Badass Agile

Want to be an Agile Badass?  Sometimes, you have to choose your targets carefully.  You can fight the challenges of scale...OR...you can decide to make impact in places that are truly aligned and ready to innovate.   Agile is not just a big-box IT shop concern anymore.  It might be time to make a change and look beyond.******Don't forget to join us in the Badass Agile Listener Lounge on Facebook f...

David Dame is well known in our industry as an executive, change leader, and agile champion - AND for his wonderful TEDx talk on living with Cerebral Palsy.  In our chat, we discuss leadership, inspiration, challenge and resilience - and Dads. This was a great, candid discussion and I really enjoyed finally meeting David and spending a little time learning about his world. Please check him out at...

A powerful Agile mindset is so much more that supporting continuous improvement, iterative delivery, and failing fast.  The ultimate mindset requires us to abandon - to shatter - the beliefs, rules, habits and limitations that keep us operating within the status quo.******Don't forget to join us in the Badass Agile Listener Lounge on Facebook for member exclusives, livestreams and previews!https:/...

Your team is not your only tribe.  Each of needs a few key people with whom we have an unbreakable bond; mutual trust and complete vulnerability.  Who has your back?  Who can you go to for help no matter what?  And for whom do you do the same? ******Don't forget to join us in the Badass Agile Listener Lounge on Facebook for member exclusives, livestreams and previews!https://www.facebook.com/group...

My guest this week is Diane Dale - an Agile Coach who has a lot of compelling ideas about team dynamics and performance.  We talk about how her focus has changed over the past few years, and what racing teams have to do with Agile. This was a great chat - I got a ton out of it, and you will too.******Don't forget to join us in the Badass Agile Listener Lounge on Facebook for member exclusives and...

As you know, I bring on guests rarely and carefully.  But when I KNOW someone will entertain, inform AND inspire you...its a no-brainer.  There's a reason why David Rutherford is a highly sought-after speaker - he's an ex-Navy SEAL, author and speaker who delivers the goods for The Boston Red Sox, Oregon State Beavers, and a long list of leading brands in every imaginable category.  It's not just...

Ever notice you always take the same path to work?  Eat the same lunch at the same places at the same time?  What about your mental and emotional routines?  What do you automatically accept - or reject?  And could these patterns be making you stuck?******Don't forget to join us in the Badass Agile Listener Lounge on Facebook for member exclusives and previews, including a Weekly Livestream every M...

Often overlooked or justified 'out of the sprint', the demo is well-known for its singular ability to put product in customers' hands and gain crucial in-use insights...but there's another reason to do it.  Listen to find out more! ******Don't forget to join us in the Badass Agile Listener Lounge on Facebook for member exclusives and previews, including a Weekly Livestream every Monday at 7PM EST!...

Join me this week with my good friend Oyinkan Sanni. Oyinkan is an internal Agile Coach for a global professional services firm.  In this conversation we explore adapting to COVID19 and Work From Home, beginning her career as a coach, and helping spread Agile to non-IT corners of the organization.******Don't forget to join us in the Badass Agile Listener Lounge on Facebook for member exclusives an...

What does uncommon mean to you? We need more uncommon leaders, but that means there's no script for you to follow; no program of study to catapult you to effectiveness.  It requires Courage, Vulnerability, Commitment, Persistence and Resilience. Sounds hard?  It is.  But if you feel the call to be part of a unique tribe of exceptional performers or leaders...you already know what you have to do. *...

A brief summary of this episode

This week, I sat down with Shahin Sheidaei, owner of Elevate Change and founder of the Lean Agile Network.  We spoke about shifting to online, the Toronto community, and getting feedback...and much more. Elevate Change: www.elevatechange.coPersonal blog: blog.sheidaei.comEmail: shahin@sheidaei.com Shahin's communities: Lean Agile Network: http://www.leanagile.network Virtual Agile Community: www....

Ultimately, your ability to excel - individually and as a team - has everything to do with the small decisions you make every day. Its too easy to blame other people and outside forces when outcomes matter and you come up short.  But the more I observe teams in action, the more I notice a rift between the attitudes of everyday teams and uncommon teams.   It's all about their willingness to examine...

In this episode, we explore the wisdom that benefits all learners (and really, aren't we all learners, all of the time?).  As you grow - remain humble.  Remain as a beginner, remain open to new and changing thought.  Even though this episode sat on a shelf for 4 or 5 weeks before going to production, perhaps the concept is even more relevant now...avoid the trap of thinking you know it all.  Appro...

Coming up with a 'code' is easy.  Getting the team to stick by it - to integrate it - can be far more challenging.  Check out this episode to learn about the simple commitments and discipline necessary to get your team modelling their self-proclaimed ideals. Don't forget to join the Badass Listener Lounge on Facebook where we discuss the latest episodes and do other cool stuff. https://www.faceboo...

I had a great whiskey-fuelled conversation with Trish Lynch, an Agile Coach who is also co-organizer of AgileTO.  (I said co-founder in the episode....I stand corrected).  For those of you not in the know, TO was the short form for Toronto, Ontario.  That was later renamed T-dot (although its not really shortened...its longer to type and has the same number of syllables) before Drake rebranded it...

For the past three years, Badass Agile has been creating unique content, going against traffic and challenging convention.  It has become obvious and urgent to me to take the concepts of agility and break free of the conventions and established rules.  To teach everybody everywhere not how to 'be agile', but how to explore their own limitlessness, to be part of something special...and generally ho...

Know what you can do with all this spare time?  Put the good stuff in your leadership fuel tank....check in on your vision.  Everyday.  Connect with it deeply, and let it inspire you to do more, do next. Those who stay in tune with their purpose will have an easier time adapting in chaos and leading from 'where they are'.

There's something about a badass - an authentic leader - that exudes certainty and natural presence. If your conversations are littered with scripts that you learn in a course or read in a book, eventually everyone starts using the same ones.  Your conversations sound rehearsed and inauthentic.  "Holding space" and "honouring your journey" become overused and deteriorate your credibility. So don't...

So you're a certified so-and-so...don't let an industry or a job description define you. Be distinct.  Start building your hero genetics.  We're overstocked on sameness and average.  Ditch the script from the mothership and do something uncommon.   I have three suggestions for you this week.  They might just speak to you.  Try 'em out.  This could be your edge. Stay badass, my people.

Welcome to my new segment, "Agile In Toronto At Night"! This is all about meeting with the great minds and personalities on the Toronto Scene.  Who better to share my first round with than The Legend - Jason Little.  If you haven't checked out his work - please do.  He's THE name in Agile Change Management.  By the time this airs you will have missed the start of his current class, but check out h...

At a time of so much increased noise and anxiety, its time that we once again return to fundamentals as we help teams become more agile. So what could you reduce this week - in terms of frameworks, rules, and complexity?

Blockers that come up repeatedly are a symptom...even the most complex issue can be worked around or decomposed.somehow.  The problem occurs when nothing moves; creating delays and other diseases.

The right question is not "How can I be more confident, more leader-like, more influential...?", but rather, "what beliefs and stories am I hanging on to that I should let go of?" Can you let go of the need to perfect, to be right, to be accepted and wanted?  Can you let go of the need for certainty or an easy life?  What about your fears? What about your need for approval? If you're trying to inf...

What do I need to journal for? What does this have to do with agility? One of the big byproducts of Agile thinking and doing is innovation - that requires massive creativity. It requires sharp thinking on demand. Leadership, likewise requires deep reflection, and attention to daily lessons learned. The qualities that we admire most in great thinkers and leaders is the ease with which they seem to...