Lift Off

Ready, set, liftoff! Align your team to one purpose: successful delivery. Learn new insights and techniques for starting projects and teams the right way, with expanded concepts for planning, organizing, and conducting liftoff meetings. Real-life stories illustrate how others have effectively started (or restarted) their teams and projects. Master coaches Diana Larsen and Ainsley Nies have successfully "lifted off" numerous agile projects worldwide. Are you ready for success? Every team needs a great start. If you're a business or product leader, team coach or agile practice lead, project or program manager, you'll gain strategic and tactical benefits from liftoffs. Discover new step-by-step instructions and techniques for boosting team performance in this second edition of Liftoft. Concrete examples from our practices show you how to get everyone on the same page from the start as you form the team. You'll find pointers for refocusing an effort that's gone off in the weeds, and practices for working with teams as complex systems. See how to scale liftoffs for multiple teams across the enterprise, address the three key elements for collaborative team chartering, establish the optimal conditions for learning and improvement, and apply the GEFN (Good Enough for Now) rule for efficient liftoffs. Throughout the book are stories from real-life teams lifting off, as seasoned coaches describe their experiences with liftoffs and agile team chartering. Focused conversations help the team align, form, and build enough trust for collaborating. You'll build a common understanding of the teams' context within business goals. Every liftoff is unique, but success is common!

Liftoff! is your guide to leveling up as a design manager and leader. Its experience-driven approach--written by designers for designers--will help you hire and scale teams, develop careers, learn why diversity matters to your business, and solidify design's role in your organization. Liftoff! will elevate your skills to lead your team and company to new heights.

An inspirational rallying call about education, race, and the true nature of equality—the Harvard Graduate School of Education convocation speech praised as “powerful” by Hillary Rodham Clinton in Teen Vogue and “inspired” by Justin Timberlake. In emotionally charged spoken-word poetry, Livingston shares a message of hope and hard truths, declaring that education can become an equalizer only if we first acknowledge the inequality and racial divides holding back America’s future. Livingston is dedicated to helping young people reach their celestial potential, and in his galvanizing commencement address, now adapted for the first time to the page, he calls on us to raise our voices on behalf of all children, as their brighter futures can light up our own. Together, we can lift off! Praise for Donovan Livingston “Donovan Livingston gave a powerful speech at the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s convocation. In a spoken-word poem, he shared his struggles in life and urged his fellow graduates to fight inequality and inspire students. . . . Donovan’s message hit home. . . . [He is] part of a rising generation that’s . . . standing up to some of the biggest challenges in the world today.”—Hillary Rodham Clinton, Teen Vogue “These are the words, and Donovan Livingston’s voice and spirit are the music, but in any form, this rare graduation speech tells us that learning is full of bias yet can lead us to the stars.”—Gloria Steinem “Donovan Livingston’s Lift Off is our youth’s gift to us. In this joyous young man’s voice is the promise of tomorrow.”—James McBride

Liftoff-it's the unexplored, often ignored, Agile project practice. As the first act of flight, a rocket launch requires an entire set of systems to lift the vehicle into orbit-not just the vehicle itself, but all the systems needed for smoothly moving off the ground into space. Likewise, your project needs its entire set of supporting systems in place to begin a successful journey to delivery. Whatever you call it (project kickoff, bootcamp, inception, or jump start), liftoff gives your team its trajectory, and launches your project. This critical practice informs, inspires, and aligns everyone to a singular purpose: the successful delivery of software. This success is in your hands! Agile veterans Diana Larsen and Ainsley Nies teach you how to organize and conduct liftoffs, hold team activities to discover what's most important, and offer a working framework for effective and lightweight agile chartering.

Perfect to share with babies, this board book follows three little astronauts on an adventure. With a sparkly cover and fun tabs to pull. The bright artwork and dynamic text make this a great playtime book, and the double pull-tabs are fun and help children with their developing eyesight and coordination. The story focuses on friendship and play - in space! The super space story and lots of sounds to make - whoosh! - make the book easy to use and encourage carer and child interaction.

Find out what it takes to become an astronaut--from someone who knows!

Lift Off presents personal and professional works by Scott Robertson, Program Director of the Entertainment Design major at Art Center College of Design. This book features the following chapters: Airships, Spacecraft, Aircraft, Lefty Sketches, Hovercraft, Original "Card Collection" and selected work from the conceptual design of vehicles for the video games Field Commander and Spy Hunter 2.

First volume in the series (see above). An intimate account of the training of astronauts & their psychological interaction. For all popular & aerospace collections. Chronicles the day-to-day training of Space Shuttle crew 41-G from the selection of the crew members through the completion of their mission.