The Tyranny of Taylorism and how to detect Agile BS

Topic(s)
Audience

 Something very close to my heart is helping folks understand the origin of the practices that are commonly used in management today. I feel that only with an understanding of history can we figure out how to change the future. I often talk about this in my classes and help folks see why things are the way that they are in many organisations.

We are still using workplace practices developed during the industrial revolution to manage factory workers and the mechanisation of those workers. When we had to build at scale but did not have the technology to build robots, it was down to humans to do this monotonous, repetitive work; Think factory floor or typing pool. These practices, envisioned by Frederic Winston Taylor to control workers, are the Tyranny of Taylorism that we battle every day in our working environments.

While 81% of all development shops say that they are adopting agile, the reality is far from it; only 22% do short iterations, 16% have ordered backlogs, & 13% do retrospectives!

They still lack feedback loops.

Feedback loops were not significant when our current management practices were developed. We had defigned work, we understood it very well, and we were optimising a production line.

Those days are gone now!

View Presentation: https://nkdagility.net/30MVagF

DIB Guide: Detecting Agile BS: https://nkdagility.net/DOD-Detecting​

Create a conversation around this article

Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on Linkdin

Read more

Martin Hinshelwood
The Boards in Azure DevOps are a powerful tool that your teams can leverage to enable transparent visualization of the current state of value delivery.  However, the inclusion of Blocked columns can stealthily erode the very foundations of efficiency these boards are meant to uphold. By obfuscating the state of …
Martin Hinshelwood
This week, I participated in a Scrum.org Webinar hosted by Sabrina Love (Scrum.org Product Owner) as well as my colleagues, Joanna Płaskonka, Ph.D. and Alex Ballarin 🇺🇦 to discuss the state of learning and how immersive learning is the future of training. You can watch the video below to hear …
Martin Hinshelwood
Business Leaders face a key challenge when scaling their organisations effectively while maintaining the distinctiveness that made us successful in the first place. Many frameworks and methodologies, such as Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) or the Spotify Model, promise a structured approach to scaling, but do they genuinely fit our unique …
Martin Hinshelwood
As we inch further into the dynamic landscape of the 21st century, our long-established Alpha organisations stand on shaky ground. The organisations whose DNA is infused with strict command and control, woven into the fabric of every process, are feeling the tremors of a rapidly evolving, technologically charged market. Not …