Badass Agile

Here’s how you know you have no competition.

When you interact with people, notice if:

-They make promises and then don’t keep them

-They make excuses

-They become harder to find when work has to be done

-They complain about not knowing what to do, but fail to observe definitions, instructions or frameworks

-They avoid conversations and actions that require change mindset

-They talk about work, but never do any real work….plans are in spreadsheets and powerpoints, but nothing ever gets built.

***JOIN THE FORGE***

Sign up for more info about our online leadership immersion experience.

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Follow on CLUBHOUSE:

https://www.joinclubhouse.com/club/badass-agile

Don’t forget to join us in the Badass Agile Listener Lounge on Facebook for member exclusives, livestreams and previews!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/badasslistenerlounge/

Follow The LinkedIn Page:

https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/badass-agile

We’re also on YouTube! Follow the podcast, enjoy some panel/guest commentary, and get some quick tips and guidance from me:

https://www.youtube.com/c/BadassAgile

******

Our mission is to create an elite tribe of leaders who focus on who they need to become in order to lead and inspire, and to be the best agile podcast and resource for effective mindset and leadership game.

Contact us ([email protected]) for elite-level performance and agile coaching, speaking engagements, team-level and executive mindset/agile training, and licensing options for modern, high-impact, bite-sized learning and educational content.

At the end of each year, I like to look ahead to the currents and opportunities of our craft. While I see some progress here and there, I don’t see potent shifts.  I’m learning that it’s better to create them.  Will you join me?  

Despite the prevalence of retrospectives and the value of looking back to celebrate wins and inventory lessons, I’ve found it more powerful to look ahead.  The future is ours to design, and I’ve discovered that part of leadership is the will to design it.  So let’s get busy creating our 2022.

I believe we should be applying our best energy to solving the most critical problems.   As of right now, I think those are: 1) how we use agile mindsets to respond to the shifting environments of work and wellness, and 2) how we finally attack the problems that inhibit scaling – mindset shift.

Everywhere I look, the biggest challenge facing large organizations is people. We are not experiencing an exodus based on laziness or greed but a global cultural shift.  The necessity of working from home has created nothing short of a rebirth.  We have seen what is possible.  We’ve had a chance to contemplate what matters.  

We realize that we accepted the status quo, working harder and longer days, too often to achieve pointless ends. We have sacrificed our health, growth, and family time to benefit our employers.

I called this trend in one of my first-ever blog posts.  Written in 2005 on the now-defunct myspace.com, it was about how change happens in inches – imperceptible shifts that occur slowly over time.  Our liberty is chipped away – or clawed back – in tiny increments.  Ingesting them is less painful than swallowing the inevitable end.

People are demanding better conditions as the remnants of their blind loyalty are crumbling like ash. Some are ditching the commute.  Some like the comfort of working from home.  Some feel the work-life balance is better.  Many are beginning to question the worth of giving 60-80 hours per week for little benefit and less happiness.

Something is different this time. In sharp contrast to the past, businesses can no longer treat people as hot-swappable assets. In great numbers, we find great courage.  There’s a new attitude at work – “It’s just not worth it.”  Companies can’t afford to wait this one out or build a solution over several years.  People are expecting leadership.  To meet the challenge with silence now would shift the image of powerful, Fortune 500 companies into blundering, powerless egotists.  A failure to act in times of existential change will forever destroy trust.

There are two opportunities for us.  The first is to help companies see the change and lead through it.  We can help them design their response.  I believe agilists must help leaders develop a concise and inspiring vision and help inform it.  After all, we are supposed to stand for happier, healthier teams.  We know firsthand that we can’t inspire better delivery with a burned-out squad that has lost its faith.  We can show them what a better tomorrow looks like.  

The second is to help the masses claim their future.  There is nothing wrong with capitalizing on change and uncertainty.

Notice that neither of these has anything to do with software delivery.  Personally, I’m out of the coaching game. Specifically, I no longer coach software development teams.  At this stage, most companies that have adopted Agile either get the plot or are starting to realize where they’re falling short.  Good counsel in this space is no longer hard to find.  

My clients need the most help putting down the theory and getting after the practice. The biggest impediment is their willingness to accept change and act courageously in response to it.

***JOIN THE FORGE***

Sign up for more info about our online leadership immersion experience.

******

Follow on CLUBHOUSE:

https://www.joinclubhouse.com/club/badass-agile

Don’t forget to join us in the Badass Agile Listener Lounge on Facebook for member exclusives, livestreams and previews!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/badasslistenerlounge/

Follow The LinkedIn Page:

https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/badass-agile

We’re also on YouTube! Follow the podcast, enjoy some panel/guest commentary, and get some quick tips and guidance from me:

https://www.youtube.com/c/BadassAgile

******

Our mission is to create an elite tribe of leaders who focus on who they need to become in order to lead and inspire, and to be the best agile podcast and resource for effective mindset and leadership game.

Contact us ([email protected]) for elite-level performance and agile coaching, speaking engagements, team-level and executive mindset/agile training, and licensing options for modern, high-impact, bite-sized learning and educational content.

In the debate on measurement, we seem to have strong views on what we DON’T want to examine, but little to say on what we will put our hands up to be accountable for. We can’t forget that a team is not just accountable to itself and the end customer.

***JOIN THE FORGE***

Sign up for more info about our online leadership immersion experience.

******

Follow on CLUBHOUSE:

https://www.joinclubhouse.com/club/badass-agile

Don’t forget to join us in the Badass Agile Listener Lounge on Facebook for member exclusives, livestreams and previews!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/badasslistenerlounge/

Follow The LinkedIn Page:

https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/badass-agile

We’re also on YouTube! Follow the podcast, enjoy some panel/guest commentary, and get some quick tips and guidance from me:

https://www.youtube.com/c/BadassAgile

******

Our mission is to create an elite tribe of leaders who focus on who they need to become in order to lead and inspire, and to be the best agile podcast and resource for effective mindset and leadership game.

Contact us ([email protected]) for elite-level performance and agile coaching, speaking engagements, team-level and executive mindset/agile training, and licensing options for modern, high-impact, bite-sized learning and educational content.

One of the best things that has happened because of this podcast is inspiring courage worldwide.

There’s a fine line between recognition and impact.  I like hearing when people enjoy the show, but I like it more when what I say breaks your patterns of thinking and challenges you to not only think differently but to DO differently.  

To be bold. To do more.

The only way to generate courage in the world is to model it.  To do it.  You can’t just talk about it or read about it.  It’s nothing to get inspired about it – quite another to live it and breathe it.

If and when something I say or do encourages people to take a leap – to speak truth to power, to demand change, to speak for true autonomy and trust for their teams – then I’m really living.

I want to encourage you to try it for yourself this week.  Make a podcast. Write a book. Reach for a dream job or goal.  Change part of your life that hasn’t been working for the past decade or two.  Make a bold commitment – publicly – and follow through.  

When you do, you’ll be showing people not only the results of courage but the experience of living a life of courage in action.

And that’s way more satisfying than leading, coaching or teaching ‘stuff’ – systems or processes or philosophies.

***JOIN THE FORGE***

Sign up for more info about our online leadership immersion experience.

******

Follow on CLUBHOUSE:

https://www.joinclubhouse.com/club/badass-agile

Don’t forget to join us in the Badass Agile Listener Lounge on Facebook for member exclusives, livestreams and previews!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/badasslistenerlounge/

Follow The LinkedIn Page:

https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/badass-agile

We’re also on YouTube! Follow the podcast, enjoy some panel/guest commentary, and get some quick tips and guidance from me:

https://www.youtube.com/c/BadassAgile

******

Our mission is to create an elite tribe of leaders who focus on who they need to become in order to lead and inspire, and to be the best agile podcast and resource for effective mindset and leadership game.

Contact us ([email protected]) for elite-level performance and agile coaching, speaking engagements, team-level and executive mindset/agile training, and licensing options for modern, high-impact, bite-sized learning and educational content.

Nothing good – no uncommon outcome – is easy, otherwise, everyone would be doing it, and it wouldn’t be uncommon.  How do you know if you’re performing like an uncommon badass?

Here are some guidelines 

-If you are comfortable, you’re not growing

-If you’re locked into a predictable pattern that you can do in your sleep, you’re not growing (think of the RULES that we’ve defined for running standup, for example.  Do those rules make us better, or do they avoid tackling the harder issues that make great standups so rare?)

-If you are never scared, and afraid to be scared, you’re not growing.

-If you catch yourself saying “it can’t be done” or “it can’t change”, you’re not growing

Here’s how to stay in growth mode:

-Do things that are new and uncomfortable for just 20 minutes a day

-Study books or concepts that you don’t agree with, just to find learning and integration opportunities

-Make sure to do something not just different, but HARD every once in a while.

***JOIN THE FORGE***

Sign up for more info about our online leadership immersion experience.

******

Follow on CLUBHOUSE:

https://www.joinclubhouse.com/club/badass-agile

Don’t forget to join us in the Badass Agile Listener Lounge on Facebook for member exclusives, livestreams and previews!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/badasslistenerlounge/

Follow The LinkedIn Page:

https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/badass-agile

We’re also on YouTube! Follow the podcast, enjoy some panel/guest commentary, and get some quick tips and guidance from me:

https://www.youtube.com/c/BadassAgile

******

Our mission is to create an elite tribe of leaders who focus on who they need to become in order to lead and inspire, and to be the best agile podcast and resource for effective mindset and leadership game.

Contact us ([email protected]) for elite-level performance and agile coaching, speaking engagements, team-level and executive mindset/agile training, and licensing options for modern, high-impact, bite-sized learning and educational content.