We tried Agile and it didn’t work... Or did it?

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.

The Transformation that didn’t Transform

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.