The Power of Connection and Paying it Forward
These feel like givens to me. Obvious facts. We gain incredible rewards by truly connecting in person with each other. And we will gain something in return by paying it forward. These are principles I’ve always lived by. And I had the privilege of really leaning into these ideas over this past week. I was insanely busy but these two themes stood out for me so I thought I’d share. I do also think this stuff is common in the field of Agile Coaching. But it takes effort. What are you doing today to invest in your network?
I’m going to share the story of my very busy but very fulfilling week last week. But the key takeaways are important so I’ll share them up front in case you don’t get through my whole story.
Today our worlds move so fast, so when you do take a moment and truly connect with someone, it is often very appreciated. They get something out of it and so do you. Linger in your live conversations. Ask good questions and be genuinely human with each other. It’s so simple, but I got a huge dose of it this week and it was amazing. As a GenX, it’s like writing hand-written thank you notes; those that do this simple thing well can stand out for just being thoughtful.
Share what you know freely, not to show off, but for the purpose of helping others. Those who give of themselves often embrace the mindset of paying it forward. Especially in our industry, there is no real proprietary information or secret formulas. You are simply a communicator and distiller of information. If you have some knowledge to share and can be helpful to others, you can likely make a good living in this agile universe.
Honestly, I’m still reeling a bit from the whirlwind week I just had. For the first time, I bounced between three back-to-back, in-person agile events in one week. There was a lot going on. These were all face-to-face events in different cities that I drove between. This is not my norm, but I loved it. I think I loved it especially because I’ve been between engagements for the last 3 months and haven’t had much interaction with peers or really do much to exercise my professional skills.
Stop One — Pittsburgh and PittAgile
Last week I started with PittAgile, a great conference in Pittsburgh where I was invited to speak. I was able to spend a day at the conference and meet some great people and really connect with folks after my talk. It’s invigorating to prompt a crowd of people to think differently and have them ask meaningful questions. The theme of my talk was “making progress through imperfection” and I think I helped people realize agile is not a set of new rules, it’s a whole new way of thinking. And being directionally correct and usefully wrong is quite literally part of how we should think. Don’t dwell longer than necessary on anything you are measuring or estimating. The precision isn’t as important as the focus of the work, the alignment to purpose, and learning from making mistakes as you proceed. Some friends from my last job came to my talk and it’s so nice to have that confirmation from voices you trust that the talk came across well!
Stop Two — Buffalo to See Great Friends
I left Pittsburgh to make my way towards the AgileTO Meetup in Toronto, Ontario. Buffalo happens to be on the way, so I stopped to say hello and have a few drinks with old friends before having a quick sleep and continue on my way to Toronto. It’s only been 3 months since I worked together with these folks, but it was so fun to see them again and spend a day talking and laughing together. Such great times. (Sorry Gigi, I hope your hair grows back OK... It was irresponsible of anyone to give Laura scissors at the bar!)
Stop Three — Toronto and the AgileTO Meetup
Traveling to Toronto always feels special to me. Not sure if it’s just the sheer size and vibrancy or that it’s in another country or what. But Toronto has always been amazing to me, like a mix of New York City and Paris.
My second speaking engagement was with this vibrant community of folks. The Toronto Agile Meetup has 6000 members and some of the most experienced and agile-famous people I know. I was a little bit intimidated to be speaking there, to be honest. But my friend Jeff and the organizers John and Tom encouraged me. Jeff, quite wisely, said I should kill most of my content slides and turn my talk into a conversation, which I did. And I think almost everyone who showed at the meetup participated in a vibrant conversation on the traditionally-not-so-thrilling topic of OKRs. It was the intellectual conversation I needed to fill my own joy tank and I feel very honored to have had the opportunity to hang out and talk with such a great group of people.
Between events, my LinkedIn presence was very busy. Connecting and messaging and thanking and linking and sharing… I don’t think I’m ever going to get a job, or get any direct payback because of what I do on LinkedIn. But I do make a point to make sure I respond to people and genuinely connect. Our online socials can be so impersonal, so I try to keep it real and pay it forward, offering help or kind words or just friendly hellos wherever I can. A simple connection or introduction can help someone else profoundly so I try to do that every chance I get. (So, yes, if we’re not connected, please reach out and if there’s someone in my network that I can help you get connected with, let me know!)
Stop Four — Play4Agile in Port Stanton, “Cottage Country” Ontario
My last agile event for the week was about two hours north of Toronto in “cottage country”, a lovely setting at an all inclusive resort on a lake. I spent the next two and a half days in Port Stanton at the Bayview Wildwood Resort on Lake Sparrow for the Play4Agile North America conference. The leaves had started turning and about 25 Agile Coaches joined this casual event, staying lakeside with a portion of the resort all to ourselves. It was literally like going to camp as a kid. We had organized activities (open spaces conference talks) during the day, swimming and kayaking in the afternoon, campfires and smores and game playing and beverages in the evening… and so many heartfelt, deep conversations on an incredible variety of topics all day long. The energy and passion of all these people was palpable and infectious. I did not want it to end on Sunday morning.
As I continue to navigate my own path of what’s next for me, this was an incredible end to what my wife has called the “Summer of Brian”. During my stint of being unemployed I’ve spent a lot of time on myself and thinking about my experiences and what I want to do. I’ve started writing a book with its own companion app (MakeTeamsAwesome.com) and have really caught up on life, spending more time at home, reading and writing, and working on DIY projects.
I feel incredibly refreshed, oddly, after having this exhaustingly busy week. There is a real impact to these ideas, I’ve found, of genuinely connecting with people and doing what you can to pay it forward. I hope that in some way this may inspire you to focus and appreciate these kinds of interactions just a little bit more. As my great friend George Murphy would say, “It will fill your joy tank!”
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Hi, I’m Brian Link, an Enterprise Agile Coach who loves his job helping people. I call myself and my company the “Practical Agilist” because I pride myself on helping others distill down the practices and frameworks of the agile universe into easy to understand and simple common sense. I offer fractional agile coaching services to help teams improve affordably. See more at FractionalAgileCoach.com
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