Sensitivity to words. Aversion to risk. Sensitivity to truth. The power of anonymity and self-righteousness. Avoidance of challenge and growth. These raging currents threaten the nobility of our potential. There is something to be said for having reached a level of self-awareness and greatness where you recognize how limitless, productive, fearless, and effective you are. Most people hold back for fear of being judged or rejected – or worse. Notice how common that fear is, the extent to which it...
Sep 08, 2022•17 min
Quiet Quitting is trending so hard, it has its own hashtag. What is it, and what do you need to consider? What Is Quiet Quitting? Quiet Quitting is a passive form of protest. It is the act of giving up your duties beyond the bare minimum – without actually quitting your job. It’s Happening Whether You Like It Or Not As a leader or executive, quiet quitting is happening whether you’re paying attention to it or not. It’s important to lead the narrative inside your walls and beyond. You’ll be judge...
Aug 22, 2022•16 min
It’s not about what you know. Intimate Scrum or Kanban knowledge does not create greatness. Your mindset, character and habits do. I’m at my best when I’m creating heroes – people of vision, discipline, grit and self-awareness. Combine these with your desire for excellent practice, and you become effective. Unforgettable. ***JOIN THE FORGE*** Sign up for an upcoming info session about our online leadership immersion experience. https://event.webinarjam.com/register/2/98ol1c7 Or click here to dis...
Aug 09, 2022•9 min
Main reasons for backsliding: -Not enough time to build a habit -Not enough of an emotionally compelling reason to stay the course (alignment to higher ideas, desire for benefit, avoidance of pain) -The pain of change is WORSE than the pain of not changing -When things get busy or difficult, we let go of anything NEW or not related to SURVIVAL This problem is amplified when a coach just parachutes in and delivers messaging, strategies and tactics, but can’t help the team habitualize them. How to...
Aug 03, 2022•17 min
[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”] [et_pb_row admin_label=”row”] [et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text”] If you have areas of your life and work that NEVER seem to progress…you’re stuck. It’s a headscratcher, because you have other areas where you’re crushing it. So you KNOW you can set and hit goals. You know you want to FINALLY tackle it. That thing you never tackle. You know you’re making excuses. You’re putting it off. Even though you SAY it’s a top priority. You might ev...
Jul 21, 2022•9 min
Instead of acting in circles around things we can’t impact, what if we focused on those things we could actually control? The things we should control. The things we’ve been told we’re not allowed to question. -Our time -Our reputation -Our Action level -Our influence -Our attitude -Self-reliance, discipline -Habits Working to change other people, events – the past OR the future – is where we leak the most energy. ***JOIN THE FORGE*** Sign up for an upcoming info session about our online leaders...
Jul 19, 2022•12 min
Much of our defining, outward behaviour emerges through experiences that forge our beliefs. Beliefs become default ways of acting and reacting – many of which don’t serve us. Approaching mastery often feels like ‘becoming limitless,’ which is precisely what we must do. We have to shatter the boundaries caused by our beliefs. When our beliefs are negative or constraining, we may avoid doing the right things, either because we feel it pointless or because striving in the face of low odds is demoti...
Jul 12, 2022•16 min
Many of us are unwilling to hear what we don’t want to hear. Many of us are unwilling to do what we don’t want to do. Many of us are unwilling to experience what we don’t want to experience. This unwillingness means we are like a leaf in the wind…spinning around in circles. We are sailing at the whim of the tide. This is the reason for your lack of momentum. This is why you are stuck in the same place you were a year ago. Or five. Or ten. Or more. ***JOIN THE FORGE*** Sign up for an upcoming inf...
Jul 06, 2022•12 min
By focusing all of your efforts on service, passion, purpose – everything can change. Learn why a simple shift to service-based mindset amplifies your results. A focus on creating value for the benefit of others – a group, a customer, a stakeholder – makes it easier to build trust, influence, followership AND persistence. Make it clear who you serve, how you serve them, and why you care – and notice the difference it makes. ***JOIN THE FORGE*** Sign up for an upcoming info session about our onli...
Jul 04, 2022•12 min
Perhaps the reason we struggle to let agile be is because we don’t trust in creativity. If you think creativity has no place in the corporate headquarters, you’d be wrong. Solutioning, experimentation, and innovation are all creative processes. They are essential to agility, and to providing value in the marketplace. Because I have a daily creative ritual, I’m able to envision new outcomes, solve problems, and offer new products and services faster than most. How can you get more comfortable wit...
Jun 28, 2022•12 min
There are three things that affect performance at scale. I call them the three ‘P’s. Past, Permission and Perfection. The master skill is to teach your teams how to let go of the way they’ve always done things (and the certainty that comes with it), the need to ask for permission or approval on every decision and intention (and the certainty that comes with it), and the need to do things perfectly before you show them to the world (and the certainty that comes with it). See a pattern? Me too. Ch...
Jun 26, 2022•13 min
***JOIN THE FORGE*** Sign up for more info about our online leadership immersion experience. https://badassagile.com/the-forge/ ****** We’re also on YouTube! Follow the podcast, enjoy some panel/guest commentary, and get some quick tips and guidance from me: https://www.youtube.com/c/BadassAgile Follow on CLUBHOUSE: https://www.joinclubhouse.com/club/badass-agile Don’t forget to join us in the Badass Agile Listener Lounge on Facebook for member exclusives, livestreams and previews! https://www.f...
Jun 17, 2022•10 min
I hate to disappoint you, but leadership isn’t a thing either. Our belief that it IS is holding us back. Leadership skill is alluring. We’ve all seen a great leader and admired them. Their mastery of language, their calm, certainty. Poise. Their influence. Their vision. You can’t buy leadership skill. Studying leadership theory gets you nowhere. At best, leadership is a collection of skills, most of them to do with human connection. There is no list of things you can say or even do that assures ...
Jun 13, 2022•9 min
Sorry to disappoint, but agile isn’t a thing. -We treat it like a program you install or a product you buy. -We expect that there is magic in the arrangement of principles and practices. -We expect this to make things somehow ‘better’ -Worse, we sell it (or allow it to be sold) as though it will -As a result, we fail to focus on the attitudes and practices that bring about victory -Sadly, those practices still require hard work, risk and courage -We focus instead on detailed conversations that d...
Jun 06, 2022•9 min
How does your Scrum team handle blockers? How can you be more successful handling impediments? I love blockers. I’m obsessed with organizing myself and my teams so that blockers don’t create failure. Instead of quitting, we choose to ‘find a way or make a way’. When faced with real impediments, how do we behave? It’s never a matter of your agile/scrum skill. It’s a function of your will. Condition your mindset so that you are unstoppable. JOIN THE FORGE Sign up for more info about our online lea...
Apr 22, 2022•9 min
***JOIN THE FORGE*** Sign up for more info about our online leadership immersion experience. https://badassagile.com/the-forge/ ****** Follow on CLUBHOUSE: https://www.joinclubhouse.com/club/badass-agile Don’t forget to join us in the Badass Agile Listener Lounge on Facebook for member exclusives, livestreams and previews! https://www.facebook.com/groups/badasslistenerlounge/ Follow The LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/badass-agile We’re also on YouTube! Follow the podcast, enjoy...
Apr 18, 2022•9 min
I’ve found that success requires constant examination. Agile, specifically, is just a tool. It’s a set of guiding principles and structured actions designed to bring about a consistent positive result. But the things that are actually required are never modelled or enforced. Courage, awareness, humility. These are the skills that add up to the spirit of the word agile. True flexibility and fluidity in execution. So how do you get more of these? There are five questions that I ask myself every da...
Apr 11, 2022•13 min
Here’s a habit I’m willing to bet you have adopted without even noticing… You think without thinking. To me, this means that we often accept what we read, see or hear because it’s familiar. With so much visual communication, if something looks similar to a trustworthy source, it must be trustworthy. The more an idea is repeated, the more it is amplified in our minds. Our ideas are as likely to come from somebody else’s Ted Talk or Instagram feed as they are from our own minds. Every day we’re to...
Apr 08, 2022•9 min
Hesitation Kills. Don’t let your company fall into extinction – or even fall behind your competitors – before you finally learn this lesson. Unlike any other time in history, the market is screaming for solutions. Great Resignation, political and identity divide, social media, web 3.0, cryptocurrencies…all of these are new forces that companies are caught with their pants down in dealing with. Great companies will arise from this confusion. Those who aggressively deal with the future are those w...
Apr 04, 2022•10 min
The best learning experiences are those where you meet yourself for the first time. -Who are you? -Why are you here? -What do you fear? -What do you believe? ***JOIN THE FORGE*** Sign up for more info about our online leadership immersion experience. https://badassagile.com/the-forge/ ****** Follow on CLUBHOUSE: https://www.joinclubhouse.com/club/badass-agile Don’t forget to join us in the Badass Agile Listener Lounge on Facebook for member exclusives, livestreams and previews! https://www.faceb...
Mar 30, 2022•9 min
We place value on being spectators…observers to the wisdom of others. But what does ‘being in the know’ really buy you? -How much time do we waste on social media trying to know the latest? -How many meetings do we attend for the purpose of being looped in or informed? -How many books do we read hoping it will transform our practice…only to forget most of what we learned, and give up when it doesn’t yield instant results. -what would happen if we assumed that what we need to know will find us? H...
Mar 28, 2022•10 min
Only Uncertainty can give you Certainty. ***JOIN THE FORGE*** Sign up for more info about our online leadership immersion experience. https://badassagile.com/the-forge/ ****** Follow on CLUBHOUSE: https://www.joinclubhouse.com/club/badass-agile Don’t forget to join us in the Badass Agile Listener Lounge on Facebook for member exclusives, livestreams and previews! https://www.facebook.com/groups/badasslistenerlounge/ Follow The LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/badass-agile We’re a...
Mar 18, 2022•8 min
You want to help your company be more agile, so you create all of these extraordinary processes and guides, and then you go to your next project and find none of it works? How can this be? When we talk about impediments to flow, we don’t talk about the notion of rigidity. The only time things are rigid is pretty much when they’re dead. That’s when we become stiff, brittle and breakable. In life, we are supple, flexible and fluid. And isn’t that what the word agility implies? So how does rigidity...
Mar 16, 2022•8 min
I love changing perspectives, and I love having my perspective changed. Better still, I look for ways to merge creativity with my study and practice of agile. I welcome you to the Agile Horizon (www.theagilehorizon.com) . Commencing with the March issue, we will bring progressive ideas to our worldwide audience. In the process, we will build a unique creative experience for writers and thinkers – if you wish to contribute, reach out at chris@badassagile.com ***JOIN THE FORGE*** Sign up for more ...
Mar 15, 2022•1 min
I’m pleased to announce the public lauch of “The Forge Professional” – a corporate/team edition of my leadership immersion program. The Forge Professional condenses key learnings from the year-long program into 12 weeks. Working in cohorts of 10-12, you’ll learn how to achieve bold outcomes with effortless effectiveness. As part of the experience, we will practice these skills on your toughest challenges. These elite skills will spark the single greatest change in the history of your organizatio...
Mar 13, 2022•2 min
We’ve lost the art of being direct and decisive. Yet…isn’t that what agility demands? Fearless leaders are in short supply. We’re too nice. ***JOIN THE FORGE*** Sign up for more info about our online leadership immersion experience. https://badassagile.com/the-forge/ ****** Follow on CLUBHOUSE: https://www.joinclubhouse.com/club/badass-agile Don’t forget to join us in the Badass Agile Listener Lounge on Facebook for member exclusives, livestreams and previews! https://www.facebook.com/groups/bad...
Mar 10, 2022•9 min
Two decades into this Agile thing, we’re still struggling to get results. Why is that? After 20 years of theory AND practice, we’re not much better off. We probably make better-quality software, and we probably make it faster – which certainly pushes up some business metrics. But I still see too many organizations missing the point. Courage, trust, and accountability must accompany an efficient process. Unless used consistently, these qualities won’t create improvements. It won’t surprise you th...
Mar 07, 2022•10 min
We have got to put Agile thinking into other parts of the business. With millions of certified professionals hitting the marketplace, you’re going to have to figure out how to compete quickly. Here are some key areas where you need to help business react to trends, lead the industry, and solve their own problems efficiently. 1. Sustainable Business – Buyers are more actively concerned with the ways in which their suppliers impact global problems such as climate, poverty, diversity, violence, cor...
Mar 02, 2022•12 min
***JOIN THE FORGE*** Sign up for more info about our online leadership immersion experience. https://badassagile.com/the-forge/ ****** Follow on CLUBHOUSE: https://www.joinclubhouse.com/club/badass-agile Don’t forget to join us in the Badass Agile Listener Lounge on Facebook for member exclusives, livestreams and previews! https://www.facebook.com/groups/badasslistenerlounge/ Follow The LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/badass-agile We’re also on YouTube! Follow the podcast, enjoy...
Feb 24, 2022•8 min
We preach agility and moan about the lack of mindset change, but are we agile in ceremony, or in life? An Agile Mind: -Is flexible, does not get stuck on things. It doesn’t dwell on challenges, discomfort, bad fortune, etc. -Does not judge -Is comfortable with what IS -Does not seek knowledge or safety -Learns by doing -Is self-reflective and self-aware -Is focused on their offering – value, happiness, fulfillment of physical, emotional and mental potential. ***JOIN THE FORGE*** Sign up for more...
Feb 23, 2022•13 min
