a·gen·tic a·gil·i·ty

You want speed, adaptability, resilience

TL;DR; Investing in Agile, Scrum, Kanban, and DevOps will not deliver real speed, adaptability, or resilience unless your teams have the agency to truly own their work and outcomes. Without empowering people to take responsibility, you risk superficial processes and disengaged teams. To achieve genuine agility, ensure your system supports team and individual ownership, not just frameworks.

Published on
1 minute read
Image
https://nkdagility.com/resources/5UaIfaLclWB
Subscribe

You want speed, adaptability, resilience.

You invest in Scrum, Agile, Kanban, DevOps.

But then you ignore the hard part:
agency.

Without agency, your teams can’t own outcomes.
Without agency, your Product Owners can’t own value.
Without agency, your Scrum Masters can’t own effectiveness.

Instead, you get cosmetic ceremonies, fake backlogs, and teams going through the motions.

Kanban, as an observability pattern for value delivery, won’t save you.
DevOps, as the union of people, process, and products to enable continuous delivery of value, won’t save you.

None of these strategies work without the human system having the agency to act.

If you are serious about agility, you have to be serious about enabling people to own what they are accountable for.

Where in your system have you invested in agility but refused to invest in agency?

Also published on: LinkedIn
Smart Classifications

Each classification [Concepts, Categories, & Tags] was assigned using AI-powered semantic analysis and scored across relevance, depth, and alignment. Final decisions? Still human. Always traceable. Hover to see how it applies.

Subscribe

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.​

Workday Logo

Workday

Akaditi Logo

Akaditi

Lean SA Logo

Lean SA

Flowmaster (a Mentor Graphics Company) Logo

Flowmaster (a Mentor Graphics Company)

ALS Life Sciences Logo

ALS Life Sciences

SuperControl Logo

SuperControl

Hubtel Ghana Logo

Hubtel Ghana

Jack Links Logo

Jack Links

Deliotte Logo

Deliotte

Healthgrades Logo

Healthgrades

Xceptor - Process and Data Automation Logo

Xceptor - Process and Data Automation

MacDonald Humfrey (Automation) Ltd. Logo

MacDonald Humfrey (Automation) Ltd.

Teleplan Logo

Teleplan

Emerson Process Management Logo

Emerson Process Management

Epic Games Logo

Epic Games

Schlumberger Logo

Schlumberger

Slicedbread Logo

Slicedbread

Alignment Healthcare Logo

Alignment Healthcare

Washington Department of Transport Logo

Washington Department of Transport

Ghana Police Service Logo

Ghana Police Service

New Hampshire Supreme Court Logo

New Hampshire Supreme Court

Washington Department of Enterprise Services Logo

Washington Department of Enterprise Services

Department of Work and Pensions (UK) Logo

Department of Work and Pensions (UK)

Nottingham County Council Logo

Nottingham County Council

Emerson Process Management Logo

Emerson Process Management

Brandes Investment Partners L.P. Logo

Brandes Investment Partners L.P.

Workday Logo

Workday

Boxit Document Solutions

CR2

MacDonald Humfrey (Automation) Ltd. Logo

MacDonald Humfrey (Automation) Ltd.