Here the dirty secret behind many agile transformations

TL;DR; Many agile transformations fail because organizations maintain tight control over how work is done while claiming to empower teams. True agility requires leadership to set clear goals and priorities but let teams decide how to achieve them. To foster commitment and improvement, review where your processes still dictate the how and shift toward real team autonomy.

Published on 2 May 2025

Written by Martin Hinshelwood

1 minute read

https://nkdagility.com/resources/6Z5I3JPMECs

Here’s the dirty secret behind many “agile transformations”:

The organisation claims alignment, but what they deliver is control.

They dictate priorities, assign tasks, predefine solutions, and then slap a “self-managing” label on the team.

This is a lie.

In Scrum, autonomy isn’t about teams doing whatever they want. It’s about teams deciding how they will meet their goals.

Alignment defines the why and what.
Autonomy gives the team ownership of the how.

Without autonomy, you create learned helplessness.
Teams stop thinking, stop improving, and stop caring.
You get compliance, not commitment.

If you want adaptive value delivery, you must let go of the how.
Align on goals — and then get out of the way.

What parts of your system are still holding a death grip on the how?

Also published on: LinkedIn

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