My book was finally published yesterday. It sounds a bit cheesy to talk about a 'journey', but this does feel rather like a cairn on the summit of a gently sloping trail of learning which I've been travelling along for over a decade. When I started blogging all that time ago I had no inclination that I'd still be doing it over ten years later but that process of thinking aloud in that way has taught me an enormous amount, not least how to write.
All that purposeful practice has accumulated over time in such a way that writing a book felt not only achievable, but something that I just had to do. That's to take away from the fact that actually writing a book is bloody hard work. The reality of my own circumstances meant that I had to fit writing in around the full-time job of earning a living. Which in turn meant writing in the evening, at weekends, on planes, trains and anywhere else where I had access to my laptop and some time I could dedicate. But it was something that I also enjoyed doing immensely. It's no surprise I guess, that the style in which the book is formatted has ended up echoing the style of a blog – sections and chapters that are comprised of short and insightful 'posts' that come together to take the reader on a journey through the key ideas, concepts, and models that enable an understanding of the key ingredients and approaches for successful transformation and agility.
This book has been many years in the making. I started writing about agility over seven years ago, and consulting and writing on digital transformation in various guises not long afterwards. It's a huge subject. Part of the struggle with the book was determining what NOT to write about – there were so many rabbit holes, potentially interesting areas to explore, implications to understand. But right from the start the vision was clear – there is so much written about the why of agility and digital transformation and so very little about the how. So that's what we set out to create.
My conversations with publishers evolved over time as well. I got quite far down the line with one publisher a few years ago before they suddenly went quiet on me, but fortunately Kogan Page were pro-active in the beginning and have been excellent since then. And many people have been very generous with their time and advice as I sought tips for how best to approach the task of writing, and interviewed people whose opinion I respected to inform and augment the thinking.
I'd like to publicly thank all those who have been here, read this blog, shared my updates about the book, dedicated their time and given me support along the way.
You can order the book now on Amazon UK and Amazon US. I'd love to know what you think of it so please do leave a review over on Amazon if you can.
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