Reconnecting With Community at AgileDC
Apologies for the delayed update, but I did something I’ve not done for a while: I got on a plane and reconnected with a community. The community was AgileDC and it was wonderful to meet new folks as well as reconnect with old friends.
Too often these days, it’s easy to drop a “like” on a message in social media or pretend to stretch yourself and actually send a text or DM or WhatsApp. I know I’ve been guilty of this. But I wanted to do more. I wanted to meet people where they are. I wanted to hear and feel what they were thinking about in a shared space. I got that and more.
New Possibilities
First, I found people exploring new possibilities. One of my favorites talks by Jim Damato and Peter Oliver-Krueger on Industrialization Driven Development explained how they applied agile and DevOps principles to a manufacturing line. I always enjoy hearing talks that apply concepts in new ways to see what holds and what doesn’t.
I truly appreciated how Peter shared what makes it difficult for people to be M-shaped in manufacturing. To be M-shaped means you not only have depth in your field, but you have some depth in upstream and downstream fields. However, in manufacturing, the “other fields” may require highly specialized masters or PhD degrees. So it’s challenging to go deep. But they did find that people could still be T-shaped and know enough about their colleagues work to know when to collaborate and reduce wait times and hand-offs.
Finding New Career Trails
My second-favorite talk was by Tracey Shaner on Evolving Beyond the Agile Coach role. Tracey had some great suggestions on how different agile skills could translate into new leadership roles. Her ideas reflect some of the same ways I’ve been helping some of my clients find new possibilities and it was good prelude to my talk.
When I submitted to AgileDC several month ago, I had no premonition of the federal shutdown and furloughs happening now. But my talk on seeking exploratory career trails resonated with several of the folks that attended. Some had been laid off and some were still employed, but wondering about their future. In the talk, I emphasized the importance of being aware of your work environment and always exploring new possibilities. I also described some markers for these new possible career trails and how to set some waypoints on your career exploration. I’ll share more later in this article.
Reconnecting and Exploring
Finally, I got to reconnect with old colleagues and friends at AgileDC. I’ve not spoken there since 2018, but the AgileDC community has some wonderful folks who have contributed much both locally and to the broader agile community. I was able to catch up with David Fogle, Ken Clyne, George Dinwiddie, Paul Boos, Ricardo Abella, Steve Mobray, Chris Sims, Bob Payne and Sanjiv Augustine.
Don’t Let Community Slip Away
While traveling tends to be more challenging for me, the benefits of reconnecting with people in the same space becomes even more critical. We’ve all become reluctant to move away from our screens and truly be face-to-face. And you don’t have to fly to meet your community. I’m certain there is a gathering near you where you can meet real humans who want to share struggles, ideas, and solutions on how to build something better for you and others in that community.
And if you need help figuring that out, please let me know.
Stay human my friends.
Mark
Footnotes:
Several folks asked if my Career Trails talk will be online. It will be on November 13, 2025, 12-1pm ET / 5-6 pm UK / 9-10 am PT. You can sign up here.
If you are curious about the other talks I mentioned at AgileDC, you can find the schedule here.