As we close out 2025, Peter and Dave are making predictions about what's coming in 2026, especially around AI, organizational change, and how teams actually work.

They cover five key predictions:

1. AI moves from tools to organizational capability: Organizations that invest in literacy, governance, and data foundations will pull ahead of those just sprinkling AI on top and hoping for the best.
2. Critical thinking beats prompt engineering: The real competitive advantage won't be writing clever prompts. It'll be knowing when to pause, think through the problem, and decide if you even need the AI in the first place.
3. Product delivery becomes non-negotiable: After 20 years of pushing Agile principles, AI might finally force organizations to actually adopt them (even if they're reluctant to call it "Agile").
4. Businesses return to fundamentals: Just like the dot-com bubble, we're heading toward a moment where the market will care more about revenue, customers, and sustainability than hype.
5. Reskilling becomes a structural investment: Organizations will need to figure out what roles actually look like in an AI-enabled world and invest in growing their people, not just replacing them.

At the end, Peter and Dave pick which prediction is hardest to measure (spoiler: it's critical thinking) and commit to revisiting these in March to see how wrong they were.

If you've been wondering where all this AI stuff is actually heading, this episode cuts through the noise with grounded, practical predictions you can actually use.

Related episodes:

• AI and Knowledge Management with Derek Crager: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1643821/episodes/17360635
• Product vs. Process Innovation: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1643821/episodes/7953100
• There Are No Safe Bets in Business Anymore: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1643821/episodes/17433034

Reach out: feedback@definitelymaybeagile.com

What happens when your greatest strength becomes your biggest blind spot? In this episode, Peter and Dave sit down with Jill Macauley, COO of Behavioral Essentials, to explore how self-awareness shapes better leadership. They dig into why even talented leaders struggle with identity shifts, how generational expectations are changing the workplace, and why the best coaches focus on small tweaks rather than complete overhauls. From the reluctant engineer-turned-manager to the chef who can't slow down, this conversation gets real about the grief of letting go of old identities and the messy work of looking in the mirror.

This week´s takeaway:

1. Your gifts become your blind spots when overused. That strength that got you promoted? It might be working against you now. The key is recognizing when speed becomes recklessness, when confidence becomes rigidity, or when expertise becomes tunnel vision.
2. Identity shifts are a grieving process. Moving from individual contributor to leader to leader of leaders isn't just a promotion. It requires letting go of the identity you've built your career on, and that loss is real. Give yourself (and others) permission to struggle with it.
3. Skip the woo-woo, ask "why" instead. Self-reflection doesn't have to feel soft or abstract. Simple questions like "Why did I react that way?" or "What role am I playing in this?" are pragmatic tools that work in any meeting, with any team.

In this episode, Peter Maddison and Dave Sharrock sit down with Josh Hill, an HR innovator who's challenging the traditional transactional approach to people management. Josh shares his unconventional journey from the Australian military to progressive HR, where he's pioneering the concept of "work as a product" at marketing agency Tier 11 and through his recruiting venture, Super Hired.

Josh explains how HR teams can shift from rushing to solutions toward discovery-led approaches that treat employees as customers. He walks through real examples of iterative onboarding improvements, the importance of understanding jobs to be done in hiring, and why talent density matters more than filling seats quickly.

The conversation explores compensation dynamics, the value of matchmaking over recruiting, and how small experiments can build momentum for broader HR transformation. Whether you're leading people operations or navigating organizational change, this episode offers practical insights on making HR less transactional and more intentional.

Key Takeaways:

1. Start with discovery, not solutions – Before building HR processes or solutions, take time to interview employees, understand their stories and experiences, and map out what's actually obstructing outcomes. Even 10 minutes of discovery beats rushing to a result.
2. HR as a matching exercise, not a numbers game – Recruitment and people management generate real value when viewed as careful matchmaking between what work a company offers and what employees are looking for, rather than just transactional headcount filling.
3. Make HR less transactional – Slow down important conversations around hiring, onboarding, and employee experience. These decisions deserve the same rigor companies apply to external product development, not just checkbox processes.