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I don't know about you, but I'm kind of fed up with all of the

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hair splitting over words that's dominating our practice

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and our industry on social media. That's this week on

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the Badass Agile Podcast.

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Greetings, team. Welcome to the Badass Agile Podcast. I'm

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your host, Chris Williams.

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Hello, friend. Thank you for being here. Happy to see you. Our

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industry's in crisis. There's no denying it's getting harder and harder to

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find and keep opportunities if you're an agile coach or scrum

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master. So of course, we're taking to the streets trying to figure out

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what went wrong and what's going to make things better. And

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no disrespect to all of the fine people who are trying to help solve this

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problem, who refuse to quit, never give up, and keep reaching

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for a better tomorrow, but I think we're going about it the wrong

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way. Before we get into it, let's take a moment to remember why we're

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here. To create an elite tribe of leaders who truly serve their

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clients and communities by doing what matters and what works,

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relentlessly chasing value and excellence like a badass.

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There's so many resources out there about what we need to do to be

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agile, but we're focused on who we need to become in order

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to lead teams. So let's hammer down those fundamentals to

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create a truly unique and powerful force in this industry.

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Remember, if you like this episode, share it with your friends.

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Okay. Remember that 70s movie called Caddyshack?

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Ted Knight, the guy who played Judge Smales, had a great line where

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he stumbles across some people just sitting around at the country club, and he looks

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at him and says, don't you people have homes? That's the way I feel about

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people who are stirring up this kind of sentiment on social media,

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arguing over using the wrong words. Here's a

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specific case. I saw some people talking about the word

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accountability and how it was responsible for all of the

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problems that we're having in agile, because presumably the word

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accountability makes people feel bad. I've heard this before.

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I've heard the word promises, the words like commitment,

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even the word deadlines, come under fire because of the way it

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makes people feel about their work. I even saw one person comment,

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three simple words, accountability is violence.

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So I think that's super hyperbolic, and I think you're wasting time

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sitting around the country club arguing about things that ultimately

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don't matter. I've been around a bit. I've heard all kinds

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of words used to convey terrible Emotions, hatred,

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intolerance. And so in many cases over history,

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we've changed the words that we use to refer to specific

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activities or groups of people, or even physical or

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mental conditions. The word takes on a negative, hurtful

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charge. So we ban the word. But of course what happens next is

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whatever word we use to replace it with now becomes

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the dangerous and violent word. Why? Because it's never the

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word, it's the sentiment behind the word, which of course just

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travels from phrase to phrase over trends and

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over time. If you don't change the root cause of the problem,

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then you can change the words all you want. Nothing will actually get

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any better. Now, people who don't like the word accountability

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probably have one of two issues. Either you've been

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traumatized by the word because someone used it as a weapon in the

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past, well, that's bad leadership and that's on them. So

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we could change the word to responsibility, commitment, or even just doing

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your job. Because you know what doesn't go away? The

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actual accountability. I've said this a million times, usually around the

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topic of estimation. But if you bring your car into a mechanic

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because it's making a funny rattling noise or it's bumping, or it's doing something weird,

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it accelerates jerky, whatever, your mechanic will say, okay, we'll have

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a look and we'll let you know. Well, to the curious, especially the budget

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minded, the next thing out of your mouth is going to be, what do you

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think it could be? Ever seen anything like this before? And what do you think

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ballpark the range is for fixing it? Imagine if your

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mechanic turned to you and said, I don't know, I'll let you know when it's

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done. To which you reply, of course, well, okay, well when will that be?

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When's it going to be done? And your mechanic replied, once again, I don't know,

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I'll let you know once it's finished. That's not acceptable. Most people

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can't handle that kind of uncertainty in their finances, not

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to mention the disruption to their transportation means and your

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schedule and all the other impacts. Well, if you won't put up with it,

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what makes you think that the people that you work for are going to be

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any happier about not wanting to commit to deadlines,

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cost, somehow, some way, give me a ballpark. Right? That's what you

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usually plead. When they tell you they don't know till they get it up on

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the lift. You say, yeah, yeah, yeah, but I mean, ballpark, what's the least it

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could cost? What's the most it could cost. Those are fair questions in

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business. Now, the second reason why you might not like the word accountability

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is that you somehow don't believe that picking up that sticky with a

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task on it and attaching your name to it and saying, I got this one,

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this one's me, is actually making a promise to your team. A

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promise that you're accountable, that you're putting your hand up for

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fulfilling, no matter how trivial that may seem.

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I don't care what you believe about words, much less what you like about words.

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If you have a parenting job within your family, let's say you're

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responsible. You're accountable for the health, the

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safety, the growth of your child. That's just the deal.

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If your job description has responsibilities written on it too,

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you are accountable for those outcomes. If your

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performance measurements have rewards tied to certain behaviors and

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results, I'm sorry, but you're accountable for those

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too. Maybe that's the problem. Everybody wants the

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rewards, the accolades, the glory, but nobody wants

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the accountability. Nobody wants eyes on them saying,

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where is it? You promised, it's done yet.

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I think this is one of the reasons why our practice is a shambles.

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We're in bad shape. I'll say it again. It's taking 12 months to find a

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new job to replace the old one that got downsized, outsourced,

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or eliminated, oftentimes just to end up making a little

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bit more than if you worked at Walmart. If you can't embrace

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accountability as a matter of not only dignity, but maybe

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duty, maybe honor, then how exactly are you going to lead

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other people to be accountable for their stuff? Because one of

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the big complaints I hear from agile coaches and scrum masters

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is that my teams aren't doing the work. They're

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not moving fast enough. They're not taking accountability for blockers

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well, why on earth would you expect your customers or your

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leadership team to take Agile seriously if you

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won't, don't we often blame management leadership or the

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executive layer for failing to support Agile properly?

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So let's get this straight. You want them to be accountable for the

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success of an Agile implementation, but you yourself don't like

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the word accountability when it's pointed at you,

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it feels like we're showing up as a bunch of whiners grieving over

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words. We don't like what the words represent. That work is

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hard. Work requires stretch. It

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requires struggle. And if you expect others to

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do their bit, you had better do your bit too.

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And your bit probably isn't blogging about how sad.

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These words make you feel. Muscle doesn't grow until

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you tear it. That's not to say a job should be uncomfortable,

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unlivable, intolerable. If you hate your job, leave

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your job, or do something about it if you can. But to suggest

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that what we really need here is to subtract certain words from the

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Scrum guide, or from our daily practice or from our rituals is,

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quite frankly, nonsense. You don't grow unless you

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stretch, unless you have to reach. And one of the

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ways that we stretch and reach and one of the ways, by the way,

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how we will learn to estimate better, if that's a desire

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of yours, is to try, is to put your name down

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for a certain task, a certain job, a certain output or outcome.

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If you don't know how long it's going to take saying, I don't know, I

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think by Friday. But I'll tell you what, if it's not going to be Friday,

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I'll let you know by Tuesday. This is how we learn to

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do what Agile is supposed to help us get good at doing,

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which is bringing some certainty and predictability into the

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unknown and the never done before. That's its beauty,

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that's its elegance, and that's where it really shines. We'll all agree

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Agile is not to be used for things that we can do routinely. We

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don't agile mop the floor, we don't agile clean the bathroom.

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But we do use Agile in areas where we're trying to do something

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that has never been done before. We don't know how long it's going to take.

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We don't know what's required, we don't know what could go wrong. But until

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we enter fearlessly and say, not knowing those things, I still

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put my hand up as the person in charge of getting this piece

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done. Therefore, my team can count on

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me. I will do my part in carrying the load,

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bearing the burden of moving the needle on this particular

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initiative by doing my part. Doing my part is called

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accountability. Imagine how we'd look occupying

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the halls and spaces of a professional office setting,

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protesting the word accountability as violence,

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and using 2/3 of every second Friday to hold a fully

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costumed Darth Empathy retrospective. As if those

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kinds of behaviors and attitudes are going to help a

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dying practice. So how about we put the social media

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down and get back to work? I. I guess I sound like a little bit

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of an old guy, but I am a little bit of an old guy. Work

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is called work for a reason. If it were easy,

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everyone would be doing it and we'd have no business demanding

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premium paychecks to roll into the office every day and get

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it done. I like the word accountability. I love the

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word accountability because I think it's swelling with

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honor. Accountability is a matter of pride.

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It's what we choose to commit to. And commitment

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is the foundation of delivery. You

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can't evolve without commitment. You can't innovate without

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commitment. And I think it's impossible to add

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value and therefore to be valuable without

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commitment and accountability. I've had people reach out to me

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before to say, you know, can you stop using the word strength or stop using

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the word accountability, or stop using the word done?

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And the answer is no. Because I think accountability,

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commitment, responsibility, duty is so core to

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what we do as practitioners that to take the word out

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removes all of the superpower from what we do.

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And in 2026, that is not something that we need more of.

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So what about you? What do you think? You can reach out at the coordinates

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in the show notes below. Don't forget to check out my

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offerings@learning.fusechamber.com you can find

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me@bassassagile.com and let me know what you think of this

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episode. I look forward to seeing you next time, my friend. I want to thank

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you for being a listener, and until then, stay

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badass.