I read Garr Reynolds' blog, "Presentation Zen," on presentation design and skills.
Today, it features an excerpt from Bill Clinton's recent speech at Georgetown University.
Reynolds highlights two paragraphs from Clinton's speech.
"We believe in a politics...dominated by evidence and argument. There is a big difference between a philosophy and an ideology, on the right or the left. If you have a philosophy, it generally pushes you in a certain direction or another. But like all philosophers, you want to engage in discussion and argument. You are open to evidence, to new learning. And you are certainly open to debate the practical applications of your philosophy."
"The problem with ideology is if you got an ideology, you already got your mind made up, you know all the answers, and that makes evidence irrelevant and argument a waste of time, so you tend to govern by assertion and attack. The problem with that is that discourages thinking and gives you bad results." — Bill Clinton
These paragraphs reminded me of recent discussions on the Agile yahoo groups about "silver bullets" and whether the word "Agile" represents a state of mind or a set of practices or both. And whether we're "for" it or "agin" it.
The Manifesto signers captured the Agile philosophy in the values and principles. Proponents of various methodologies suggest sets of practices to "manifest" the values and principles at work.
In another segment of the speech, Clinton also says:
"In other words, because we had a philosophical debate...we had a creative tension which led us to a dynamic center -- not a mooshy center, a dynamic center -- that worked."
Staying with that creative tension, the collaborative exploration of approaches and ideas, leads us to what works. It's not easy and doesn't allow us the comfort of establishing a reliable routine. It pushes us to think and behave outside the bounds of previous expectations. To experiment. To inspect...then adapt. To learn.
An Agile ideology would signal a finished thought and the death of Agility. Those who espouse an anti-Agile ideology seem just as stuck.
An Agile philosophy stands us at the beginning of describing the map. There lie dragons. Let's go there!