?️Military veterans' unique skills make them well-suited as ? agilists ⤵️ We are excited to have Mike Whitaker as a guest on today's podcast. Mike shares his experience moving from the military to the private corporate sector. He shares relatable stories to help any veteran better understand corporate agility. Mike also shares how corporations can better understand the value veterans can bring to their teams. In this podcast, you will learn the following: ✅ Why military veterans uniquely qualified to be agilists ✅ The mindset shift from the military to the private sector ✅ How veterans can translate military lingo and experience into relatable civilian terms ✅ How companies unfamiliar with the military can get the most out of an interview with a veteran ? How to learn and use agile for career development ## Transcript (transcripts are auto-generated, so please excuse the brevity) ### Intro clip **Bill Raymond:** Maybe you could just give your personal perspective on agility. **Mike Whitaker:** Yeah. So, for me, agility, I love it. **Mike Whitaker:** It allowed me to see the results a lot quicker. ItI did something a few months before, and six months later ended up in the presidential review. **Mike Whitaker:** I'm like, I did that six months ago. Wow, can we get some, you know, some feedback a little more early and often? So that was huge for me. And being able to have that and then to adjust quickly to things that come up.So . Finding agile and my perspective on it, man, it really was eye-opening to come from such a waterfall organization no matter where you went. **Mike Whitaker:** You know. It's amazing. ### Intro **Speaker:** Welcome to the Agile in Action Podcast with Bill Raymond. Bill will explore how business disruptors are adopting agile techniques to gain a competitive advantage in this fast-paced technology driven market. ### Introducing Mike Whitaker **Bill Raymond:** Hi, and welcome to the podcast. Today, I'm joined by Mike Whitaker, coach, associate consultant and SPC at Applied Frameworks. **Bill Raymond:** Hi Mike. How are you today? **Mike Whitaker:** Wonderful, wonderful. How are you? **Bill Raymond:** I'm doing great, thank you. I'm looking forward to the conversation. ### The veteran, natural agilist you are looking for **Bill Raymond:** We're going to talk about how veterans can be the natural agilist that you're looking for. Before we get started, could you share a little bit about yourself? **Mike Whitaker:** Sure, sure. First, I'd like to say thank you for this opportunity. I enjoy your podcast, enjoy this platform, learned a lot from it. But yeah, so a little bit about me. I am a military veteran, served in the Army for over 14 yearsin military intelligence field and cybersecurity. Um, I was a Warrant Officer, so technically a specialist in my field. **Mike Whitaker:** And really enjoyed my time and learned a lot there. Moved over to the contracting side of the government and worked in that space for a little while, for a few years. Taught some courses for cybersecurity, cyber planning along the way, which was really, really awesome. **Mike Whitaker:** And then moved into the agile space. And man, I've loved it and enjoying the opportunity to be able to do that. So it's a little bit about me. Again, work with the Applied Frameworks, our leaders Luke and Jason, they're amazing for giving us this opportunity to even to be in this space. **Bill Raymond:** Oh, cyber, so you probably have so many great stories you can never share. **Mike Whitaker:** Exactly, a whole lot. Yeah, for sure. **Bill Raymond:** Well, we want to talk about how veterans can be a natural agilist that you're looking for, but I think if we're going to talk about that, we should talk a little bit about kind of the mindset or mentality that you might have if you're working in the military. Could you give a little bit of a background on that? **Mike Whitaker:** Yeah, sure. So, being in the military is