If it's going to change, it's up to you. And it's always been up to
you. That's this week on the Badass Agile Podcast.
Greetings, team. Welcome to the Badass Agile Podcast.
I'm your host, Chris Williams.
Hey, friend. Greetings. Good to see you. Thank you for listening. I can see
your numbers out there. Welcome back, Netherlands. I noticed some of you are starting to
listen again. It's been a while and I have such a great history and relationship
with folks from the Netherlands. I'm happy to see you here. But wherever you are,
all over the world, one thing is for sure, it's a time of great
confusion, sorrow, anger, and fear. And guess
what? That shapes the market. So how do you react to
that? Because I know many of you are tired and scared
and sad and frustrated. Let me share with you some inspiration
and some strategy that'll get you right back on track. But first,
let's take a moment to remember why we're here. To create an elite tribe
of leaders who truly serve their clients and communities by doing what
matters and what works, relentlessly chasing value and
excellence like a badass. There's so many resources out there
about what you need to do to be agile, but we're focused on who
you need to become in order to lead teams. So let's hammer down
those fundamentals to create a truly unique and powerful
force in this industry. If this episode helps you,
inspires you, do me one favor, share it with your friends.
It's a weird world we're living in. If you're watching the news in
2026, there's an awful lot of uncertainty out there,
a lot of fear. And fear drives a certain kind of
behavior. That, put it to you this way, it ain't moving us forward
as a society. This isn't our finest hour. Everything
we do is affected by the climate around us. The world
at the moment feels like the intersection of a lack of
strength, lack of virtue, lack of vision, and lack
of certainty. And that's hard, as I've discussed in many episodes, because
we feel like we don't matter anymore. We feel like what we do, what we've
learned, what we teach, what we offer isn't useful. Nobody
wants it. And hey, it sucks to feel unwanted.
All this skill, all this talent, all this passion, all this care and
concern that you have, that you try to bring to the market, that you hope
makes the world of work better, that makes the economy better,
that makes people happier, feels like, no, thanks,
we don't need you anymore. And don't feel ashamed. That's a
natural human instinct. We want to matter. We want to know that the work we
do has meaning, has impact. And we
want to know that we're always growing and stretching and that the people around us
appreciate and love what we do and who we are.
Well, you have more power than you think. What happens next in our
industry is up to you. But you need
vision, discipline, focus, grit and a
thirst for mastery. Without those things, we're just sitting around
wishing we were better or that the industry will change and
someone will come to save us. We're waiting for something.
We're waiting for permission. We're waiting for certainty. We're
waiting for a leader to create the change so that we can follow and
get pulled in by gravity to the vacuum created by
a true visionary. But that true visionary ain't coming.
We're just bemoaning the state of agile. We're bemoaning the state of the
world of work. We complain, we're sad because
we're not valued and venerated the way we used to be. We're not celebrated.
We're being told, ah, a developer can do your job. We're being told, ah,
coaching was kind of useless, pointless, valueless.
So we just kick back and say, okay, what job could I do then?
Well, when we approach the market with that attitude, guess what they're going to say?
Not much. I mean, here's a broom and a buck fifty an hour. You want
to do that? We're like, yeah, sure, folks, it's on us to be better.
Of any industry I've ever observed or worked in, I've never
seen more opportunity to deliver change, to
make the world of work better, to make the people around
us better than in our little agile community.
I think what we do is miraculous if it's not obvious. I love what
I do. I always have. I love our community, I love the people in it.
I love all of the different attitudes and opinions, even though sometimes
I may be critical of some of them. And I know you feel the same
way. But if a visionary isn't coming, if no one's creating the new
job title that we can suddenly snap into, well, what is it exactly
that we're supposed to do? What can little old me expect
to pull off? There are millions of practitioners worldwide.
Who's organizing them, who's inspiring them, who's paving the way for
them? That's just the point. Nobody. But it should
be. And it could be us. You, me.
You know, it's especially bad right now. Because in this world, no
matter whether you sit on the left or the right, we're being told to shut
up and keep quiet. Doesn't matter which side you sit on. You're
wrong. That silences leaders.
At a time when we need leaders the most, we're terrified to
say what we feel, to try something new. We don't want to tempt the environment,
first of all. I mean, we're terrified of losing our jobs,
so let's not rock the boat. But also, we're afraid of what
happens if we're not wrong. Deep down, we all have that core
fear that what we say doesn't matter. And that's being reinforced right
now by the way. We also have that imposter syndrome, like, who am I
to lead the change? I'm not one of the agile founders. Well, so what? Who
cares? This is almost like open source technology. It's
yours to use however you wish. Yeah. Give credit to
the people who invented it, to all of those who came before
and paved the way 25 years ago, 10 years ago.
But it's a new time, it's a new age, and nothing is changing. Nothing is
moving. We seem content to lean back and go,
whatever. Well, look, I understand that not everyone is destined to
lead. Some people aren't ready, some people will never want to occupy
that role. But I don't know, it feels like agile people are change leaders
by definition. So for those of you who feel the call,
who wish things were different, but are tired of waiting
for someone else to make them different, tired of waiting for someone else to
spark and lead the change, well, there is no certainty.
No one's going to hold the door open for you and say, you, we've been
waiting for you. Come on in. You have to seize
that certainty. You are that certainty. You
might hear that and think, no, I'm not. I'm here to tell you someone
has to. Someone's got to be. Why not you and me?
2026 is the year that you move.
Let this be the season where everything you've learned, everything you've
done, informs the change. We're all
thinking and feeling the same thing, but we're not talking about
the next step forward. We're talking about little changes. Yeah,
let's remove one of the ceremonies out of the five and that'll make this more
agreeable somehow. That isn't enough. This requires
really, really big, bold moves. For example, it might require
that in order to solve the ominous problem that causes 85% of
agile failure. Lack of leadership, support and leadership Understanding, you
might have to be the person who creates the model for how to get
executive attention and explain it to them in a way that garners their support
and their investment. That alone would be a massive change
that I don't see anybody addressing. But now you say, well, who am I
to speak to those people? I can't knock on doors. I don't know what to
say. I don't know how to craft that presentation. I don't speak their language.
I talk to other agile people. I talk to developers and techies.
Well, if you want change, you're going to have to be
comfortable being uncomfortable. One of my favorite sayings is that
discomfort with discomfort is the number one reason why nothing
moves. It's why nothing moves in your life, in your relationships, in
your personal development. It's why nothing moves in terms of your career or your
physical body. And it's why nothing moves in large enterprise,
especially because large enterprises are designed
for inertia. You got a hundred thousand people where you work. We got to
make sure that no one misses the script. If you got
99,999 super high performers who get it and know
exactly what to do and do it, but one person
who doesn't, it can sink the whole boat. So large
organizations are focused on the problems of scale, not the
benefits of scale. So yeah, you're going to have to do things that are
uncomfortable, that have never been done before.
You have to be the certainty if you expect to
lead monumental change that gets us out of the gutter
and back where we belong. Not just passion, not
just virtues, but vision, discipline, focus, grit,
resilience, antifragility and an unquenchable thirst for
mastery are required. Now look, if you see yourself as
that leader but don't know how to lean into the unknown, to leap forward
and play full out, it is time for you to clear the most
important blocker you will ever face yourself.
Ask me about the Forge and Forge lightning. You can find
me@contactadassagile.com or in the show notes
below. It is your time, my friends. Let's
get after it and see what happens in 2026. Are you in? This is a
movement, make no mistake. And I want you on board. You can reach out
at the coordinates in the show notes below. You can find my
products@learning.fusechamber.com I look forward to seeing you next
time. And until then. Oof. More, my friend, stay badass.