masalgad]

He talked about the Agile manifesto. You can learn more about how to put it in practice if you investigate "Scrum" or "ExtremeProgramming (XP)"

[@kimfucku8074]

Yes, that was also my though when I read his book!

[@ronallan8680]

Symon Says TV. Exactly! I kept saying "Ok I'm sold, man! Now tell me HOW!"

[@michaelnurse9089]

He told you enough to get you started. If you wanted a Scrum / Agile textbook in 16 minutes your expectations are a little high.

[@soupflood]

Yep. Smells like a revolutionary view!

[@The22on]

Summary of this talk: "In just a short time from now, I'll tell you how to do really great things! It'll be really great! I've done it! You can too! It's wonderful! Everyone says it's wonderful! I taught them! They use it all over the world! You can too! You will be so happy you will cry from joy! Oops, time is up! Thanks a lot!"

[@floki479]

NO you read into it. Thats how it works. Use your imagination and that's the solution. I saw King Leonidas kicking my problems down the well using FIFO (first in first out) method. Helped my efficiency.

[@bharatpatel4955]

This is one of those TEDx Talks that will not be readly appreciate by those that never experienced working under a rigid and untrusting management ethos. Jeff hit on the successful idea of self empowering small groups of people to solve complex problems. I have been in computing for over 25 years and had the great privilege to have been part of this movement, which over time will hopefully be taken for granted.

[@David-nq4qi]

I simply don't want to do twice as much in half the time. I want to do half as much and take twice as long doing it to get the maximum benefit from it. A very successful man once said to me: "I didn't get where I am today by trying to be successful" Beware of addiction to self-improvement videos. Enjoy being as improved as you already are, and share that. Possibly with half as many people who are paying twice as much attention. Whatever you do, do it slowly and enjoy it. This will already be an improvement if you normally spend half your time frantically trying to improve. Give it up. You are OK. You are probably doing much better than you give yourself credit for.

[@Psychocartography]

I lived in a room which had a plaque on the mantlepiece. It said "General Dwight D Eisenhower slept here" ...and every time I'd read that plaque, I'd think: "How did Eisenhower fit on that mantlepiece?"

[@coreyscott9590]

Hah!

[@DonnaBrooks]

That joke was way more valuable & worth my time than this TEDx Talk!

[@marcuscamp2829]

If you are watching this because of the title stop! if you just want to hear some mildly interesting stories continue.

[@sebastien3006]

telling people you taught other people something doesn't teach them anything

[@DarrenSemotiuk]

"As the CEO of Scrum Inc. and the Senior Advisor and Agile Coach to OpenView Venture Partners, Jeff shares best practices with organisations around the globe." Jeff has changed the world for sure, but this talk is really just him piquing the interest of managers to hire his company to get into modern practices and processes. Of course he isn't going to give all the detailed answers "how", that's what his product is, that information. BUT anyone can look online for AGILE or SCRUM and in 10 minutes have the basic gist of the HOW. Interesting that it can be applied even to kids in school, not just to software developers.

[@DLCS-2]

@@DarrenSemotiuk so , all this was a self-advertisment ???

[@Treskersic]

I think what i understand from his talk is that instead of following a strict plan you need to do is to do what you think the best thing at that moment while focusing on what you need to achieve.

[@kdiggity1]

Yes, focus on the end goal and not the means.

[@PMC-Japan]

he delegated his talk to us the listeners. now we as a team have to come up with his talk

[@MrYosssup]

hahahaha

[@LazyWarriorV]

Edogawa Kikkoman best thing I've read on the internet today!

[@isabelwatson1864]

Edogawa Kikkoman, laughing so hard that people are staring.

[@hakoskosko2053]

😂😂😂

[@Isaharif]

😂😂😂😂

[@aksheshdoshi]

I'm glad I started reading the comments after watching this for 10 mins and saved 6 mins of my life.!

[@umarquraishi3682]

The talk takes a different direction from just time management, but touches on how scrum methodology is more effective at delivering than traditional management, probably due to its iterative nature being more reactive to business demands, and also more motivating to the people working in it.

[@janr7400]

Watching it the second time made it clearer. His ideas were explained through the examples, from the very beginning: effectively fixing problems in L2, adjusting plan as a pilot in the war, seeing the problem of the project schedule chart method, using the landing process metaphor to show others, the insect-like robot with distributed intelligence vs. failed attempt of command and control design. The ideas are indeed simple, but his real-life examples show that they are practical in team environment as well as for individuals handling complex processes. Thank you. Yes it's an art indeed. A bit zen-like ending there.

[@cliffdariff74]

Amazing life! He is saying by real Planning, with organized Teamwork, and expressed Freedom to accomplish the mission... with a little mentorship, people can do twice as much... consistently.

[@moffattF]

One of the talks most devoid of meaning I have encountered. Obviously aimed at a life form with higher intelligence than me!

[@soliveanew5305]

I found Mr. Sutherland's talk very interesting and inspiring. I was glad to listen to his talk. In fact I listened to it a second time so that I could better understand it. His message of letting go of trying to control students and workers, and letting them figure out the best way themselves was valuable. This makes school and jobs much more interesting for students and workers. The message of teamwork was invaluable. In reply to some of the previous comments in this thread: One thing to look at is that no one can really teach anything of much detail when you are limited to under 20 minutes. Consequently the speaker is forced to keep things very general and conceptual. That largely has to do with the time constraints. In addition, when the speaker gives personal examples, as Mr. Sutherland did, the talk is a lot more personable and interesting. Not all levels of speaking appeal all levels of audience understanding. Not all members of the audience want to know the topic in depth. They are there just out of curiosity or they have little interest, or they just want to be inspired. There are various levels of writing, depending on one's purpose and one's audience. For instance: 1.) On one level one speaks conceptually to give a broad overview that something was achieved and to inspire others to accomplish similar outcomes. This level of speaking appeals to people who have no interest listening how someone else did it. 2.) On another level, one tells a general description of how something was done. (This is not intended to teach people how to do the thing, but gives a little broad overview of what the speaker had to do and to overcome in order to reach his goal.) 3.) On yet an level, one tells generally how to do something. This level of speaking appeals to those who already have some knowledge in the topic, and they can figure out the rest by themselves. 4.) And yet on a much deeper lever one gives a very detailed step by step (baby-steps) so that even the most clue-less people can have a better chance to accomplish the task. This type of talk is not suited for a 20 minute time constraint. So, it appears to me that Mr. Sutherland's talk was more of an #1 above, with some #2 in it. In addition, there is a difference between speak literally versus conceptually. This talk was more of a conceptual talk. My understanding of "landing the plane" refers to getting all the workers to work together to figure out how to get all the various parts to coordinate to each finish at the proper time. So there will be no parts lagging behind and slowing everyone else. Everyone can see what all the others are doing and they all help each other succeed I would say that he did a good job with the focus and purpose of this message. Best Wishes, Stephen

[@Iaapwm]

+So Live Anew Hey Stephen,,,, I have never viewed a ted talk where it needed so many comments to justified what so many could not understand. I find your reply a bit condescending. The content of the talk did not match the heading...

[@bethelcole7141]

So Live Anew :

[@rowannieuport3942]

I agree and agree. It reminds me of Miyamoto Musashi's A Book of Five Rings, which on the surface has something to do with swordsmanship, but if you relax your vision and gaze obliquely, you can see how it can be applied much more widely, in ways one must discover and develop by one's own effort. Man! Don't you just hate that sort of thing? I first read his book when i was in my 20s, when it was on the New York Best Seller's List because everyone was trying to learn the secret of Japan, something that young people today may not have heard about. I doubt most Americans could relax and look at the book in the oblique way, they want everything now and go at things so directly. They miss out on all sorts of value, with such a flaw in attitude.

[@MaxMut.]

He explained very well at the end of the speech.. “ You need to give up and let go to make it happen “

[@johnj620]

Everything in this talk is exactly right, but it is missing some very important context. Just get this: - Make work results visible so people can actively improve themselves, and let them do it. - Use short cycles to train people to finish quality work on-time as a team. Otherwise you get one shot! - Use distributed controls, empowered teams, to adjust their part so the whole can learn - Distributed controls should be simple and easy to follow - Do these things and your expertise will grow, your confidence will grow, you'll learn every day, and love work! All of this is from Jeff Sutherland's incredible book by the same title as the talk. Agile is about running teams like they are filled with human beings. Life, Liberty, and the result is happiness.

[@AJ0K3R]

Joe justice has a good talk on this as well. He goes into deeper detail.

[@folarinosibodu]

This guy has literally changed the whole world companies for the better. I hope that I would be able to do something or somethings to improve millions of companies or people for the better

[@jzay1899]

He created a process that treats developers into replaceable commodities/cogs in a wheel instead of the professionals that they are. Twice the work in half the time? Sounds like music to management ears but all the employee hears is "oh so you want to work me to death do you?" Waterfall was much better for developers precisely because projects took longer to complete. Slower pace, lower stress, higher quality code.

[@Wrathos]

As a programmer, I have implemented Scrum in my everyday life. Works well.

[@msgifs1043]

Hoping to do the same

[@superchuck3259]

Funny about the education. My 8th grade honor science class was 90% doing whatever we wanted to do. We built space shuttle models. Did chemical experiments that were not even in the curriculum. We had discussions and asked the teacher lots of questions and even stumped him. He was not pissed off like previously stumped teachers upset they didn't know everything, but worked with us to discover it. Good times and who knew that was a strategy, bet that guy was ahead of his time!

[@dgirlchild]

Thank you Jeff Sutherland

[@hamradiocq]

this video should be called, "grampa has a story about the military"

[@ZantherStone]

But so little of it is about the military, other than the initial setup/background, then just relates the future experiences to that. That's pretty common setup for a speech.

[@rsantos627]

Grandpa sounds like a lot of bragging and not as much "how to"

[@hardToSignUpHere]

At least it's cool that went from being a fighter pilot and managed not to get himself killed, to a professor working with supercomputers, to running a team in the top bank and reporting to directly to the CEO. This on it's own is worth a medal!

[@suchittt]

hahaha same pinch :D

[@chrisbruch9552]

Probably yes, but i gave up after 4 mins...

[@christopherlord7961]

I get it !!! His way of explaining it is the same way it works. Very intelligent man. thank -you

[@sgomezc1]

This talk is very inspiring, the details about how to use scrum or Kanban can be found in thousands of videos in KZbin. I'm so sorry that many people here just go so much for the methods and miss the agile mindset explained by someone that really deserves our respect. That's part of why many teams fail to implement scrum, they think that it's something that is supposed to be implemented step by step copy pasting a model instead of understanding their own company culture, project requirements and team so they can adapt the framework while evolving the culture. If values and principles weren't important there wouldn't be an agile manifesto but only a scrum methodology instead of a framework.

[@Timefairyjina]

This talk is about evolution of education and team work. He wanted ppl to be self-motivated as a team, to not just be taking orders or lessons but to independently and interdependently engage fully and actively in the process of work or education by “solving problems” 1. Make problem visible 2. Self organize to fix problem as a team. Important thing is to face the problem and to fix it as organization or at least strategically, is how I understood. It is really important to face the problem in order to excel and achieve the goal. If this process is not done, everything is going to take much more time because you will be doing it the wrong way. Yes, it’s simple as this but he just tried to give as much examples that prove this. Idk why so much hate is thrown here. He didn’t mean to brag at all, I believe he does not have a great speech skill to impress the audience while having the brain to solve the problem by seeing through the process and finding the most important thing to be fixed in order to succeed. So this talk is about finding the problem of finding the problem, and maybe it sounds confusing to some people. He is a gifted individual and it’s sad that he is so misunderstood because it is shown that he really wished people to change for their own good.

[@UmTheMuse]

I admit that the first thing that I thought by the end of the talk was what a lot of the commenters say: he didn't actually explain anything. But really, there were three major lessons to take away from this: 1. Plan. Plans mean nothing, but planning means everything (love that quote from Eisenhower). You will have to adjust your plans to fit reality, but you can't adjust something that doesn't exist. 2. Review everything you do. At work, we review every week. This is seen as an important part of helping us get better, but I often feel like it's not nearly enough. The problem is that we often run into situations where we don't know what the right answer is or know that we're doing something not in line with the company's policies. In the parlance of this talk, we don't know that we're sticking our swords in the ground. 3. Provide direction, not directions. Give your team the flexibility to figure out the solution for themselves. Just like the robots, the brain gives them direction, but each part has the ability to decide how to resolve their small part of the whole.

[@JaideepBaphnaCFA]

Don't forget Jeff's credentials-- he's transformed the world of Software Development. If you missed the point of this talk, I urge you to read a bit "Agile Development" and "Scrum" that Jeff co-created. In this talk he clarifies those principles can be deployed beyond Software Development in all areas of Business.

[@blah914]

Jaideep Baphna, CFA yeah, I think a lot of people completely missed the points he was making.

[@lovinglife3954]

Jaideep Baphna, CFA yeah about 8 minutes in he said backlog and I knew he was talking Agile. Good stuff. Not sure I would have caught on if I didn't already know Agile.

[@GermanPinstriper]

The talk seemed winged, but the content sounded right. He tried to explain the main concepts of SCRUM from a non IT-Business view. I personally used SCRUM 12 years ago on a complex project and we could not have shipped it without SCRUM. I think people here miss the context of what he is talking about. and yes, the title is click bait and miss leading. The content is still right.

[@BrandonTWills]

Would have been nice if he picked one of those & explained in a little detail.

[@eb6media]

step 1: click video settings step 2: set to 2x speed step 3: look at comments and go on to next valuable video immediately

[@connerpearce7864]

The plane landing analogy sums this up perfectly for those who don't understand - Rather than trying to just "Land a plane on a runway", you will end up in the trees and fail. Every few seconds, the pilot of the plane is adjusting itself to meet the final requirement as it draws closer to the target. The message: Improve in small increments, constantly adding value.With this, your end goal will become clearer as you understand it more with each increment. Adapt yourself to get to your goals rather than aiming high and not being able to meet it in one jump.

[@donapodaca3729]

Plan needs parallel, concurrent milestones that serve as "mini-plan b's" that serve as buffering hedges for the overall timeline. His approach avoids show-stopping single point of process failure. I think - lol

[@TyBardy]

He is outlining Scrum learning, Scrum Project Managment, and the overall Scrum idea. This cannot be taught in 16 minutes. This is a high level "talk" to introduce the listener to a concept and an outcome. It is up to each listener to now go and do a deep dive into Scrum management

[@mettamia2008]

I get it! He said it once and showed it two or three times. Also, made a strong case for individual responsibility and gave multiple examples of how it performed when put into practice. In case your missed it... Make work visible. Become part of a self-directed team. If you are a manager, let go of managing and become a facilitator.

[@mitchelldavis2497]

and make sure you take credit for the team's improvement

[@ecarrasco2635]

Awesome talk, all of these negative comments are clearly from non-productive people. Nothing has been better to my productivity since Scrum. It's transparent, transcendent, and an overall great tool. Thank you !!!

[@samibahri4589]

He said that you should set the goals with the team and let them figure out how to reach them, instead of imposing your solutions. He seems to coach them through the process while giving them a lot of freedom to manage their work.

[@alanduval6429]

Amusingly, everyone that is complaining that this talk didn't deliver, failed to notice that the slide in the background for the first three minutes, and his discussion about it, was the TL;DW for the whole video. The rest of the video was illustration-by-anecdote to make the point.

[@makemyday1477]

This could have been said in half the time.

[@2000dhruvagarwal]

Half the time, and twice as faster 😂😂😂.

[@agod5608]

Dhruv Agarwal you get the point.

[@geico105]

Set speed of video to 2x

[@agod5608]

Studley Muffin that will work.

[@randyespoda4396]

This shouldn't have been said at all. Some things are best left unsaid.

[@mosesramirez6330]

Plans are worthless; planning is everything. Land the plane...something something, robots, Japanese professors...something. I watched this video twice so you don't have to. No discernible point here...move along.

[@omarkhan5223]

Thank you, citizen !

[@hawksandwich4742]

thanks pal

[@caioazevedo4990]

@@omarkhan5223 Captain Underpants!

[@minutesofwisdom8511]

Thanks a lot!

[@jameseverett9037]

I thought so - had to check for the 'save you the trouble" comment. THANKS!

[@rextransformation7418]

At EVERY, and I mean EVERY SINGLE TEDx video I first scroll down for the comments, and you guys help save me a lot of time. Thank you, thank you thank you!! NEXT!

[@NoOneDied]

Finally. Just what I've been looking for. Thank you

[@3lit3gn0m3]

I'm glad I watched it without looking at the comments/rating first. You lot love to be mouth-fed, don't you? Indeed, he bragged a lot, but I found the talk to be very informative. The part which grabbed my attention the most, was the idea of influencing people on your team to improve themselves rather than simply bossing them around. Coming up with new systems to increase group productivity rather than relying on an old model and simply expecting everyone to deal with it. Was the talk vague? I think it would be easy to argue in favor of that, but I got a lot out of it. It doesn't mean I'm more intelligent than those who didn't...I think it simply means that I easily related to the appreciation for developing systems to help others work effectively and efficiently.

[@andreadluna]

Yes you're a complete idiot ... You decided to leave your 2 cents opinion acting like you are one of the few who got something out of this and the ones who didn't are less smarter than you... You live in your own little movie dont you ? Such a looser ...

[@3lit3gn0m3]

andreadluna I understand the desire to insult people who are moderately comfortable with their comprehension level, but your reply doesn't hold much value. Less smarter? I'm a looser? I clearly stated I don't think it makes me 'more intelligent' or 'more smarter', so it seems as though you're the only one under that impression.

[@greenepandrew]

I bet he can at least spell loser right.

[@stevewarris]

+3lit3gn0m3 I see what you did there :-)

[@c0rnf1ake]

It's the communicators responsibility to communicate effectively to the audience, that's the whole intention and purpose of what he's there for. People sometimes do need to regroup and get different perspectives to get more clarity when things aren't clear. It happens after many university project briefings, and it happens here... because there's no harm in clarifying. No need to be a prick.

[@uwewalter2416]

I like this lecture very much. Jeff explains the way he found his methodology. Perhaps he does not explain exactly the path he promises in the title, but in return he reveals his values, his career and his motivation. I would like to express my appreciation to Jeff for what he has achieved, not for what he has not achieved. His development of scrum is an enrichment of mankind.

[@michaelng9576]

Just a shoutout to my scrum training group in Toronto. Stay awesome! 😁

[@TheAnatoli888]

Great Presentation about Agile HOW TO and beginning of Scrum from Founder. Thanks so much.

[@saucyonePR]

really awesome. Agile Leadership. people who say this sucks or it is a waste of time need to interpret what he is saying through life experiences. also recognizing what top manufacturing companies are doing, which is letting employees work without micromanagement, offer team incentives and productivity shoots through the roof. really awesome talk

[@omnibeats]

Jeff, I expected more. Maybe the title mislead me.

[@richardgonzales1936]

Thank you sir for your contributions 🙌🏾🙇🏽‍♂️

[@fireseedmusic]

This was very interesting, but I feel like I missed something. I could hear that he was very effective in helping people & companies succeed, but I wasn't sure how exactly he did that & how I could replicate it. If anyone was able to understand better than I, I'd welcome a summary of what you thought he was saying the key is to doing twice as much in half the time. Thanks so much!

[@tonyp2632]

Title is misleading. Should of been title, "How to land a plane" or "Watch the old guy brag".

[@3b91ce72]

In summary, life is like landing an aeroplane. You have to keep repeating (or drill) the landing exercise and re-adjusting until you get it right as you do also living your life. The highlight of his talk was Vietnam war experience. He survived the missile attack by making his flight path maneuvering unpredictable for the missile when entering Vietnam. Only 50% of the pilots survived and came back. He advocates for the management giving initial instructions, then stepping back from managing and allowing the teams to come up with solutions. There is some merit with his talk.

[@bffentertainment7848]

This is the approach to learning that many homeschoolers have the days. Child led learning with a twist of a liberal arts classical education definitely produces superior results and very happy children... Who grow into very happy and fulfilled adults. It's a win, win!!

[@humam19900]

I am very proud of myself for listening to the whole video without killing myself.

[@Mallrat79]

This isn't a TEDtalk. it's an old guy that wandered away from the VFW and somehow ended up on stage after boring the organization speaker to death. Thank you for your service sir, your accomplishments are indeed legendary, but this video is heinously mistitled.

[@Jefferdaughter]

You're right - it's not a TEDtalk; it's a TEDx talk. Nevertheless, I do wonder if he titled it. In the context of the groups he mentions working with, it sounds like they did get 'get twice as much done in half the time'. That said, it is disappointing that his talk shed almost no light on how to do that as an individual.

[@DonnaBrooks]

LMAO! What a great mental image! Thanks for that.

[@fredolounge]

This is because you don’t have no clue who he is with Ken Schwraber when the invented Scrum in Software Development + the title is the titke if his book published years ago The miss leading is from TED themself, they knew if you’re put this bait title, a lot of agilist & scrummies will end up here. Gangne de cons!

[@stheday1]

I had no idea that the origins of Agile development is Japanese. Great to hear Mr. Sutherland giving them credit.

[@CorpusOptimaInc]

Super! Jeff's new book is a rare gem in a sea of banality.

[@trueblueguy88]

Take aways 1- Make work visible. 2- self organising systems work 3- Agile systems 4- Self motivated kids who are taught how to learn. The future of learning.

[@ronzillaya8801]

If I got this correctly, the guy is trying to say that the best way to do "twice as much in half the time" is to, on a daily basis, review and asses what you have been doing, then seek out concrete ways to change your actions, and respond better in the future. This is shown in the examples with the team, how they looked to see what they were doing wrong and recognized they needed to stop putting the sword down, or needed quicker, faster commands. It is further emphasized with the air pilots example, in which they respond to every stimuli by pressing the right buttons, switches and levers. Then, they do the process again, seeing what causes problems, then reacting better to the shifts in air temperature, wind speed, etc. They find the errors, and eliminate them, streamlining the process. Then came the example of the robot, where a big computer dictating its every little action was not efficient. Yet, when the robot was able to recognize the obstacles on its own, without something bigger than it dictating how to respond, it was able to react better, quicker, and move more efficiently. Then it came to the students wanting to learn. That drive to learn didn't just come from the teachers stepping back, but it came from the students on a daily basis remembering what they did the day before (stimuli), and figuring out what they were going to do today (response) in lieu of it. Because they were the ones solving the problems AND finding the questions to solve, they found it more fun because some teacher wasn't giving them a blank worksheet and telling them to focus on only one way to solve something. So in a way, leaving the Tedx talk open ended, was a way for the audience to self-assess. Most of the youtube comments i'm reading are "he didn't even say how to do it" but in recognizing that fact, Jeff is in fact showing the "how" by letting you do the processing for yourself. Sure, he didn't state outright how. What are YOU going to do about it?

[@manuelsaavedraabarca9318]

wish this comment was pinned to the top, very useful. Thank you, it wrapped it up nicely for me.

[@TheShows247]

What does this have to do with the title?

[@randyespoda4396]

Not a g*dd*mn thing

[@shaunindia]

interesting. I have been practising some of what he's talking about in class.. this was a good refresher. i'm going to try to implement some of this in a bigger way on an upcoming gig.

[@alexwild4350]

For those KZbinrs who don't get it - this man is talking about Scrum Project Management. I love his analogy of landing the plane on the runway - that is delivering the project at the right time in the right place exactly. His commentary is that Management needs to let go of the people doing the work, aka the Engineers, who often find their hands tied by imposed limitations of the management. If you don't see this, consider the constant loss of life, the "going over the top" again and again in the first world war trenches. Those men who were ordered to follow 'managements decisions' were the men who knew what they were being told to do, and they were powerless to stop management ordering their slaughter. This is the final words of the presentation - let go. Let go of your teams, allow them to self organise, allow them to come up with their own solutions to achieve the directive set. The airfoce didn't care if this man ducked and weaved on his approach to the target, as long as he got the photograph he had been sent to get. How he got it they didn't care. Allow the software developers to fly their own missions, they will love the empowerment and get the joy back in turning up to work each day. That means - you and me. He talks so much sense. Just maybe not your language.

[@rogs6802]

Great Talk Jeff :) Thank you vey much!

[@thekaxmax]

TL;DR: "Hi, I'm one of the guys who came up with Agile Development, the best known system for project development on the planet. Here's how I got to that."

[@ManuelBernardoIbanezOcampo]

Underrated post

[@macabre2007]

So he is talking about implementing Agile scrum - I wish he'd just said that, I know about agile scrum. It utilises some stages of the Creative Problem Solving Process, the four being - Clarify, Ideate (Where you first generate ideas - diverging, then you review those ideas and cluster them into groups - converging), then developing, and finally implementings. Scrum produces sprints in quick and close succession, in other words going through CPSP, much faster, and you get a potentially marketable product, in every sprint, so by that reckoning it makes sense. but not every sprint is successful, however, it is the fact that you are producing more, therefore you become adept at scrum.

[@JaneDoe-zr4px]

All people from New England (especially the men) think they're master storytellers/comedians/speakers and are in love with the sound of their own voice. It must be in the water.

[@Steyreon]

what was his point? how one would achieve the motivation the school kids felt?

[@bigindex]

Probably because TED is not about marketing your product/service, Sutherland did not mention SCRUM, the project management system that was developed by Americans while helping rebuild Toyota after the war. I had read dozens and dozens of different self-help, improvement, etc type of books and I will say that SCRUM is one of the more important concepts that everyone should learn. All the criticism in the comments is funny because he really did more in his life than anyone here and even if he delivered the secret to life in a 10 min lecture, you probably wouldn't apply it anyway.

[@americantruth9001]

This video is only good if you are well educated and know how to think. Masters in Business understand him best and praise all he has to say. God Bless

[@user-zu1ix3yq2w]

truth

[@chaplaincadet]

The point: Look at every single wrong or flaw in your arsenal and within you and be completely transparent and honest about those wrongs and/or flaws. THEN, step by step, and adjusting on the way in real time, fix these issues one by one and unify yourself into an ideal and then you no longer have an issue. It's all in the subtext evidently.

[@whatthe118]

I think the comments below may be missing the point. AGILE methodology is a well established business process in the software development world nowadays. There are entire courses about it in Computer Science degree programs worldwide and thousands upon thousands of articles about it on Google. Sutherland didn't go into too much detail because its credibility is well established and already known by many, many people. Google "The AGILE Manifesto" and start there.

[@KiiroSagi]

Misleading title but an interesting talk.

[@SnookerOrgen]

AZ. WKiiro Sagi

[@groupraitodigital9784]

They know how to make it interesting. But this is clickbaity and i am so pissed.

[@MrColdheat22]

Jeff Sutherland has a book about what he just talked about called SCRUM, the art of doing twice the work in half the time.

[@marynanesterenko2712]

Reading all the negative comments and I just don't understand why people write them. I loved the speech. Thank you, Jeff and TED Talks for putting this together!

[@badgerfishinski6857]

It's a motivational speech about how we need to do a paradigm shift and think outside the box..... A good psych prior to embracing SCRUM.

[@ion-christopherstudio490ac3]

So I'm going to try and guess why there are 1/3 negatives on this talk, while I am putting it on my immediate action list. Here are my guesses: 1) It's an advertisement for a commercial product or books, etc. 2) People expected something personal - how to be a better administrator / parent / whatever. 3) Misc: ideological mindsets against "AGILE", "MILITARY", OLD GUY, deep learning (waay back in 1990 / military acumen, etc.) Me, I'm wondering how he color coded that parade ground performance, and I want to learn more. Cause this fits what I was thinking (sme times similar experience, different path) and I think it's the best avenue of approach. I thought the synchronistic story of the bug lab moving into the old MIT building was perfect (and that specific building, now gone, was legendary for it since the atomic program.) So this guy could be my personal replacement for "the MIT Godfather" Marvin Minsky, who so reminded me of my Strangelovian father-in-law. TURNS OUT I MISSED IT - it was IMPATIENCE. You guys want the POLISHED KZbin PRESENTATION (1 point / 10-second cuts) and TED SUCKS at it. But in this case, you younger guys got a lot to learn. Maybe it's for an older TYPE to GO DEEP. Could be technology and media, could be Maybe they're just rare anyway.

[@sandeand]

Jeff Sutherland always ends up wasting my time

[@philip7184]

I really like the agile concept, so I have been using agile project management software to manage my life and work. I recommend Zen Tao.

[@kmandal8]

Even though the title of the Talk is a bit misleading a....Jeff summarized the entire agile mindset in a few words without giving the details of how. It is not possible to detail out Agile in 16 minutes. The talk was not about the "how", it was about the thought, so those who are here for a prescription you need to start your journey through the Agile philosophy. Agile needs lots of reading , experience & developing the soft-skills that you cant learn by just reading or watching a few videos. Read his book by the same title as the Ted Talks. and read the 50 odd books that you need to read or interact with a truly Agile Guru.

[@voiceofreason1663]

the people don't get it. The robot's legs has its own micro chip brain while you guys don't.

[@DhirenKhantwal]

To all of you guys who are trying to look for the pointers. You all missed it because We have been bred in the educational system of spoon-feeding which he clearly mentions about , while talking about the school of Netherlands. The illustration of the robot was necessary. It was included to emphasize this point about self-learning and the discovery of techniques, suited best for the individual, himself, which makes the work . "fun". There is no formula which says, " Do this x 1 = Time spent x 1/2 ". But, the idea is to " Give UP and Let GO the existing Methods, To Make The Exhilaration Happen in your Life, which will motivate you to get your work done faster ! Self- Organization is more Important than Self- Discipline !!! "

[@Noz7777]

My husband's company uses this at work. Seems to be that this is essentially a sales talk. Well done, not enough information to reject the product based on ANY details. LOL.... TED talks shouldn't be self promotion for profit, wishing there was an actual talk that taught me what this one stated it would but didn't.

[@ethicalphytophage]

The title is misleading, as others in the comments have suggested. However, he did explain how organisations can get twice as much done in half the time if they changed their management style to instead allow teams to be self motivated. Once this change was implemented, all teams found ways to make the assigned work interesting enough to be autotelic. I wonder how this same insight can be used by individuals though?

[@msmith2279]

So... how do I do that?

[@ItWisnaeMe]

Maybe he could make another video that lasts half as long in which he actually expalins how to do twice as much in half the time.

[@cjcrystal1726]

Father of Scrum, it would not have been possible without his Military background. Thank you Jeff Sutherland!

[@mblegedhesbenz3877]

I ll sum it up Give your heart and soul into everything u do. Double fast.

[@buttegowda]

BS ... In fact he has the art of talking 8 times more than what is required :)

[@blaatgvd]

Wow.. to think the guy who invented Scrum can come up with such an empty speech

[@kibiz0r]

That's what Scrum is. Now buy our certification courses cuz every employer has somehow decided it means you know what you're doing.

[@julianocamargo6674]

At least this makes total sense

[@Yamanhitle]

What I got from this... Make the team's results visible and give them team the flexibility to fix their own problems. Eventually they team will self organise to fix their own problems.

[@greengaroo]

For those who don't know what he is talking about, Jeff Sutherland is one of the founders of the Agile movement, specifically, he co-invented the Scrum framework. What he is trying to say is there is a way to manage your work which would make it more efficient and more enjoyable. I admit, if you watch this talk and know nothing about Agile and Scrum, it doesn't make a lot of sense. Also, the title of the talk is the title of his book.

[@Bolsomito-gb4lh]

So far, the dude has been introducing his resumé at 13 minutes.

[@mrrolight]

Q. How do you know there's a pilot in the room? A. He'll tell you.

[@karthick4567]

Watched this video in half time : 8 min.. Thank you youtube 2x

[@pawelk5407]

I was scratching my head wondering what was his point. I think he says we need to plan and review daily what we are working on, and probably use Agile or Scrum for that - from the video description. Then it makes more sense to me and seems very good.

[@gerardr.6203]

He did not explain anything.

[@DexterHaven]

+Gerard R. But he bragged a lot about his resume....

[@br7078]

+Gerard R. I agree with +Dexter Haven

[@DexterHaven]

That's not an intelligent rebuttal. That type of remark is typical of someone with no vocabulary, facts, or reasoning skills. Self-portrait, perhaps. Daniel

[@DexterHaven]

Super Awesome Dragon Thanks for the tip. That could save me some time. But I like to school the miserable abusive types, to give them a hard time in return, to let them know abusing others will not be pleasant for them.... A public service.

[@pyrocolada]

Pay attention! His advice: 1) Make work visible, ie. Show people how they're doing, 2) Let go! Don't micro manage them, let them self-organize. Simple as that.

[@WickedCrispy]

"I graduated from West Point..." is when I stopped the video.

[@ekesamuel8795]

So, because of this man now I have a job... Small world, eh?

[@JessHines]

Shocking how many commenters are ragging on the "uselessness" of this video like they were expecting "three steps to making scrum work everywhere all the time." The title is "by way of example" it's not a prescriptive how-to video. The whole point of this video (which I enjoyed and found useful) is that Scrum IS the "how." It's how you can turn around under-performing teams. It's how you can create a work environment that's productive, effective, and enjoyable. It's how you can deliver quality work faster. If you're expecting a 15-minute TED talk to provide you a magical spell to solve your problems, you're looking in the wrong place.