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Lately, I've been talking about the strength of individual voices and how that

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sets us up for a very different kind of future, a more

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promising future, and I want you to be part of it. That's this

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week on 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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My friend, welcome. This show has always been about leadership.

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It's always been about a special tribe of people who are excited and

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ignited and fired up to do things differently in our industry.

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And now times have changed. We're challenged, we're threatened, but you know what? It's a

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whole different landscape from when I started. So it's time to reinvigorate

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our tribal sense and to keep growing and strengthening what we've already

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achieved. By becoming and staying badass. But first,

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let's take a moment to remember why we're here. To create an elite tribe

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of leaders who truly serve their clients and communities by doing

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what matters and what works, relentlessly chasing value

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and excellence like a badass. There's so many resources out

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there about how to do agile, but we're focused on who you need to

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become in order to lead teams. So let's hammer down those

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fundamentals. To create a truly unique and powerful voice

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in this industry. If you like this episode, if it got you fired up,

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do me a favor, share it with your friends. Looking at where we are now,

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where we were when I started this show 9 years ago, a confluence

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of new and strange events have thrust us into irrevocable

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change. First, it was probably the pandemic, and

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then there was an economic crisis that followed. There's been rapid

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shifts in power. The introduction of AI, and now a

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completely new and revised world order. These times

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call for different actions. We have to believe and behave in different ways.

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But what do I see when I look around on Reddit, on LinkedIn, all the

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big agile certification news points and the service companies out there

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pushing their opinions? It's the same old stuff, isn't it? It's lots of advice,

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most of it pedestrian, most of it rooted in 10 or 20-year-old

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practices. There's no strategy, there's no action.

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Companies don't seem to have gotten the point that what we need right now

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is a new kind of courage, a different sort of bravery,

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new mindsets, and different action to take us into the future.

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And people, not just in Agile, mind you, right now feel

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betrayed. In almost every role you can see around the

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office, we feel somehow abandoned. We feel lost.

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We feel that the work that we did, that we thought was purposeful,

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ended up feeling disposable, invisible.

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This is no way to live. And if we don't change it, we're

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cooked. And to make matters worse, nobody's

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coming to save you. People's first instinct seems to be to

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chase the change or to resist it. When it comes to things like AI,

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don't fear AI. AI represents change, but it's relatively

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new. We're already noticing even at this early point, the human

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intuition, human distinction, can't easily be

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modeled, much less replaced. A writer I really like put

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something in an email newsletter that I subscribe to today that I really liked. It's

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this: when speed becomes cheap, judgment

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carries a premium. So remember that the thing you're

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good at, the thing that you studied for, the thing that you practiced, the thing

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that you believed that you would've carried to your grave with you still

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matters. It just doesn't feel like it in this present moment.

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What's going to change that? Simple. Focus on the

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one thing AI can never do, lead.

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It's our time to build a tribe. We've

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built one before, but it's time to change it. It's time to embrace

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those principles based on, as I say, what works, what

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we've seen in the industry. So when I say it's time to build a new

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tribe, you can join this one with me, with us, this

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uprising. This new movement, or you can build your own.

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Either way, now's the time. We've waited long enough at

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this point for our voices to matter at work, only to find out,

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to realize that at this moment, they really don't. This is a planet of

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8 billion people. Influence has moved too

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far toward the center. The thing about the center is

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it's boring, it's pedestrian, it's expectable,

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and it's safe. So for example, this week on LinkedIn, what's the big

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thing? Having AI draw your caricature. Everyone's doing

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it. Follow the herd. Do what others do.

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Do what's expected. Don't question why. Just don't

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get left behind. But there is a better way, my friend.

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It's not to follow the herd. It's to lead it. And

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this is your call. Your experience is

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mastery. And mastery is gold.

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Mastery gets attention. It gets paid. It creates new wisdom.

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It creates new directions. Add to this experience your

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unique voice, your intuition, your DNA,

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your unique abilities and philosophies. You've earned

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those. You've earned something that few other people have. You

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know how to transcend the stupid stuff that big teams at

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scale can't seem to get around. So while the rest of us have

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thrown up our hands and given up and admitted defeat, we're going

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to do something different. Modern corporations are increasingly more and

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more about control. Controlling people, yes, to an

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extent, but also trying to control outcomes even if

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they're uncontrollable. And that is about fake

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certainty earned through scientific fancy estimation

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methods or multi-screen dashboards that conceal a

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truth that we all know, which is that we know

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nothing. The only way to get real certainty is to

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invest in failure, to experiment, to make attempts

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until we gather enough data to be just a little more certain

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than we were yesterday to fuel our forward

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motion. And a new economy calls for a new agility.

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And no one knows better what that is than

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us. So don't be afraid that it doesn't look the same. Don't be

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afraid that it doesn't feel clear. It won't look familiar.

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It's not supposed to. That's what forging new ground

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is all about. See, this isn't a time for comfort.

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Comfort in this economy keeps you trapped, makes you

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invisible. And it is hard to break some patterns.

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To get companies to do differently, that's the real work

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because Agile is simple. It was designed to be simple. It's built right

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into the principles., but we typically haven't had a seat at the

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table to show people how to actually be agile.

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Our most noble efforts to affect change have been pushed under.

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They've been drowned. They've been subverted. But this new

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movement won't allow for that. The alternative, by the

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way, is to say bye-bye to this thing that we've been doing for

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5, 10, maybe 20 years, and to hope and pray that something

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better just comes along. But I'm going to say it one more

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time: it ain't coming. You have to drive it. Now, this

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kind of call is not for everyone, but I have a suspicion if you

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listen to this show, this probably sounds like

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you. This is a moment. This is a call. It

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is your season to rise. Freedom, fulfillment,

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meaning are on the other side, and that's what I'm focusing on in

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2026. So I'll bring you those insights and those stories as I explore

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and fail if you've stuck with me this far, or if you're brand new to

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the show, keep tuning in. Now, one last thing, as I'm

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at it, I want to bring some new bold voices to the core, people other

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than me, people who are doing great things in the name of agility, in

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the name of better service. The first is a fellow I

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want to introduce you to. He's from the States. He's doing great, great

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brave work for the state of Minnesota around modernizing

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legacy, disparate, and complex systems. This is

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exactly the kind of thing that we hope Agile will help with, but it is

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sometimes the least obvious candidate because it's hard, it's

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challenging, it's tough to break through that legacy kind of thinking,

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you know, where we do nothing unless we're certain about everything up front.

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Anyway, his name is Kevin Sutherland. I'm going to post his YouTube

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channel below. Check him out, and if you like him, subscribe and follow

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him., but I also want you to check out the work he's been doing for

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the great state of Minnesota. So there's a Vimeo link that

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demonstrates a new way of taking a service-oriented

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stakeholder, meaning the end client-oriented view

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of providing better, faster service to the taxpayer.

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You can see how they're using real agile principles, not scaled

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agile principles, but how he's been encouraging his team,

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the executive leadership, and even external vendors to work

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and think differently. Now, this is the kind of stuff that could

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change everything. So check them out. I'll have a different profile for you to look

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at next week. In the meantime, you can find me at badassagile.com.

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You can check out my products and services at

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learning.fusechamber.com. Don't forget to follow me on

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LinkedIn. I'll look forward to seeing you next time, my friend. And until

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then, stay badass.