Here at the #gardn we're enjoying a beautifully mild morning. No sight of Hillary this soon, though the birds have been flocking WSW since last evening and the myriad tree spirits are extraordinary chatty.
What is Agile Coffee? [needle yanked across vinyl]
I came up with the name to use for our meetups a decade ago as an homage to Lean Coffee, the meeting facilitation technique I'd picked up not long before. The brand began to expand to include my podcast (80+ epis), coaching cards, videos, and more. I've long been "the Coffee guy" at conferences and in my classes. It's been fun, but tethered to my vocation more than anything.
The winds are changing, or perhaps it's the tilt of the earth - slowly, imperceptibly.
Synonymous with Agile is adaptive, nimble, flexible; there's an obligation to alter course as conditions demand. That's something I love about teaching and working with teams: conditioning people and organizations to recognize the pros (& cons) of the pivot and embrace the ability to adapt. As the saying goes, the only certainty is change... and death and taxes, but that's for a different post.
Facing the inevitable, I've accepted that I either must walk away from Agile Coffee or refactor it to suit my future. For now I'm choosing the latter. There is no possibility for me of staying involved in an idea I've outgrown. I've got no time (energy, passion) left for it. "Seasons change and so do I. You need not wonder why."
The direction i'm headed will certainly lose a good portion of my audience and friends. To be honest, I'm not even sure where exactly my path is headed, just that I must take it. I know that i will still be teaching and coaching, but there won't be a "certifying authority" so tightly coupled to what i do and say. (Yes, Nostr fit like a glove when i first picked it up.) I plan to teach my current CSM, etc. classes for another year or two before leaving that fiat system altogether.
The Agile Coffee podcast will continue as well. Honestly, it's been a while since putting one out, and I need to get some topics into the air. Chances are high that you have never known of, let alone listened to my podcast or watched my Coffeehouse videos - their viewerships are limited and the topics rather niche. Still, I'm so proud to have produced them, and I'll surely keep producing them - just with topics that aren't quite so fenced in. And frankly, I'm eager to see how the format transitions and how the audience changes. There's a lot of work to be done, and I'm truly excited to see what lies ahead on the journey.
If you’re reading still, thank you. If you have reaction to what I'm saying, please share with me. I'd also encourage you to check out either the AC podcasts (audio) or the CH videos if you’re curious to get context.
Until next time, enjoy your coffee with friends.
