Agile Careers Are A Journey

Retrospectives serve as a valuable reminder to allow ourselves time to reflect, remember, re-engineer, release and renew before we begin to run again. Let this article give you a context frame of celebrating who you are, where you are, and how far you have come. If you got here, you could get anywhere. 

A Jewish proverb states despise not the days of small beginnings. When reflecting on how far we have come, we must recognize and celebrate our start. The beginning of the journeys we take in life can often be forgotten. Yet that initial spark – that first thought, idea, or decision – set us off on a life course. Think back to when you first encountered Agile. What did you think? What was it that caught your attention and inspired you to want to make it your career? 

You began a new career journey from a spark that is something to be remembered and celebrated.

The first project you applied an agile framework on. The first time you defended what agile meant to you and the impact you intuitively knew it would have on others within teams and the organization itself. You did that. 

When you get frustrated and feel like giving up on your team or the organization, please pause and reflect on your start. It is worth taking a moment to remember our humble beginnings and give them the respect they deserve. Take this energy to celebrate a new start and inspire your team to see today as the first step on their journey to success. Being agile is never a destination, and it will never be a tick-in-the-box. Agile careers are a Journey that demands you grow even when you don't want to.

It will be muddy because it deals first with you, your thoughts, your reactions, and your decisions. Why? Because I cannot lead you through something in which I have no experience.

As an Agile Leader, I must be grateful for my personal experiences with change as it builds empathy, tolerance, patience, and hope. Those are strong roots that can sustain your continued growth and allow you to be a shelter and anchor to others.

I sat in a moment of sheer mental hell in 2022 that I wouldn't wish on an enemy. I call it a nuclear explosion of unsolicited Change. It convinced me there were no natural exits for which I had keys. A hazardous series of moments to exist in. Inspection becomes clouded with judgement internal and external. I thought to myself, if I can get to the end of the year, maybe there are maybes. Every day was a struggle. I was frozen in time with a moment, a judgement, and no context for a tomorrow. Sometimes team members and leaders get stuck in the groundhogs day loop of despair.

Loops don't have a snap-out-of-it button; they need a disruptor of hope. 

You can be a disruptor of hope. Use retrospectives to gather data that can enable you to upload hope. Gather past wins, successes, and shared stories of resilience and triumph. Inject that back into the environment so that leaders and teams feel motivated and empowered. Remember we are dealing with fellow humans and all of their humanity never attempt to ignore that. Rather be prepared to partner and participate with their journey to their next evolution of achievement.

When you decide to be a Scrummaster, an Agile Coach, and Agile Leader, you are choosing to interact with people and their personal journeys and the mosaic merger of that emergence within teams. This may be a truth no one but a mentor would ever tell you.

Inform teams and organization that starting anew demands courage and gratitude for who we are right now in this moment of beginning. In honoring your beginning, celebrate the small steps it takes to eventually build momentum and become what was intended. Remember that something more begins with each step forward!

Foster the practice of Retrospectives in all areas of your existence so that forming increments of celebration features can be easy.

In conclusion, honor your past successes and new beginnings, for they have set you on the path to where you are today. Celebrate how far you have come, but always remember your roots as you move forward into the future. Find strength in the knowledge that even after all this time and progress, there is still room for more new beginnings and they will be part of your story.