The benefits of the agile mindset and the perks of overall well-being go hand in hand in Antti Niemi’s and Jari Hietaniemi’s inspiring book Just sopivasti ketterä (Just the right amount of agile). The authors don’t dwell too long in defining the terms such as agile and lean, but still, they manage to give you the essentials. “It is distinctive to agility that working starts even when the facts are not known.” In a complex world, you have to do big decisions based on incomplete information.
The book gives concrete tools and guides into baseline starting such as quick and frequent experimentations. Agility is about experimenting and learning and so is a good life, writers tie together. Cynefin model, Kanban boards, and Scrum tools are explained with just the right amount of details for getting started with a good flow and easiness.
Niemi and Hietaniemi also give advice on how to apply these in your own work. Many handy points are gathered together like how with splitting epics you also have to prioritize your work. And that helps you to complete the most important tasks, even if you run out of time. Of course, without forgetting the importance of retrospectives, for which writers offer you also guiding questions.
Niemi and Hietaniemi ask the right questions through the book: Are your actions taking you in the direction you want? What is your goal? Why do you live your life? They dig in quite deep with these questions, don’t they. “You can work on your capabilities by using tools, doing smarter, doing easier, creating routines, and learning from your actions”, they promise.
I highly value the concrete reminders that the authors give in the book, for example, don’t send invitations too late and avoid one-hour meetings, prefer 20 or 40 minutes. “Time pressure challenges for creativity and productivity.” In general, think twice if you are planning on having a meeting, quite often you’re better without. Other types of working better together can be used instead. And if you are just for information sharing, you can make a video, podcast, or slides for that purpose.
The book also takes a stand on the use of email and aptly says the more you send them the more you get them. Personally, I try to read emails only twice a day. It doesn’t always work, but often it does.
A strong recommendation that I’ve used in current and previous teams has been that emails are never sent to teammates. Sure, there will be corporate emails sometimes, but you should also copy them to a decent message platform such as Flowdock or Slack or if these are not in use to Teams chat. Because if you just forward emails they will generate new emails again and your time will be wasted… Just like what Niemi and Hietaniemi’s book says. “If you respond to them more than twice a day then your time management is broken.” Yes!
Book also touches upon trust in teamwork and the importance that no one shall be trolled or ridicule. I find the topic to be so important that it could have had more space in the book. But luckily Camilla Tuominen wrote a book about emotions at work which I really appreciated (Inspiring book: Tunteet ei kuulu työpaikalle).
Niemi and Hietaniemi summarise the importance of guiding your thinking and emotions, and steering your life in the right direction. It gives tools for prioritizing like fourfold table workload/added value. I really like fourfold tables like Saku Tuominen’s meaningful/feeling one, which Niemi and Hietaniemi also point out. The concreteness and future orientation are in great balance in the book, just the right amount of both.
Antti Niemi has worked in multiple different interesting positions in a media company and now in Gofore. I’ve had the pleasure of working with Antti for many years in close-by teams. Antti’s blog Just sopivasti has inspired me for all this time with its positive touch on life, even when concerning deep subjects. This book covers many of the topics I find important in meaningful work life and it’s also a great example of what Antti can achieve when he puts his mind into it. It will be interesting to see where the Antti Niemi Imperium will evolve!
Just sopivasti ketterä. Ketterällä kehityksellä kohti parempaa elämää. 2020.
(Just the right amount of agile. Better life with agile mindset. 2020.)
Can be bought in Finnish arthouse.fi
Small experiments and inspiration 
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