Welcome to the great un-buzzwording of Agile.
The last three months have been full of people claiming “Agile” is dead or “no one uses Scrum anymore”. All hogwash, IMO, but I want to help educate instead of getting frustrated. I have compiled some thoughts through LinkedIn, Reddit, blog posts, and talking to colleagues at conferences. Here is what I want to attempt to do...
Over the next four weeks, we will strip Scrum back to what matters, hard-wire culture diagnostics into the conversation, and plug in the data and AI that let high-performing teams outrun market noise. Consider this your flight plan, not a seatbelt sign. If feedback or fresh search signals tell us to "bank left", we will; agility without adaptation is just theatre.
Why this series, why now?
- Culture is the silent handbrake. The Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) has been run in 10,000+ organizations and 100,000+ individuals because leaders finally accept that a broken culture cancels out every shiny framework or philosophy.
- Psychological safety trumps raw talent. Google’s Project Aristotle showed that teams with high psych-safety always beat teams with rock-star résumés.
- Flow metrics expose the truth. The 2024 DORA report links delivery speed, stability, and even burnout levels to a handful of measurable signals; AI now surfaces those insights in real time.
If you can diagnose culture, tune team health, and visualize flow, Scrum stops being a ceremony checklist and becomes a competitive engine.
The four-week flight plan (high-level on purpose and using Scrum)
Your part in the experiment
- Tell me your biggest blocker. Drop a comment to me on Linked In or reply: culture drag, role confusion, metrics fog, nothing is off-limits.
- Bring a friend. Forward the signup links to the person who owns the backlog pain you complain about over coffee (you know who).
- Hold me to the outcome. If a post feels fluffy, say so; we will pivot fast.
We start Monday with the most abused metric in Agile history; velocity, and why it is about as useful as counting story points by the pound. Buckle up, bring questions, and let us make this the month your organization quits feature factory habits for good.