Badass Agile

If you are struggling to do anything consistently, you could be biting off too much.  The secret is to create ANY consistent habit, and then increase the scope and ambition once it's habitualized.

What happens if you summon all of your courage and creativity to put something new, authentic and valuable into the world....and nobody comes? Better to wait for those who are naturally magnetized to your voice than it is to change your offering to suit a wider public.

Creativity is fundamental to agility.  Problem solving blockers, interpersonal conflict, adapting and scaling agile, and general innovation demand that we tap into our deepest well of creativity. But how can you tap into this underused and unfairly labelled 'artsy' skill?  Three things will help. 1.  Be aware.  Find a way to pay attention, focus, notice.  Be in silence and lock out distractions so...

If the sole motivation is efficiency, and the means create unhappy people or lower quality...it still won't be faster, even if it's faster. You'll lose people, you'll lose fans, you'll lose time - fixing broken product and broken teams.

You've been doing daily lessons learned or silver linings in your journal, right? If you have, I'll show you the next step in the brainstorming process - a periodic grooming of you best ideas for personal and team improvement.  I'll go through a small sample of notes from my journal that, without a grooming/mining habit, I probably would have completely forgotten about.

It's a new year...but don't make resolutions.  When was the last time that worked anyway? Instead, use the occasion to reflect on your existing vision and service statements (you DO have one of those, right?) and tweak it to reflect your path for the upcoming year.  Don't expect massive change, but rather, an update to keep you pointed in directions that build on the previous year's successes, and...

Commitments with a resounding and well-communicated 'why' have the best chance of getting done well. That 'why' should not be limited to the '...so I can' element of a story headline.  A business value statement allows you to more clearly articulate why the business should invest in this story, feature or outcome NEXT.  It also allows various stakeholders (business and technical) to describe ratio...

At the core of Scrum is the assumption that teams need lightweight mechanisms to assist people in sizing, making, tracking and keeping commitments.  From the user story, which communicates why we're building something, story splitting and short delivery cycles to keep promises small and victories visible; to the sprint plan, which details who will do what and when, through the daily standup, whose...

What it means when you get too many rapid-fire questions when training a new team - especially if those questions appear to question Agile or seem unduly negative or fearful.

If you lead agile teams, your attitudes and beliefs about work, delivery and teams matter.  In this episode, we talk about 4 such mindsets: Opposition is GoodYou Can’t Control ChaosThe Sooner You React The BetterI want the challenge! The key to becoming more effective is to put these into practice.  Challenge yourself to reflect on and then live at least one of these values this week.  As they bec...

Self-limiting beliefs, or 'the stories you tell yourself' can derail your progress and effectiveness as a teacher, coach and influencer. The trick is...they're hard to recognize and repair.  They have a tendency to play in the background.  Spawned from early or subconscious roots, they live in our blind spots where we can't see them easily. In this episode I discuss why they matter, and how to loc...

This week, I answer an email from a reader who is launching his second career, hoping to break into the world of Agile, Scrum, and training. In the answer, I discuss the things you can do to stand out from the crowd when you have little or no experience or training/certification to help support your suitability for a job or opportunity. Remember, you can reach out at contact@badassagile.com if you...

Team is everything.  It doesn't matter how much technique you've got, its all about the way people come together, stretch, reach, dream, and do the impossible. If you're not part of a high-performing team, you've got to SEE it before you can understand it and repeat it.  Reach out to contact@badassagile.com if you want to learn more.

Is it better to be knowledgeable, or effective?  As recent trends point to a decrease in elite-level post-graduate enrollment; its worth asking if all of this schooling is creating value in such a volatile and fluid business landscape.

In this episode, I discuss a few tips that will help you improve the 'intangibles' - the non-technical, non-academic qualities that make for great inspiration and great leadership.  Among these - be confident, become a storyteller, and be willing to experiment.

A late night reflection on standing out from the crowd by increasing authenticity and originality...to distinguish oneself from the sameness that permeates our culture so we can serve our agile teams, clients and community and advance the craft.

What’s the one thing you need to get good at in order to stand out above competition?   You need to MOVE…and, you might want to think about getting a swim buddy. Moving means you need to act.  Consistently and courageously. While this sounds intuitive, the most common issue I encounter with teams is a hesitation to move in an uncertain direction.  This is not a team problem, a corporate problem or...

We often describe Delivery as a non-event in the ideal; why not agility itself? Must it really be such a huge enterprise undertaking - especially as we hope to infuse agility into our everyday work and culture? What would happen if we simply moved into our first experiment as the best way of conquering the unknown?

I don’t do a lot of interview shows.  When I do, I want to bring on my friends - People I know personally who are making a real difference. Mike Caron is a fellow Unbeatable Mind student and member, and owner of Get Burly, a US-based team experience company that is about so much more than physical toughness.   He really gets agility; embracing failure and team life.... and he’s making it happen wi...

Should we hand out trophies to everyone...even when we lose?  Or are we better to signal the loss and focus on the learning opportunity?  Who do we really help or hurt by calling a loss a victory?

This week, we give pause to think about all of the complexity in the agile space; the overload of books, articles, opinions, and techniques, and how a return to simple fundamentals allows you to see your way clearly in any scenario…without having to fumble through your toolkit or recall rehearsed routines.

Be courageous this week.  Ask for the opportunity.  Speak your truth.  Do the unexpected, the new, the unusual.  When you do, you define your own reality.  You create your own luck.

Ramping up a new team is a difficult time.  Confused and afraid, the early days and weeks are full of hesitation, anxiety, and expectations.  In this state teams can’t perform.  Let’s see how a team naturally evolves when you’re starting from zero.

Do you want your resume to stand out from the stack?  Don't worry so much about how 'little' experience you have.  It's not about the number of years. Document every experiment that you run, along with the outcome.  Shine a light on the ones that worked well - those that created a positive result, and added value; but don't be afraid to mention the failures too.  What you want to demonstrate is th...

If you've been a follower for any length of time, you know how much importance I put on being visionary and understanding your purpose. I believe it is at the heart of great leadership - excellent leaders do this well; struggling leaders don't seem to get the hang of it. But listener James asks "how do you go about finding it"? The answer itself is in the badass way - get focused, get gritty, get...