May 22
Lean, Agile and other hogwash )?(
Today I had an exchange of ideas with one of the people considered to be among the most knowledgeable in the field of Agile and so-called “business agility.”
In the end his comment/advice was to “avoid copying.” Indeed, if we think about it for a moment, so many self-styled professionals copy the Lean tools that Toyota invented, or the Scrum methods that brought Nokia to the peak of success, and then what about the fashion for creating squad, chapter and guild in Spotify.
The latest fad seems to be OKRs (copied from Google). Since Dimitri invited me to think about quality as a goal I think he is right. As with physical copies, every time you copy something the quality is not the same, and on some copies after a while the ink tends to disappear completely.
I have seen many organizations embark on Lean or Agile transformation paths, engage in improvement programs, or maintain the status quo. None of them have achieved much success in terms of transforming the way they work and think.
I have seen organizations and management teams grappling with seemingly similar problems such as meaningless strategic planning sessions, and follow-up documentation that ends up being ignored on the intranet.
Or attempts to carry out a hundred projects at once, and finally get nothing done. Long, stale management meetings that seem to bring little value, and everyone is aware of it.
Administrative work devoted to reports that no one seems to read. Divided departments that barely collaborate or do not communicate at all.
Increased emphasis on “performance indicators” (KPIs) by senior management in an attempt to maintain control over what is happening in the organization.
Again, claiming that people are the most important resource, but in reality the perception is different; as well as claiming to have adopted new ways of working such as Agile, but in reality continuing to stick to the old “silo” organizational structures.
The cover image are taken from the blog: https://travellingsicily.blogspot.com/2021/08/lingua-borgo-di-pescatori-tra-lago-e.html
My comment to the Dimitri Favre’s post on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6933678055718567937
