Christmas Eve / Season has a way of changing the pace. The calendar doesn’t magically clear, the inbox doesn’t stop, and the world doesn’t suddenly become quiet. But if you let it, Christmas Eve and the season give you a small window to pause and look back at the year with a little more honesty than we usually allow.
If 2025 felt like “a lot,” you weren’t imagining it.
For a lot of leaders and teams, 2025 wasn’t a clean year. It was a year of adjustment. A year where plans changed mid-flight. A year where the ground moved a little more than anyone preferred. Even in good organizations with smart people, there were moments where it felt like the system was asking for more; more speed, more certainty, more output, while the world offered less stability.
I’ve seen that tension up close. Teams are trying to do the right thing while carrying too much work-in-progress. Leaders are trying to create clarity while living inside ambiguity. Product groups are shipping more and somehow feeling less confident. That’s a real thing, and it wears people down.
What I’m taking with me from 2025
The lesson I keep coming back to is not glamorous, but it’s reliable: stability isn’t something you find; it’s something you build.
You build it by making fewer promises you can’t keep. You build it by reducing overload until you can actually see what’s happening. You build it by shortening feedback loops and telling the truth early, even when it's inconvenient.
The goal isn’t “no change.” The goal is change you can absorb without breaking trust, burning people out, or betting the company on hope.
A steadier 2026, if we’re intentional
Going into 2026, I’m hopeful. Not in a naive way, more like the kind of hope you get when you’ve been through enough cycles to know that small improvements compound. A few better decisions. A little less noise. A little more focus. Fewer meetings that exist to “look busy.” More time spent solving the problems customers actually feel.
If you’re leading a team right now, you don’t need perfection. You need a handful of sturdy habits: a clear goal, honest measures, a short learning loop, and the courage to stop doing things that aren’t working. That’s how you get stability and momentum at the same time.
One of my favorite leadership truths is this: progress rarely comes from “pushing harder.” It usually comes from seeing more clearly.
Thank you for being here
If you’ve been reading our posts, replying to emails, joining classes, sharing ideas, or even quietly paying attention in the background, thank you. This work matters because it’s human work. It’s people trying to build better systems without losing themselves in the process.
And if you need help in 2026, whether it’s getting a product organization unstuck, stabilizing flow, improving leadership habits, or rebuilding trust after a rough season, Big Agile will be here. That’s what we do. We help organizations deliver outcomes with less friction and a lot more clarity.
Wishing you and your family a Merry Christmas and a peaceful holiday season, and may 2026 bring health, steadiness, and renewed purpose.