Stop making everything about (capital-A) Agile

I wrote this after a morning workout and liked it enough to post up. That being said, it’s shorter, less refined than most planned posts.

There are two types of people in this world: those who love Agile and those who hate it. Either Agile works or it sucks. It’s either being used wrong or it will never work.

The point that matters is usually missed though: forget Agile frameworks. What’s undeniable is the world is changing faster than ever. In business, in life, in community, thriving means getting better at responding to change. Especially with unlimited information at our fingertips, the real outcome is knowing what to pay attention to and what to ignore. The reality is what worked in the past just doesn’t work as well anymore. Because of that, it’s hard to be convinced that agile is dead.

In business, smaller faster newcomers beat large market incumbents more often. The ones that survive do so by learning to change direction fluidly and coherently - finding new ways to grow, win customers, or keep market share by staying relevant.

Agile frameworks can be one solution, but they are not the solution. In fact, there is no single solution for everyone. Agility is what helps disruptors win, And frameworks are just one strategic option to get there.

Whichever camp you fall into, the importance of becoming more adaptable, responsive, and flexible is what should matter, not the methodology. And unfortunately, no one—including the Agile experts with fancy frameworks—can hand you a playbook for that. Operational adaptability is highly contextual, not deterministic.

Being Agile has nothing to do with being agile.

Stop glorifying and villainizing Agile. Make it about adaptability and results.