What's Wrong with the Agile Community? My View!
Scott Seivwright
Emergent Technology Strategy | Unblocking and Accelerating Value | Expert in Agile & Digital Solutions | Driving Organisational Change with Impact | International Speaker
Following on from all the posts, messages, and discussions I have been having lately with Jim Highsmith , Heidi Musser , Jim Benson , Alistair Cockburn , Maryse Meinen , Joanne Stone , Sathpal Singh , Scott Howard , Yusuf Dean Tim Robinson Patrick Hypscher , I wanted to put some context on...
Introduction: Missing the Iceberg for the Ice Cubes
Once deemed the innovation captains, Agile coaches and their guilds have been navigating the tech seas with a cocktail in hand, perfecting the art of Agile methodologies. However, recent global economic storms have shown that while they were busy adjusting the umbrellas in their drinks, they missed the icebergs approaching in the fog.
A Sinking Market: Beyond Agile's Control
The entire consulting and training market is taking on water, not just from the tech industry's leaks. From wellness programs to systems engineering, sectors feel the pinch of high living costs, economic downturns, climate disruption, technology disruption, high-interest rates, and geopolitical tensions. These are the icebergs threatening our vessel, far larger and more dangerous than any internal inefficiencies within Agile practices or variety of Agile Coaching.
Economic Chill: A Freeze Over All Decks
Budget cuts and frozen investments have hit all areas of consultancy and training hard, leaving Agile coaches to witness a harsh reality. As companies cut back on what they view as non-essential spending, the demand for Agile training and consultancy has plummeted, leaving many Agile professionals adrift in icy waters. Gone are the days when you could be Myopic on creating tech solutions for problems the customers dont have or zombie tech solutions that can't find valuable funding and revenue streams.
Agile's Existential Crisis: Obsessing Over the Wrong Things
In the face of this crisis, many Agile coaches and their Mentors have continued to focus narrowly on internal process improvements—perfecting the "cocktails" they serve—almost assuming that better Agile practices were the cure-all. Even worse, they have been pointing at others, saying they were at fault; their cocktails were wrong somehow. Too small, Too strong, Not enough value. Using this to double down on why their cocktails are better than the others. This fixation has obscured the larger picture: the ship is sinking not because of what’s happening on board but because of the colossal icebergs it’s sailing into. Work out how to create value as a community and be helpful in hard times rather than blame your community members...
A Reality Check and a Call to Action
It's time for Agile coaches to look up from their mixing tables and see the broader economic ice field they’re navigating. The challenge isn't just about refining Agile cocktails but recognizing that the whole ship—the entire market—is in distress. Agile methodologies, while not the cause of the disaster, aren’t the panacea for the structural breaches caused by economic and global pressures.
From Cocktail Bars to Lifeboats
As we brace for impact, it's crucial to remember that survival may require abandoning the cocktail bar for a lifeboat. These smaller, more nimble Agile "boats" are already appearing, ready to address new and valuable needs as the economic tides eventually turn. For Agile coaches, it's time to make themselves useful in new ways, adapting their expertise to help navigate through the storms ahead. The era of merely serving tailored methodologies is over; the time to row hard and fast towards real, impactful solutions is now. To help with AI adoption, Go Help Sustainable Business Transformation, and help emerging tech sectors around the world grow, let’s drop the obsession with perfecting the Agile craft (Or knocking anyone not doing what you do) and focus on the bigger picture, preparing for the moment when the economic waters calm. Those lifeboats become the seed for a new, thriving fleet of innovation!
Remember, we won't be in the ice fields forever. Cocktails will flow again!
Go to the talk at #Agile2024 With Heidi Musser , Jim Highsmith , 🔑 Sanjiv Augustine 🎯 , Jon Kern , Ellen Grove ... be part of the debate!
#agile #Valuesteams #futureofwork #ReimagingAgile
Organisation Development Consultant and Lean-Agile Enterprise Coach & Trainer. Sustainability Consultant.
2wTo me "Agile" is a toolset to cope with complex systems dynamics. Culture Change, Organisation Development, "Transformation" etc. Adaptability, Robustness, low transaction cost of change etc are are things we need in any kind of large systemic change. Some "agile" tools/practices were geared towards SW Development and Product Management. But many others are more generic, helpful in other contexts. To me "agile" was about means to achieve "fitness"(as is in "survival of the fittest") as a company, but also as a society and in the end as humanity within planetary boundaries. As ecologist(M.Sc.) i know we(humans) need to learn to adapt at scale and fast. I still believe the Agile community can contribute to learning how to do that by doing it and helping others to do it. If climate change, biodiversity crisis, slow progress against UN SDG isn´t a "complex problem to address", i don´t know what is. There are many initiatives such as https://www.agilealliance.org/sustainability-manifesto/ or our own sustain-agility.org. If we can learn to collaborate as a community again, we would be #strongerTogether and others might see value in what we have to offer.
Helping coach-leaders grow other leaders | Catalyzing transformative Learning Environments | Public Speaker | Human Systems Agility
3wWhat if the 'Agile' community (i.e. those who engage in practices variously referred to as 'Agile) is itself subject to the same kinds of fits and starts as any organization grappling with change and transformative unfolding. How many so-called "False starts" are a necessary part of the greater, longer-term unfolding--which in this case the world of work across the globe? What manner of 'shadow' work might be called for within the broader community? What occasions might we create to facilitate such work? Perhaps 'Agile' is the first (or the third, or the nth) iteration of a grand historical unfolding?
IT-Consultant • Software Architect • ScrumMaster
3wFor starters, everyone in this picture boarded the AGLIE and not the AGILE ship. Poor reading comprehension is one reason for bad "agile" results.
Strategic executive leader for Digital Transformation and Product Innovation
3wis this the talk you are referring to https://www.agilealliance.org/resources/videos/reimagining-agile-session-one/
Agile Wrangler Consultant at Adaptavist, co-author Agile Manifesto.
3wI like the boat's nameplate, Scott Seivwright... now to read the article ;-)