This one is for Jack!
Agile runs on confidence, confidence is built on trust, trust is built on friendship. Agile enterprises built on any other foundation are houses of cards ready to collapse at the slightest pressure. Without friendship and loyalty there is no stability in personnel or operations. I often speak of the need for positives in agile and preach the principles of Dale Carnegie. They do indeed work when honestly applied. Just as Agile Software Development has a manifesto, here is mine on honoring friendship.
Honoring Friendship…
If your first thought is for a friend’s comfort and not your own.
If your generosity to your friend is greater than that which you show yourself.
If you share a friend’s sorrow or burden and thereby half it.
If you rejoice in a friend’s happiness and thereby double it.
If you freely acknowledge a friend’s accomplishment and are never jealous.
If your words to your friend are always encouraging and never disparaging.
If your commitment to your friend is more important than your commitment to yourself.
If you are slow to take offense and quick to forgive a friend their faults.
If you often take the time to share an uplifting moment or thought with your friend.
If you never ignore a friend, even when it is inconvenient.
Then you honor your friendship!
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About Brian Lucas
In his life, Brian Lucas has been a coach, farm worker, forester, health care advocate, life guard, general contractor, mechanic, mixologist, musician/singer (in a rock group), salesman and teacher. Brian has worked as a project manager, technical marketer, methodologist, manager, software architect, systems designer, data modeler, business analyst, systems programmer, software developer and creative writer. These efforts include over a hundred hi-tech initiatives in almost every business and industrial sector as well as government and military projects. Among them, he designed and developed a quality assurance system for the first transatlantic fiber optic communications network, a manufacturing system for a large computer manufacture’s seven manufacturing centers, a data mining system for steel production, an instrumentation system for cable systems, defined requirements for government’s information systems and designed and developed human performance management systems. Brian has educated and mentored many over the years, designing programs to discover and develop talent. He has also lectured extensively to a variety of audiences. Brian is currently devoting as much time as possible to the innovation of business agility and human capital management along with the next generation of agile software development. As an amateur theoretical physicist he is working on joining general relativity and quantum mechanics through a multidimensional time corollary on string theory and negating the uncertainty principle with Louis de Broglie’s wave/particle hypothesis. He is also an avid blue-water sailor and wilderness backpacker. He enjoys billiards, boxing, chess, cooking, famous battle reenactments and war gaming, fencing, flying, gardening, horseback riding, martial arts (particularly Ninjutsu), philosophy and psychology, playing musical instruments (7 so far), poker, rapid-fire target shooting, reading (he tries to read a new book every night), painting with oils, scuba diving, skiing and recently writing novels.
Keeping Agile™ with Brian Lucas 
Dear Brian this is so sweet and sensitive and thoughtful and wise – I would love to meet the person who wrote this. Please email me…
Dear Brian, this is so sensitive, I almost can’t believe it! I have read your bio and you seem like an incredible person. I would love to attend the next seminar you teach on agile and meet you in person. I have learned a lot about being agile from your blog and even more about being a “good person.” You are a very rare individual!
This is such a beautiful, beautiful story….
So much thought and sensitivity….
Oh my Brian! This is very poetic and a beautiful sentiment! There is much more to you than just gourmet food and business acumen. I am definitely going to start following your blog!
I wish Brian would post more articles on his philosophy of life. Its too bad that so few people think like Brian… I have known Brian for many years and he always lives by this code. He is ever the best of friends, the most generous person you could ever meet and very forthright! Despite his honesty, he tries to see the good in everyone and often suffers the consequences. He is far too kind of a person for this world!
I find most blogs trivial and annoying statements of the obvious or worse a cacophony of untruth and contemptible illogic. This blog is a refreshing contrast. There is much to learn in this simple Manifesto. I also read Being a True Friend Can Require Agile Thinking. It is clear that Mr. Lucas practices in Manifesto in real life. One lesson here is to enable the better part of ourselves to color us always. We should apply it throughout our personal lives not just with our families, but with our friends as well. If we do so, we can ameliorate tragedy with comfort and enhance success with celebratory recognition. Admittedly, there is nothing new in the concept, but it is rarer than should be warranted in mankind. What is more unique is the overall philosophy Mr. Lucas applies which I’ll describe as Thinking Agile in each and every moment. It’s an admirable return to the philosophy of questioning everything you think you know with reason instead of using ideology to guide your actions. The emphasis on the importance of ethics cannot be overstated here. Something Mr. Lucas accomplishes quite eloquently.
What a beautiful post Brian! Anyone who can call you friend is lucky!