Time for a Tree Change

After 42 years of paid employment (yes, I really am that old) I’ve decided it’s time for a permanent tree change. Friday was my last working day at IAG, marking the conclusion of my coaching journey that started nearly 10 years ago at Computershare. It’s been one hell of an adventure, starting out as a very wet-behind-the-ears electronics apprentice in the UK Ministry of Defence back when home computers were a novelty. Winding my way through various career transitions and localities, I eventually landed by happy circumstance in agile coaching, a profession that has been more like a vocation than a job.

I’ve been involved in many fascinating and challenging ventures, from military research programmes (sorry, if I tell you I’d have to kill you!), through pharmaceutical drug discovery (you would recognise many of the names now), enterprise IT projects, and finally to massive organisational transformations. But what has always stood out has been the amazing people I’ve been fortunate to have met and worked alongside over the years. Usually, the end of a career is a quiet tapering of challenges and activity, but through luck and good people I was blessed by becoming a member of an awesome team at IAG as my last hurrah, loving the coaching opportunities and the invitation (not mission!) to transform the enterprise.

Over such a long time period I can’t call everyone out for special mention, this post would break LinkedIn’s database tables otherwise! As Jim Collins would say, there is ‘what’ luck and there is ‘who’ luck, so I’d at least like to recognise my recent who-luck people! Mark McDougall at Computershare who one day asked me, ‘Have you heard of Scrum?’ and then backed me as I blundered around learning Agile by doing (apologies to everyone whose toes I stepped on!). Ed Wong and Craig Brown for growing the Melbourne Agile Community; when I discovered this amazing community, I discovered my tribe. Chris Chan who got me in the door at the bank, and Penelope Barr who said come on over to Technology! Katrina Kolt who told me to apply for what turned out to be my last role; when I joined her team, I discovered my spiritual home! And finally, Suzanne Nottage who I was lucky to have as my very last manager! To everyone else I’ve missed out and to all my wonderful colleagues over the years, I still love you!

I thought I’d leave you with a photo of my first day of retirement!