Why Most Companies Fail at Adopting Agility Beyond IT

TL;DR; Most companies fail to adopt agility beyond IT because the real barriers are organisational, such as rigid hierarchies, inflexible budgeting, and outdated performance reviews. Scrum Masters need to focus on driving broader organisational change, not just team-level practices. Development managers should address systemic blockers and rethink how work is funded and measured to enable true agility.

Published on 27 March 2025

Written by Martin Hinshelwood

1 minute read

https://nkdagility.com/resources/xdKHhjboUgT

Most companies trying to “adopt agility” fail because they think it’s an IT problem.

It’s not.

The biggest impediments to agility are organisational, not technical:

Hierarchical structures that kill autonomy.
Annual budgeting cycles that resist adaptability.
Performance reviews that reward individual output over team outcomes.

Scrum Masters must understand organisational transformation. They need to navigate politics, drive change, and push leadership to remove systemic blockers—not just “protect the team” from the dysfunction.

Agility doesn’t start with Daylies and retrospectives. It starts with how an organisation funds, measures, and enables work.

What’s the biggest non-technical barrier to agility you’ve seen?

Also published on: LinkedIn

Connect with Martin Hinshelwood

If you've made it this far, it's worth connecting with our principal consultant and coach, Martin Hinshelwood, for a 30-minute 'ask me anything' call.

Our Happy Clients

We partner with businesses across diverse industries, including finance, insurance, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, technology, engineering, transportation, hospitality, entertainment, legal, government, and military sectors.