Mark (fictitious name) was an established senior manager, well-respected, but under fire to deliver tangible results. He heard about Agile from his friends in other companies and conferences. He doesn’t really understand it, but he knows it’s the “thing to do” right now as he hears and sees Agile everywhere he goes and with everyone he talks.

Mark worked at an “average” company in the financial services in Hong Kong which was struggling. Projects were late, budgets were always exceeding, and leadership was obviously frustrated. The pressure to do something to turn things around was so strong that you could almost smell it.

Finally convinced by having exhausted other options and a lot of FOMO, Mark decides to give Agile a try. His motivation wasn’t to truly transform the organization but rather to get quick results so he can get leadership out of his back. If it fails, he can simply say, “We tried Agile, and it didn’t work.” In other words, Agile can be his escapegoat, just a way to buy time, shift blame, and avoid deeper, harder conversations about the organisation real problems.

Teams are told they are going Agile. There’s a lot of training sessions, new tools, and consultants (including myself) were brought in. Daily Scrums, sprints, and retrospectives became the most common words heard in the hallways and meeting rooms.

Underneath the surface, nothing really changed. Deadlines were still set from the top, with no regard for team capacity. Decisions were made in closed-door meetings, then cascade down as mandates. The old hierarchies and command-and-control culture remains firmly in place.

The teams obviously tried their best. They went through the motions, attending ceremonies, updating JIRA, using new acronyms and often getting stuck on things such as “..but we can’t complete the sprint in 2 weeks..”. Without any real empowerment, autonomy, or support from leadership, team efforts felt quite hollow. The transformation was more about appearances and lip-service than actual change.

3 months in, the results were predictable: deliveries even later than scheduled, budgets over blown given the amount of trainings and consultants on board, and morale was lower than ever. But Mark got what he wanted. He stands up in the next leadership meeting and said, “We tried Agile, and it didn’t work. It’s just not right for our culture.”

The problem isn’t the way the company was ran, it’s the methodology. Agile became the scapegoat for deeper, systemic issues that no one wants to confront as they would require major shifts.

This story isn’t unique. In many organizations, Agile is brought in as a quick fix or a way to avoid harder conversations about leadership, culture, and accountability. When it fails it’s blamed for the organization’s problems, rather than seen as a mirror reflecting them.

I must say, sometimes, even a half-a** attempt at being Agile can reveal the truth. The teams who went through the motions started to see the gaps in their processes, the lack of empowerment, and the need for real change. Some began to ask uncomfortable questions: “Why aren’t we involved in planning?” “Why are decisions made without us?” “Why does leadership keep changing priorities without consulting the people doing the work?” and that’s how you plant the seed as often those would eventually leave the organisation and become Agile champions in their next job.

Have you ever seen Agile used as an escapegoat? Please share your experience as often the most valuable lessons come from the messiest situations