WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:03.200 If something is good, then more of it is better, 2 00:00:03.760 --> 00:00:07.440 right? Wrong. That's this week on the Badass Agile 3 00:00:07.440 --> 00:00:08.000 Podcast. 4 00:00:15.520 --> 00:00:18.960 Greetings, team. Welcome to the Badass Agile Podcast. 5 00:00:19.040 --> 00:00:20.960 I'm your host, Chris Williams. 6 00:00:29.120 --> 00:00:32.860 All right, come on in. Happy to see you. Thank you for being in an 7 00:00:32.860 --> 00:00:36.700 age when we complain about burnout, overwhelm, endless 8 00:00:36.700 --> 00:00:40.380 work and expectations. Sometimes we have to look 9 00:00:40.620 --> 00:00:44.300 and see where we're responsible for those expectations. 10 00:00:44.540 --> 00:00:47.740 But first, let's take a moment to remember why we're here. 11 00:00:48.140 --> 00:00:51.740 To create an elite tribe of leaders who truly serve their clients and 12 00:00:51.740 --> 00:00:55.100 communities by doing what matters and what works, 13 00:00:55.260 --> 00:00:58.700 relentlessly chasing value and excellence like a badass. 14 00:00:59.330 --> 00:01:02.650 There's so many resources out there about what you need to do to be 15 00:01:02.650 --> 00:01:06.410 agile, but we're focused on who you need to become in order 16 00:01:06.410 --> 00:01:10.250 to lead teams. So let's hammer down those fundamentals to create 17 00:01:10.250 --> 00:01:13.330 a truly unique and powerful force in this industry. 18 00:01:13.970 --> 00:01:17.170 If you love this episode, do me a favor, share it with your friends. 19 00:01:18.210 --> 00:01:21.650 Now, look, I don't know about you, but I was attracted to Agile 20 00:01:21.890 --> 00:01:25.580 because the principles were simple, easy to learn, 21 00:01:25.900 --> 00:01:29.580 easy to apply. And the fact that we're here now, 22 00:01:29.740 --> 00:01:33.100 where some people proudly hail themselves as badge 23 00:01:33.100 --> 00:01:36.820 collectors, is a bit of a concern. I have a 24 00:01:36.820 --> 00:01:40.659 hunch that easily half of those people, if you put them in a room and 25 00:01:40.659 --> 00:01:44.500 ask them to figure out what real business value is or how to deliver it 26 00:01:44.500 --> 00:01:48.300 efficiently, they probably couldn't answer. And if you ask them 27 00:01:48.300 --> 00:01:52.030 to create an experiment where failure is likely, they might just 28 00:01:52.030 --> 00:01:55.870 as well call in sick. The bottom line is that all of 29 00:01:55.870 --> 00:01:59.430 this agile knowledge isn't making us better. So what's happening 30 00:01:59.430 --> 00:02:03.030 here? What's happening is that too much knowledge, 31 00:02:03.270 --> 00:02:06.950 too much information, too many certifications, too much 32 00:02:07.029 --> 00:02:10.710 education, is actually making things worse. 33 00:02:11.430 --> 00:02:15.270 It's creating confusion, it's creating complexity, it's 34 00:02:15.270 --> 00:02:18.870 creating overwhelm all on its own. You know, when we talk about agile 35 00:02:18.870 --> 00:02:22.510 failure and the root cause of Agile or agile transformation 36 00:02:22.590 --> 00:02:26.270 problems, it's not always the boss, it's not always the job, 37 00:02:26.270 --> 00:02:30.070 it's not always the scope. That's the problem. It's the 38 00:02:30.070 --> 00:02:31.710 extent to which we do the following. 39 00:02:33.710 --> 00:02:36.350 Overburden ourselves with process. 40 00:02:37.470 --> 00:02:41.150 Wait a second. Don't rules make things better? And if they do, 41 00:02:41.310 --> 00:02:44.270 wouldn't even more rules make things even better? 42 00:02:45.170 --> 00:02:48.850 No. We devise rules and processes 43 00:02:49.250 --> 00:02:52.930 so that things are repeatable and certain. If I do 44 00:02:52.930 --> 00:02:56.610 something and it works well, I want the prescription, I want 45 00:02:56.610 --> 00:03:00.410 the script. I want to be able to do it well again tomorrow. I 46 00:03:00.410 --> 00:03:04.250 want my colleagues to be able to inherit that process and do 47 00:03:04.250 --> 00:03:08.090 it better, too. But here's the problem with rules is that you have 48 00:03:08.090 --> 00:03:11.820 to write them for the lowest common denominator. So a 49 00:03:11.820 --> 00:03:15.180 person with no background, no experience, no 50 00:03:15.180 --> 00:03:18.860 intuition, no inherent sense of the role, no 51 00:03:18.860 --> 00:03:22.260 real track record, you have to write this process so there are no 52 00:03:22.260 --> 00:03:25.860 unanswered questions, because unanswered questions open 53 00:03:25.860 --> 00:03:29.700 the possibility for risk or failure. And even 54 00:03:29.700 --> 00:03:33.340 though we should be comfortable with risk or failure, if you really look, 55 00:03:33.420 --> 00:03:37.140 we're not, at least the worst of us. So some of us who 56 00:03:37.140 --> 00:03:40.800 shouldn't be in this role, or maybe shouldn't be in this role fully yet, 57 00:03:40.800 --> 00:03:44.600 need some time to develop and grow, rely on volumes of 58 00:03:44.600 --> 00:03:48.120 data, stories they can read from the trenches, on 59 00:03:48.120 --> 00:03:51.720 Reddit, in books, in YouTube videos, podcasts like this 60 00:03:51.720 --> 00:03:55.560 one, courses and certifications, and communities to learn. What are 61 00:03:55.560 --> 00:03:58.960 the steps? Give me the steps. But here's the problem. If it's never the same 62 00:03:58.960 --> 00:04:02.720 way twice, in my experience, it usually isn't, then all those 63 00:04:02.720 --> 00:04:06.320 rules aren't going to help you. You know what I find interesting? I think if 64 00:04:06.320 --> 00:04:10.000 there's one set of rules that you want to learn that you want a script 65 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:13.440 for, start with the people stuff. So, for example, how do you run a 66 00:04:13.440 --> 00:04:16.880 retrospective where you get good, clean, useful, honest feedback? 67 00:04:17.600 --> 00:04:21.320 That requires some deftness, doesn't it? Things you can say to 68 00:04:21.320 --> 00:04:25.160 people that won't throw them off, that won't offend them, that won't 69 00:04:25.160 --> 00:04:28.080 knock them back three years, that won't crush their confidence. 70 00:04:28.960 --> 00:04:32.740 How to ask for things. If you got a deadline, things are expected 71 00:04:32.900 --> 00:04:36.380 without seeming pushy or having to rely on power or title or 72 00:04:36.380 --> 00:04:40.220 threats in order to get it. Those are the things where, if 73 00:04:40.220 --> 00:04:43.380 you have no experience, you go to a seasoned coach and you say, how do 74 00:04:43.380 --> 00:04:46.980 you do this without coming off as pushy? How do you do this without hurting 75 00:04:46.980 --> 00:04:50.780 somebody's feelings? How do you do this without having HR come and find you and 76 00:04:50.780 --> 00:04:54.540 say, did you tell this person xyz? Did you give them 77 00:04:54.540 --> 00:04:58.220 this unsolicited feedback? You can't do that. How do you navigate those 78 00:04:58.220 --> 00:05:01.940 waters? That, to me, would be a useful set of rules, 79 00:05:01.940 --> 00:05:05.420 but you won't find that in any agile certification book. 80 00:05:06.220 --> 00:05:10.060 You find it by working with seasoned mentors, or just by doing 81 00:05:10.060 --> 00:05:13.860 the practice and learning the hard way. But we're so afraid of any 82 00:05:13.860 --> 00:05:16.940 negative repercussions that what do we do? 83 00:05:17.420 --> 00:05:21.140 We write rules for when to start your ceremonies, how 84 00:05:21.140 --> 00:05:24.640 many people you're allowed to invite, what color sticky notes you use. 85 00:05:25.200 --> 00:05:27.920 Those things in my book aren't really going to help you get better. 86 00:05:28.800 --> 00:05:32.480 Now that brings up number two. Seeking the perfect way to do 87 00:05:32.480 --> 00:05:36.240 anything. There is no such thing as perfection. So stop chasing 88 00:05:36.240 --> 00:05:39.440 it, stop looking for it. You can't avoid 89 00:05:39.520 --> 00:05:43.280 failure. The only way to get better at not failing is by doing 90 00:05:43.520 --> 00:05:47.120 and failing. The only way to succeed is by 91 00:05:47.120 --> 00:05:50.720 failing first. So get busy failing. Get used to it, get 92 00:05:50.720 --> 00:05:53.980 comfortable with it. Just get out there with your paint and your 93 00:05:53.980 --> 00:05:57.700 paintbrush and cover the canvas. If it sucks, throw it 94 00:05:57.700 --> 00:06:01.340 away, paint over it, do it again, and that's how you become a 95 00:06:01.340 --> 00:06:05.140 painter. But sitting there and trembling to the point where the 96 00:06:05.140 --> 00:06:08.860 brush can't touch the canvas because you're so afraid of doing the wrong 97 00:06:08.860 --> 00:06:12.660 thing, you're never going to improve and you're never going to make great 98 00:06:12.660 --> 00:06:16.500 art by the way. Chasing higher and 99 00:06:16.500 --> 00:06:20.350 higher levels of knowledge and education. Look, I've 100 00:06:20.350 --> 00:06:23.910 studied music for a really long time, since I was 7. I can tell you 101 00:06:23.910 --> 00:06:27.630 this. The guitar player from ACDC doesn't 102 00:06:27.630 --> 00:06:31.310 know the first thing about music theory. Can't read the black dots, 103 00:06:31.550 --> 00:06:35.190 probably doesn't understand intervals, and yet he makes some of the 104 00:06:35.190 --> 00:06:38.990 best selling rock records of all time in the history of music. 105 00:06:39.310 --> 00:06:42.670 How's that possible? Because he listened to the greats, 106 00:06:42.750 --> 00:06:46.480 observed, imitated them, and that's kind of it. 107 00:06:46.560 --> 00:06:50.080 There's rules, yeah, but those rules have been 108 00:06:50.080 --> 00:06:53.800 repeated so heavily and to the delight of so many listeners 109 00:06:53.800 --> 00:06:57.520 that pretty soon the rules become obvious. The things you must 110 00:06:57.520 --> 00:07:01.160 do and the things you must not do, they're not handed down in 111 00:07:01.160 --> 00:07:04.720 an instruction manual. They're handed down by 112 00:07:04.720 --> 00:07:08.440 imitating the greats and seeing what things do they do over and 113 00:07:08.440 --> 00:07:12.280 over and over that create success. Even if you don't know the note 114 00:07:12.280 --> 00:07:15.850 names, the width of an interval, the harmonic relationships, the type of 115 00:07:15.850 --> 00:07:19.690 cadence, those things really don't matter because people 116 00:07:19.690 --> 00:07:22.930 who intuitively feel the music pick up the instrument, 117 00:07:23.410 --> 00:07:27.050 play and things work. And if they don't 118 00:07:27.050 --> 00:07:30.890 work, they keep fidgeting with it until it does. Theory, 119 00:07:30.890 --> 00:07:34.650 on the other hand, is far from useless. But it's 120 00:07:34.650 --> 00:07:38.490 primarily our way of explaining what just happened during the 121 00:07:38.490 --> 00:07:42.050 magic trick. And that's great, but it doesn't make 122 00:07:42.050 --> 00:07:45.330 great musicians. I mean, it doesn't make great music. 123 00:07:45.730 --> 00:07:49.250 Great musicians do. And great musicians get great 124 00:07:49.490 --> 00:07:53.090 by playing, by writing, through trial and error, 125 00:07:53.650 --> 00:07:57.090 practice, repeated experiments. And number four, 126 00:07:57.570 --> 00:08:01.290 we create more confusion, complexity and overwhelm when we think 127 00:08:01.290 --> 00:08:04.530 that more certifications will equal more opportunities. 128 00:08:05.050 --> 00:08:08.690 Now, I've certainly heard stories of people being hired because of the number of 129 00:08:08.690 --> 00:08:12.530 certifications they have. But I've heard as many stories of 130 00:08:12.530 --> 00:08:16.290 people who are highly certified and decorated who can't find 131 00:08:16.290 --> 00:08:19.970 work at all right now. That's because a whole other strata 132 00:08:19.970 --> 00:08:23.690 of skills that you have to have in order to stay successful in 133 00:08:23.690 --> 00:08:27.370 your career aren't obviously teachable through 134 00:08:27.370 --> 00:08:31.130 those quote unquote certified means. For example, your ability to 135 00:08:31.130 --> 00:08:34.690 network, to make connections, to make impact and 136 00:08:34.690 --> 00:08:38.130 highlight your impact, to market yourself, to brand yourself. 137 00:08:38.450 --> 00:08:42.050 These are skills that are not just valuable when you need a job, 138 00:08:42.210 --> 00:08:45.890 but while you're on the job too, your ability to listen 139 00:08:45.890 --> 00:08:49.569 carefully to what other people need so that you build and 140 00:08:49.569 --> 00:08:53.330 maintain trust with the people who pay your bills. Half 141 00:08:53.330 --> 00:08:56.850 the time, the agile people that I meet don't even know who that is. 142 00:08:57.330 --> 00:09:00.650 I ran a program for a long while called Agile Sidekick, and one of the 143 00:09:00.650 --> 00:09:04.460 things we learned by doing it was, is that even a person who's relatively new 144 00:09:04.460 --> 00:09:08.260 to the market with very little experience can 145 00:09:08.260 --> 00:09:11.460 find a way to at least get into the company they want to work with 146 00:09:12.020 --> 00:09:15.540 if they know how to make and back up a solid value proposition, 147 00:09:15.860 --> 00:09:19.580 even if they didn't have years of agile experience, even if they 148 00:09:19.580 --> 00:09:23.340 didn't have any technical background. And it's not through unethical means 149 00:09:23.340 --> 00:09:27.100 of making stuff up or pretending you have experience that you don't. Not at 150 00:09:27.100 --> 00:09:30.950 all. It's by impressing upon a person you're working with that 151 00:09:30.950 --> 00:09:34.790 you understand what value they're striving for, what 152 00:09:34.790 --> 00:09:38.430 gets in the way of them having and realizing 153 00:09:38.430 --> 00:09:42.030 that value and being able to map the experience that 154 00:09:42.030 --> 00:09:44.910 you do have with getting those kinds of results. 155 00:09:45.790 --> 00:09:49.590 Anyway, enough about that. The only time where more is 156 00:09:49.590 --> 00:09:52.990 better is when you focus on the word go. 157 00:09:53.960 --> 00:09:57.600 Go, do, learn, fall on your face, wrap up your 158 00:09:57.600 --> 00:10:01.080 scrapes and try again. More mentors, 159 00:10:01.480 --> 00:10:04.920 definitely. People who you know are doing the job well, whom you admire. 160 00:10:05.400 --> 00:10:09.080 Can you spend time with them, ask questions so that you can accelerate your learning? 161 00:10:09.399 --> 00:10:13.240 Those things, definitely more of. But processes, rules, 162 00:10:13.320 --> 00:10:17.120 certifications, and perfection, I'm afraid, are a bit of a waste 163 00:10:17.120 --> 00:10:20.960 of your time. And in any industry that's really more artistry than it 164 00:10:20.960 --> 00:10:24.730 is science, which we like to think that what we do is 165 00:10:24.730 --> 00:10:28.250 highly technical, but really it isn't. It's a people job. 166 00:10:28.810 --> 00:10:32.250 And whenever you're in one of those, perfection is elusive. 167 00:10:32.570 --> 00:10:35.610 And knowledge in theory, ain't anywhere near as good 168 00:10:36.250 --> 00:10:39.770 as in the field experience. And if you're starting from zero, 169 00:10:40.170 --> 00:10:43.930 be okay with that. Start from zero, be where you are. Let's start 170 00:10:43.930 --> 00:10:47.530 building with bold experiments. Try, 171 00:10:47.610 --> 00:10:51.380 new, do, fail, repeat. That's it for this week. 172 00:10:51.380 --> 00:10:54.700 Thank you for joining me once again. I hope you enjoyed this episode. You can 173 00:10:54.700 --> 00:10:58.340 find me@badassagile.com or at any of the contact points in the show 174 00:10:58.340 --> 00:11:01.860 notes below. I look forward to seeing you next time, and until then, 175 00:11:02.020 --> 00:11:03.220 stay badass.