🤼 When Best Practices Are Your Enemy

Whenever a transformation is undergoing, it’s almost impossible not hear people blatantly promoting (and asking to use) so called “best practices”. Especially in the consulting industry, people tend to collect them, implement them, and feel proud when putting those words together on a presentation deck. But what if I told you that blindly following ANY best practices most likely won't result in what you expect?

The Trap

A few years back, I was brought to work with a struggling product team at a relatively size corporate (less than 1000 people). The first thing I noticed? They had implemented every Agile "best practice" in the guide book. Daily standups that ran like factory operations. Sprint planning sessions with precise story point estimates. Retrospectives with action items neatly documented. Burndown charts and committed vs completed ratios that would make Scrum Masters cry of joy of such flawless perfection.

On the surface, they were doing everything "right." In reality, it was a completely different story.