We are excited to welcome the 2026 Sooner Safer Happier (SSH) Advocate cohort, an exclusive community with 125 advocates from around the world.
 
Together, you are motivated to share experiences, support one another, and grow a movement that brings Better Value Sooner Safer Happier (BVSSH) outcomes to life, helping create a more humane world of work.

What to look forward to this year!

Shaped by what you’ve told us mattered most, this year, the advocate community is centred around 4 event types, with a rhythm that gives space to share, shape ideas together, and connect

BVSSH Advocate Share
30 min virtual sessions where advocates share real experiences, experiments, and learnings from their work. Reach out to Kate to schedule your share slot.

BVSSH Advocate Co-create
90-minute interactive sessions where advocates shape ideas, approaches, and practices together, starting with topics you voted for:

• Influencing Change: Navigating organisations, influencing leaders, and tackling multinational pain points.

• Showcasing Value & Metrics: Revealing hidden value and using metrics to incentivise better outcomes.

• AI & the Future of Work: Applying BVSSH in the age of AI and exploring its impact on ways of working and organisational design.

BVSSH Advocate Connect
In-person days and virtual moments to build relationships, strengthen the network, and remind ourselves we’re not doing this work alone.

BVSSH Advocate Voices
Practical sessions to help advocates hone their voice, shape their message, and talk about BVSSH in a way that lands with their audiences. Making it easier to share stories to influence positive change.

How to navigate the community

1. Advocate Portal – Access resources, the advocate directory, and recordings from past events.

2. Advocate EMEA and Americas Event Page – See upcoming sessions and revisit materials from previous events.

3. Slack – Connect with other advocates, ask questions, and get notifications about new activity.

4. Email – Monthly Advocate updates to keep you informed about events, shares, and activity from fellow advocates.

5. Event Invites – Calendar invites will be sent out for virtual sessions. Please accept/decline invites to help us plan. For in-person events, RSVP to Kate by email.

6. Advocate Feedback – Share your thoughts anytime via the feedback and ideas form on the advocate portal.

Advocate Voices

A few great pieces from fellow advocates to kick off the year.

Michael Keywood
Michael’s article beautifully challenges the idea of using BVSSH as a target state and brings forward the behaviours of a learning system. A well-timed read to start the year with focus.

Caleb McElrath
Caleb shared a reflection on mainframe modernisation, highlighting how clarity, context, and deliberate decision-making matter just as much as speed, especially when using AI to surface decades of hidden business logic. A great example of Modern Software Engineering enabling Better Value, Sooner, Safer, Happier outcomes.

Dean Latchana
Dean’s year-in-review of The Agilist reflects on a year of deep exploration into human-centric change, flow, leadership, and AI as a capability rather than a feature. Dean is editor of The Agilist, a print-only publication for Change Agents

Engagement Checklist for Jan

Here are a few simple ways to stay active and keep the momentum going:

🤝 Like, comment on, and reshare the posts from fellow Advocates.

🛠️ Share your advocate badge on LI.

👉 Subscribe to SSH Meetup groups and share the upcoming events with your colleagues.