WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.679 This is the perfect moment for reinvention. You know, 2 00:00:03.679 --> 00:00:06.480 sometimes when I have a cold like I have now, but also when you get 3 00:00:06.480 --> 00:00:09.620 a little tired of doing podcast because the the sheer 4 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:13.840 mountain of perfection that you expect out of yourself can obviously slow 5 00:00:13.840 --> 00:00:17.375 you down and keep you from wanting to do the thing at all. So in 6 00:00:17.375 --> 00:00:20.975 the spirit of what I teach in the forge and around it, my agile practice, 7 00:00:20.975 --> 00:00:24.015 of course, I might as well just put a mic up anywhere and just go. 8 00:00:24.015 --> 00:00:27.375 So set something up. We'll talk about things that I'm thinking about, that I'm writing 9 00:00:27.375 --> 00:00:31.130 about. And this week, it's all about reinvention. There's 10 00:00:31.130 --> 00:00:34.490 no question that things have changed in the past 4 years. We had a 11 00:00:34.490 --> 00:00:38.010 pandemic. We have completely changed the way we work and the way we 12 00:00:38.010 --> 00:00:41.850 connect. We've completely changed our approaches and 13 00:00:41.850 --> 00:00:45.684 our thinking as to what the good life is. We realize that 14 00:00:45.684 --> 00:00:48.664 life is not work and it's time to do something more meaningful. 15 00:00:49.684 --> 00:00:53.284 It's time to get rid of our attachment to possessions and not think 16 00:00:53.284 --> 00:00:57.045 about those things as much, but rather what we wanna do, who we wanna 17 00:00:57.045 --> 00:01:00.630 spend time with. And everyone's still scratching their head. 18 00:01:00.930 --> 00:01:04.069 You know, in the same moment, agile has gone through 19 00:01:04.770 --> 00:01:08.290 a little bit of a decline. So we know for a fact that, you know, 20 00:01:08.290 --> 00:01:11.890 I've cited the stats many times that spending is down not only in 21 00:01:11.890 --> 00:01:15.185 agile services and products, but agile training, agile conferences. 22 00:01:15.245 --> 00:01:18.925 Everyone's tightening their belts. And I feel there's an element of blown 23 00:01:18.925 --> 00:01:22.285 trust behind that, but you can hear me talk about that in a 100 different 24 00:01:22.285 --> 00:01:25.885 episodes. What I'm here to talk about today is where is the opportunity in 25 00:01:25.885 --> 00:01:29.360 that? And the opportunity is to recreate and 26 00:01:29.360 --> 00:01:33.040 reinvent what we do and how we do it. It's 27 00:01:33.040 --> 00:01:36.100 time for a rebuild. Things were bad, 28 00:01:36.800 --> 00:01:40.320 things got broken, but the time is ripe for 29 00:01:40.320 --> 00:01:44.104 change. There's no rules right now. Not that we want 30 00:01:44.104 --> 00:01:47.865 rules, but if we were gonna make rules, you could set them as easily as 31 00:01:47.865 --> 00:01:51.465 anybody else. What is agile now? Here's what's for 32 00:01:51.465 --> 00:01:55.065 sure. You're never going back to the gold rush days. Remember 33 00:01:55.065 --> 00:01:58.830 them? What if you had the word scrum master or agile coach anywhere 34 00:01:58.830 --> 00:02:02.510 near your name? You could pretty much write your own paycheck. We 35 00:02:02.510 --> 00:02:06.190 know the landscape has changed, and we know that it hasn't necessarily changed 36 00:02:06.190 --> 00:02:09.595 for the better. So you can never go back. And we really 37 00:02:09.595 --> 00:02:13.435 shouldn't want to ever go back. But here's the thing, if it's all 38 00:02:13.435 --> 00:02:16.895 broken and all confusing, it's a green field to reinvent 39 00:02:17.355 --> 00:02:20.875 what we do. And right now, you have the 40 00:02:20.875 --> 00:02:24.015 opportunity to live life by your own design. 41 00:02:24.560 --> 00:02:28.000 Here's why. Most of the agilists I know are sitting around 42 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:31.840 waiting and following. They're waiting to meet someone who's gonna tell 43 00:02:31.840 --> 00:02:35.599 them what to do next. Where's the next opportunity? Where is our industry going? 44 00:02:35.599 --> 00:02:39.140 What is the next great certification that I'm supposed to get? 45 00:02:39.415 --> 00:02:42.715 But if you're not a follower, you could instead 46 00:02:43.175 --> 00:02:46.535 lead. You could help redefine the value and the 47 00:02:46.535 --> 00:02:50.155 virtue of what we do. But wouldn't that be cool? 48 00:02:50.375 --> 00:02:53.255 That's like when you go back to your hometown, and they've torn down the church, 49 00:02:53.255 --> 00:02:56.659 and they've gutted the school and they've widened the roads, nothing will ever 50 00:02:56.659 --> 00:03:00.500 be the way you remember it. It'll never be the way it 51 00:03:00.500 --> 00:03:04.340 was. And clinging to that past is 52 00:03:04.340 --> 00:03:08.099 what causes us pain. World's always changing. There's kids 53 00:03:08.099 --> 00:03:11.755 now who are like 30 years old who don't remember 54 00:03:11.815 --> 00:03:15.255 a world where you could go through a security checkpoint at an airport and leave 55 00:03:15.255 --> 00:03:18.935 your belt and your shoes on. In fact, there's people who've just 56 00:03:18.935 --> 00:03:22.520 graduated from school, who are starting their careers having 57 00:03:22.520 --> 00:03:26.280 never worked in the pre pandemic conditions that we're all trying 58 00:03:26.280 --> 00:03:30.120 so hard to go back to. Look. You can't put a cork back 59 00:03:30.120 --> 00:03:33.660 in what has happened. You can't stuff AI 60 00:03:34.245 --> 00:03:37.785 or remote work or cloud or any of those things back in the bottle. 61 00:03:38.325 --> 00:03:42.005 This is a time of great revolution, and people are a little bit 62 00:03:42.005 --> 00:03:45.605 afraid. They're a little bit confused, but the prize 63 00:03:45.605 --> 00:03:49.090 goes to the first movers. And that, my friends, as 64 00:03:49.090 --> 00:03:52.930 Agilist, is what we do. So take a moment to mourn the way it 65 00:03:52.930 --> 00:03:56.770 used to be if you want, but you gotta do something. See, 66 00:03:56.770 --> 00:04:00.610 here's what a lot of people don't get. Loyalty doesn't mean anything. The fact that 67 00:04:00.610 --> 00:04:04.445 you were a valuable agile coach 5 years ago, and everyone at 68 00:04:04.445 --> 00:04:08.205 the company loved you and they were happy to renew your contract every 12 69 00:04:08.205 --> 00:04:11.885 months, that doesn't mean anything. The system doesn't 70 00:04:11.885 --> 00:04:15.590 care about you. Your loyalty won't be met 71 00:04:15.590 --> 00:04:19.209 with loyalty in return. You gotta pay for your existence 72 00:04:19.269 --> 00:04:22.970 somehow. You have to keep generating new value. Keep reinventing 73 00:04:23.030 --> 00:04:26.570 yourself and finding ways to justify your existence 74 00:04:27.430 --> 00:04:30.955 by emerging different. Things will now 75 00:04:30.955 --> 00:04:34.475 change because they have to, and because they 76 00:04:34.475 --> 00:04:38.075 can. We can be bold and reinvent what we 77 00:04:38.075 --> 00:04:41.615 do, and how we do it. All based on a compelling 78 00:04:41.995 --> 00:04:45.680 why. A pause, a break, is 79 00:04:45.680 --> 00:04:49.040 an intervention, a moment of reckoning and 80 00:04:49.040 --> 00:04:52.880 reflection and recreation. The things that we used to do 81 00:04:52.880 --> 00:04:56.480 that were so comfortable are comfortable because they were 82 00:04:56.480 --> 00:05:00.215 habit. It was familiar. It was safe. It was approved, but that doesn't 83 00:05:00.215 --> 00:05:04.055 mean it was good for us. There are some habits that 84 00:05:04.055 --> 00:05:07.815 we should introduce or strengthen, and there are some that we should break 85 00:05:07.815 --> 00:05:11.495 up with. Let them fall to the ground and shatter like a glass bowling 86 00:05:11.495 --> 00:05:14.690 ball. When you drop a habit, you reclaim 87 00:05:14.990 --> 00:05:18.750 power. You can insert new things that are more aligned with 88 00:05:18.750 --> 00:05:21.810 the present. Healthier, more beneficial. 89 00:05:22.590 --> 00:05:26.225 Whether that means it's time to change careers, time to build a side 90 00:05:26.225 --> 00:05:29.745 hustle, where you can do agile on your own terms. For let's say, a smaller 91 00:05:29.745 --> 00:05:33.505 company, who truly values what you do and thinks the way that you 92 00:05:33.505 --> 00:05:37.345 do. It might mean that you reorient how you spend your time and your 93 00:05:37.345 --> 00:05:40.910 money, Or, it could mean you create a brand new job title for yourself. 94 00:05:41.449 --> 00:05:45.210 Stop going through the same doors as everyone else. The ones that you 95 00:05:45.210 --> 00:05:48.889 were faithful to yesterday. Don't kneel in the pews 96 00:05:48.889 --> 00:05:52.245 among the masses because you could find a new way to solve 97 00:05:52.245 --> 00:05:56.085 problems for people and businesses. You can swim against the 98 00:05:56.085 --> 00:05:59.444 current. Look. If you're gonna sweat and crawl every 99 00:05:59.444 --> 00:06:03.285 day to keep your head above water, it might as well 100 00:06:03.285 --> 00:06:06.720 be for cause. It might as well be for change. 101 00:06:07.100 --> 00:06:10.860 Don't be a servant to the rules. Make new rules. And you 102 00:06:10.860 --> 00:06:14.320 might be saying, well, this breaks what the industry expects of me. 103 00:06:14.700 --> 00:06:18.139 But remember, the industry doesn't care about you. They'll drop you in a 104 00:06:18.139 --> 00:06:21.854 minute. Look. It's scary because none of this 105 00:06:21.854 --> 00:06:25.375 has been done before. There is no proven stable 106 00:06:25.375 --> 00:06:29.134 ground, but it's worth it. Take my 107 00:06:29.134 --> 00:06:32.940 word for it. We could set the bar higher. We could 108 00:06:32.940 --> 00:06:36.539 rewrite what agile means and how it gets used. And in 109 00:06:36.539 --> 00:06:40.240 upcoming episodes, I'll tell you about some of the experiments that I'm doing 110 00:06:40.300 --> 00:06:43.740 that maybe you wanna try too. I've done some really exciting things just in the 111 00:06:43.740 --> 00:06:47.565 past 6 months alone. But the good news that I wanna bring to you 112 00:06:47.625 --> 00:06:51.465 is that I validated that the need is there. If 113 00:06:51.465 --> 00:06:55.305 I no longer wanna define myself as someone who brings speed or 114 00:06:55.305 --> 00:06:59.139 quality or consistency to a software delivery practice, I don't 115 00:06:59.139 --> 00:07:02.740 have to. Because people are asking for very 116 00:07:02.740 --> 00:07:06.500 different stuff. But here's the cool thing. Agile is 117 00:07:06.500 --> 00:07:09.720 about helping people experiment and discover and validate 118 00:07:10.419 --> 00:07:13.845 in unknown territory. And I can think of no 119 00:07:13.845 --> 00:07:17.384 more uncertain terrain than what we're seeing here in 2024. 120 00:07:18.004 --> 00:07:21.845 This should be what we're awesome at, but it's up 121 00:07:21.845 --> 00:07:25.444 to us to create a new definition that's in line with the new 122 00:07:25.444 --> 00:07:29.280 world that we're facing. This is our greatest job. I 123 00:07:29.280 --> 00:07:32.960 hope this inspired you. If you like this episode, don't forget to share it with 124 00:07:32.960 --> 00:07:36.800 your friends. If you got any questions or comments, go ahead and email me at 125 00:07:36.800 --> 00:07:40.479 contact at badassagile.com. And until next 126 00:07:40.479 --> 00:07:42.740 time, stay badass.