Badass Agile

Nothing invokes the image of a badass like a special operator. In 2014, this guest changed the course of my life, and set me on a path that sparked my career and personal trajectory, which included launching this show in 2017.

Mark Divine is a retired US Navy SEAL and owner of SEALFIT.  He is the author of several bestselling books, including “Unbeatable Mind”, “Way of The SEAL”, and on March 2, 2020, will release his latest title, “Staring Down the Wolf: 7 Leadership Commitments That Forge Elite Teams”.  In this week’s episode, you’ll hear Mark and I talk about:

I really enjoyed this book, and I know you’ll love getting a glimpse into how truly high-performing organizations build elite teams.  Pre-order the book here:

https://staringdownthewolf.com/pre-order-2

You can also check out Mark’s work at:
https://www.unbeatablemind.com
https://www.sealfit.com

Hope you get tons of value out of it!

As always, start with the willing.  Find people who already have an interest in agility, in change.  Help people who already ‘get it’ to make tiny increments of change.  Build your own dream team by adding value around the organization wherever you can – a minimally invasive, grassroots campaign.  Go do some agile ‘stuff’ wherever you stand; bottom up.  Create an inspirational culture – and be vigilant about keeping negativity out.

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Do you live life with your limiter on?  Is your output artificially capped?  Do you resist “GO!”?  Do you rely on permission?

If you knew that it was your failure to leap that inhibits your output, your creativity, would you be willing to change?  And yet most of us not only fail to leap, but also convince themselves that waiting – waiting for perfection, waiting for permission – makes you safer.

Examine that belief carefully.  If you flip through our history, those who GO in spite of feeling less than ready, less than authorized…are the ones we remember for changing the game.

Don’t inhibit yourself.  Take your limiters off.  It’s scary.  It’s fast, but it’s fun.

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As I’ve launched the new Badass Agile leadership learning experience, I had something I wanted to ramble about the partisan politics and binary thinking around modern education and certification.

Be cautious of absolutes.  There is value in all education (if not necessarily certification), but there is a limit to how much you should attend, read, or memorize about any field of endeavour before we get out there and witness.  Live through some real challenges, develop and test your hypotheses.

To overwhelm yourself with knowledge is to cloud and confuse the mind with too many competing products and their promises; shouting at you from every side.  Knowledge must be a stripping away of uncertainty and ignorance, not a warehousing of ‘how-to’s; and ‘just by this’.

This year, let’s keep it simple.  As frameworks and tools pile up, it’s helpful to return once again to fundamentals.  To clear the space, to question our established rules, and look for our own sources of waste.   Let’s take some simple practices from the fundamental badass agile way and make sure we are applying them to our individual and team practice.

A lot of people talk about improving, but very few people are willing to do the work it takes to actually improve.

No matter how much they may say they want change, when faced with actual change….some people just aren’t ready.

Change is hard.  Even a small commitment is better than waiting until you’re 100% ready…but until your reason is strong enough, you won’t be ready to take the plunge.  And that’s ok.  Focus on those who are ready NOW.

If you are struggling to do anything consistently, you could be biting off too much.  The secret is to create ANY consistent habit, and then increase the scope and ambition once it’s habitualized.