Oh what a year...

It’s been quite a year, hasn’t it?

My youngest (Grayson) has just come back from Lapland (the UK version) where he’s been reminded of why he’s on “the good list” and helped the elves make presents for the other boys and girls who have been good this year. Cody has finished school and has started training to become a pilot while Freya is now in her final year as a trainee midwife and has already delivered over 30 babies. I’m feeling old and proud.

So many people have told me this has been one of their toughest from a work perspective. Lots of redundancies around as some companies lose their faith in agile and cut costs in reaction to economic challenges. That’s sad of course but, on the other hand, it does tend to separate those organisations who truly “get it” from those that don’t while also creating new opportunities.

On the flip side, I’ve been lucky enough to be involved with people and companies exploring new ways to tackle big challenges, in particular things like sustainability and the circular economy. It feels like there’s a growing appetite to use agile approaches not just to get stuff done but to actually make a difference. Kudos to Kingfisher Group in particular there.

On a similar theme, I’ve recently started a new role as Head of Product at Bromford Housing where we are very ambitiously looking to apply agile and product-led thinking to the world of social housing. We’re doing some pretty cool stuff already and the plans for the future are even better so watch this space…we’ll have some stories to tell as we go (Agile on the Beach as a starter).

I’m still hiring for an experienced Scrum Master and a seasoned Product Owner. They will be 2-3 days office-based (either Tewkesbury, Wolverhampton, London, Lichfield or Chipping Sodbury) and the response rate was very high but if you want to try and get in there last minute then email [email protected] and let him know.

Of course I am still passionate about mastery and the Scrum Mastery and Product Mastery Pathways that I and the other Licensed Guides have delivered through Agile Mastery Institute have been a source of pride. Working with and supporting people (and seeing them support each other) over a period of time is brilliant. Shout out to the Agile Assassins cohort as a great example of this!

Indeed, in true agile spirit, a few of the Licensed Guides have got some cool “Micro Mastery” experiments they are running where you can take a more bespoke and tailored approach to your journey in small, bite-sized, steps.

The AMI Meetup is running a free online workshop about taking micro steps to mastery which you can come along to but if you want to get ahead of the game then you can go straight to the micro-mastery workshops available on the AMI site. https://agilemasteryinstitute.com/courses/

I hope that you can look back on 2024 with a sense of gratitude and pride while looking forward to 2025 with optimism. I know first hand this is not always easy so surround yourself with good people and let them help you.

Stay in touch and let me know what 2025 has in store for you

Cheers