I was taught growing up to be thankful for the good things and to move past the bad, learn lessons but not to dwell (live or inhabit) in the negative. So, in context 2021 was fantastic after all 2020 was utterly horrific. Anyone without PTSD from 2020 is amazing and needs to tell us how they were not affected. But what did 2020 teach us, not only do bad things happen but they can happen to anyone, regardless of your perceived importance or belief in the rights or the authority you think you have.
In 2021 I was a volunteer, CTO and Trustee for the Agile20Reflect Festival a truly awe inspiring free global festival. It took a massive effort to make happen during a time of extreme fatigue, that’s history but it still makes me smile at the experience of it. I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next with the new organisation Access Agile, which has already done a second freestival in 2021, amazing.
In 2021 I finally got back to consulting, like many other contractors I was left high and dry by covid in 2020 so a new contract this year was very welcome indeed. I have really enjoyed not being in the centre of a transformation but rather being the consumer it’s a very insightful experience.
I may have been a little optimistic in my planning to publish four books in one year but two is not bad Agile Transformation (A short guide to) and Agile an Unexpected Journey: A Compendium of Agile Biographies and the third is almost completed Essential Agile: (A short guide to) due out in 2022 now.
I had been closely monitoring my parents now in their 80’s for a few years to see when they would need support. In 2019 we set up a Lasting Power of Attorney and I would advise people with parents in their 60/70’s to get one, without it I would not have been able to intervene. The now both have an Alzheimer’s diagnosis but are at last getting the support they needed by living with us, they had not, by living 500 miles away. Also, honestly who knew, there are several drugs that slows the impact of dementia, and they are both on them now. I’ll be wanting them in my 60’s just to be sure!!
And of course, Agile World an utterly brilliant experience. It’s been really funny that so many people want to know the strategy but have not explained why they want it. Agile World is a totally unique concept that when we came up with the idea, we were flabbergasted that no one else had thought of it before. We did extensive due diligence and found not one single charity doing this anywhere.
Agile World is an Agile experiment, to fund Agile Experiments (initiatives as we call them), but like all Agile things it needed to function in a non-Agile World.
So Agile World Incorporated was born in California on the 18th of August 2021. It is the child of the Agile World talk show first created as part of Agile20Reflect Festival and the desire to make effectual Agile knowledge freely available globally in every language. To all the volunteers, thank you so much it’s a honour to know you, you represent the better side of humanity Sabrina C E Bruce, Alexandra Oporto d’Ugard, Jorge Ulsen Rivas, Steve Moubray, Cynthia Kahn, Phil Rogers, Jatin Sanghavi, Jayshree Nair, Sinora Bansal, Cloé Berthiaume-Pouliot, Charles-Louis de Maere, Carla Krieger, Victor Patané, Ellen Duwe, Jean Michel Diaz, Janna Philipp, Dr Miriam Sasse, Jessy Drewsen, Ana Lobo, Angela Thornburgh, April Jefferson, Carol Dekkers and a special thank you to the charities advisory board members Kieran Keegan, Dr Karen Smith and Walter Jennings.
We recently celebrated our 100th Show in the Agile World Broadcast Network initiative and I’m so excited to see how things evolve in 2022.
Thank you, Sabrina C E Bruce, we both keep each other going regardless of the situations we have had to face together. And in January we will have some really interesting things to share, but that’s for another time.