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Agile teams have one simple rule when it comes to roles: you do whatever it takes to help your team get the job done.

In a world rife with potential distractions, it’s in the self-interest of organizations… to help their people stay focused on the priorities that have the potential to create the greatest value.

Passion is an extraordinary fuel for persevering through frustration as we move along the learning curve. It also helps keep us committed to growth once we’ve achieved excellence.

Codifying one’s thinking is an important step in inventing oneself. The most difficult way to do it is by thinking about thinking – it helps to speak or write your thoughts.

Every time we teach children something, rather than helping them learn, we keep them from inventing themselves.

…being criticized for who you are rather than for what you did evokes a deep sense of shame and helplessness; it makes a person want to hide, disappear.

Dissonance theory would therefore predict that when victims are armed and able to strike back, perpetrators will feel less need to reduce dissonance by belittling them than they do when their victims are helpless.

Combine self-justifying perpetrators and victims who are helpless, and you have a recipe for the escalation of brutality.

Understanding how dissonance operates helps us rethink our own muddles, and it’s also a useful skill for helping friends and relatives get out of theirs.

Understanding how the mind yearns for consonance and rejects information that questions our beliefs, decisions, or preferences not only teaches us to be open to the possibilities of error but also helps us let go of the need to be right.