SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) has become one of the most widespread scaling agile frameworks adopted by large companies and organisations. Despite numerous criticisms and many documented failures, its appeal continues to grow, with enterprises willing to invest massive sums in training and disruption to implement SAFe. This seems surprising given the minimal tangible benefits realised by most SAFe adherents.

So why does SAFe remain so appealing to large, complex bureaucracies? In a word: comfort. While marketed as a way to enable agility and leanness, SAFe appeals precisely because it does not challenge the status quo nor the entrenched beliefs held in many slow-moving, hierarchical organisations.

Criticisms of SAFe

To understand this dynamic, let’s first review common critiques levelled at SAFe:

• Overly complex and prescriptive – SAFe has endless prescribed roles, processes, artefacts etc. This bureaucratic overhead hinders agility.
• Hard to tailor – The intricate nature of SAFe makes customisation impractical. Organisations must reshape themselves to fit the framework.
• Promotes “waterfall” thinking – The emphasis on upfront planning and budgets feeds an outdated sequential mindset rather than adaptiveness.
• Reduces team autonomy – The multitude of coordination points, cadences and preset workflows leave little room for teams to self-organise.
• Lots of overhead – The multi-layered structure requires innumerable meetings, planning sessions and documentation with little obvious value.
• Focused on software – Challenging to integrate with hardware-based development.
• Failure to change mindsets – By not focusing enough on culture and psychology, old ways of thinking persist.
• Poor results for small teams – The coordination needs overwhelm lighter-weight groups.

And the big one:

• Fails to deliver promised benefits – Despite claims around quality, speed, alignment etc., SAFe often delivers no measurable improvements.

Why So Appealing Then?

On the surface, we might be forgiven for thinking that these weaknesses would temper interest in what looks like an over-engineered, bureaucratic and exploitative approach. Yet SAFe resonates precisely because it neatly aligns with the innate orientation of lumbering enterprises.

Importantly, the traditional command-and-control assumptions underpinning these organisations are fundamentally incompatible with the collaborative dynamism essential for collaborative knowledge work (CKW) like software development. Still, decision-makers inevitably cling to what they know.

Organisational psychotherapy techniques can help transition teams to more adaptive behaviours, but this level of innovation is unknown to most executives.

Social Psychology

Instead, SAFe taps into the underlying psychology of social systems both enamoured by and resistant to change simultaneously. It allows decision-makers to signal adherence to “agile” thinking for PR purposes while actually fortifying traditional beliefs around command-and-control. It fosters the myth that adding scaffolding and rituals atop dysfunctional structures and ineffective ways of working can enable high-performance.

By wrapping waterfall-era assumptions in trendy Agile terminology yet never challenging obsolete ideas, SAFe holds tremendous appeal as it lets organisations feel as though they are evolving without actual introspection or change. For entrenched companies desperate for innovation yet terrified of losing control or certainty, SAFe’s contradictory promise proves irresistible. The disappointments come later. When admission thereto have become way to embarrasing to air.

ABC

Approaches like Agile for Big Companies (ABC – open sourced and in the public domain) aim to bridge this gap by enabling greater agility without upending incumbent structures and assumptions. Yet true transformation requires a willingness to surface and reflect upon long-held organisational axioms. For those unable or unwilling to fundamentally remake themselves, SAFe offers a tempting façade of progress.

Unveiling the Emperor: Agile’s Non-Existent Clothes

If Agile were a bottle of snake oil peddled by a slick, moustachioed charlatan, would you still buy it? This provocative question necessitates confronting the uncomfortable fact that Agile, the beloved darling of software development, has no merits to speak of. In this exposé, we’ll look at the concept of “mendacious gullibility” through the lens of William Kingdon Clifford’s “The Ethics of Belief,” to probe why Agile has garnered such uncritical and unworthy adoration.

Note: Here, we’re talking about Agile as it commonly manifests in software development. Pursuit of agility across a whole organisation is a different kettle of fish. Cf. ABC and agility at scale.

Unpacking Mendacious Gullibility

Mendacious gullibility is a state of wilful self-deception, where the desire to believe is so strong that it eclipses the moral obligation to scrutinise. According to Clifford, beliefs without a sturdy foundation of evidence are not merely misguided, but ethically unsound. When applied to Agile, this means that adopting the concept, and practices, without critical analysis is not only ineffective but morally dubious.

Agile’s Hollow Promises: A Critical Dissection

Agile promises adaptability, collaboration, and speed. Yet, if we’re honest, these promises often fall flat. Efforts don’t necessarily become more efficient, nor do teams always feel more empowered. So, why does the belief persist that Agile is beneficial? The answer likely lies in mendacious gullibility—a collective suspension of critical thinking encouraged by self-interest, catchy jargon and snake oil testimonials.

The Real-World Consequences: Beyond Failed Efforts

The impact of this self-serving self-deception is not restricted to resources and timelines; it penetrates the ethical core of an organisation. Team morale can suffer, trust in leadership may erode, and the overall health of the business could be jeopardised. The price of mendacious gullibility is not just operational but deeply ethical.

Debunking the Agile Myth: An Ethical Imperative

For those who care about ethical governance and responsible leadership, the requirement is clear: Agile must be critically evaluated and, when found wanting, discarded.

• Demand hard evidence rather than relying on industry buzz.
• Challenge the proponents of Agile to provide substantive proof of its applicability.
• Be willing to consider alternatives that may not have Agile’s glamour but offer evidence-based effectiveness.

In Closing: The Moral Duty to Question

If Clifford’s “The Ethics of Belief” serves as any guide, we must confront the disturbing idea that Agile’s universal adoption might be a manifestation of mendacious gullibility. It’s not simply that Agile is inappropriate for certain efforts; it is that Agile is fundamentally flawed, with no redeeming merits beyond its ability to lever open the wallets of the naively gullible.

Moral integrity demands more than self-deluding acceptance. As we navigate the labyrinth of methods and best practices, how about we commit to an ethical approach that values evidence over hype. And when it comes to Agile, it’s time we stop drinking the Kool-Aid.

In today’s world of rapid technological evolution and market fluctuations, achieving agility at scale has become a prime objective for many organisations. Conventionally, discussions around “agility” gravitate towards processes, technical practices, and organisational structures. However, could it be that we’re missing the crux of the issue? What if the true secret to achieving agility at scale isn’t about the technicalities or structures at all, but rather, psychology and group dynamics?

The Human Element

Every organisation is made up of people. These people, with their diverse backgrounds, experiences, motivations, and fears, come together to form a collective entity. The interplay of these psychological factors and group dynamics becomes the pulse of the organisation.

When we talk about agility, we’re essentially discussing adaptability – the capability to change course quickly in response to new information, challenges, or opportunities. This adaptability isn’t derived from tools or processes; it’s nurtured by the collective mindset of the organisation’s members.

Key Psychological and Group Dynamics Factors

1. Group Norms and Culture: The implicit rules, assumptions and beliefs that guide behaviour in a group can either promote or hinder collaboration. Most often, especially in big companies, such shared assumptions and beliefs hinder. A culture that values inclusivity, respect, and mutual support will likely facilitate better collaborative outcomes.
2. Trust: One of the foundational pillars of agility is trust. In an environment where team members trust each other, the flow of information is more fluid. People are more willing to share bad news early or provide candid feedback, which aids quick course correction.
3. Safety to Fail: Agility thrives in environments where individuals are not penalised for making mistakes, but rather encouraged to learn from them. The psychology of safe environments promotes experimentation, innovation, and risk-taking – all critical for agility.
4. Shared Vision and Purpose: When a group has a shared vision and understands the ‘why’ behind their actions, decision-making is streamlined. A shared purpose psychologically aligns individuals, inviting them to be more proactive and collaborative.
5. Open Communication: The flow of information and feedback loops are crucial for agility. When team members feel they can communicate openly, without fear of repercussion, they are more likely to address issues promptly, paving the way for adaptive responses.
6. Inclusion and Diversity: A diverse team brings in multiple perspectives. The varied viewpoints and cognitive approaches play a crucial role in ensuring that the team doesn’t become myopic and can adapt to a wide array of challenges.

So, Why Do We Often Overlook The Human Element?

Organisational structures and technical practices are tangible. They can be drawn on charts, implemented through software, or outlined in manuals. It’s easy to gravitate towards what’s tangible and measurable. Psychological factors and group dynamics, on the other hand, are less tangible, making them harder to define, see, measure, and manage.

Moreover, investing in the ‘soft’ aspects of organisational culture doesn’t always show immediate ROI. It requires patience, consistent effort, and commitment.

And most initiatives to deliver Agility at Scale are facilitated by left-brained engineering and software folks whose understanding of people, psychology, and group dynamics is, to be charitable, limited.

The Way Forward

While it’s essential to have effective technical practices and suitable organisational structures in place, we might choose to recognise that they are but tools in the hands of people. For an organisation to achieve true agility at scale, it must prioritise the psychological well-being and leverage healthy group dynamics among its members.

I invite you to shift your focus from the tangible to the intangible, from the external to the internal. Only by understanding and nurturing the human elements can organisations unlock unprecedented levels of agility, innovation, and success.

The ABC Difference

ABC (Agility for Big Companies) takes this message to heart. Implementing ABC means paying attention first and foremost to the psychology and groups dynamics of the organisation. From this foundation, effective technical practices and suitable organisational structures emerge. ABC avoids having the tail wag the Agility at Scale dog.

ABC, short for Agility for Big Companies, is all about helping big companies stay quick on their feet and adapt to changes fast. In the ABC set of white papers, the first of which features in this post, we’ll explore what ABC is, how it works, and why its open source model is a breath of fresh air in the Agility at Scale space.

ABC White Paper 1 – Adoption

Adopting ABC: The Agility for Big Companies Approach to Enterprise Agility

Introduction

Achieving enterprise agility is a high priority for many organisations today. While the Agile model has some effectiveness in small teams, scaling agility across large organisations poses unique challenges. Agility for Big Companies (ABC) offers a tailor-made approach to addressing these complexities and helps big companies harness the benefits of enterprise agility.

The Challenge of Scaling Agility in Large Enterprises

Large enterprises face various hurdles in adopting agility at scale. The difficulties include: managing the cultural shift, aligning various teams, and maintaining coordination across geographically dispersed groups. Balancing the agility of small teams with the need for oversight and control also presents a significant challenge.

The ABC Solution

ABC offers an elegant solution that simplifies adopting agility at scale and adapts the principles of agility to suit the unique needs of big companies. It emphasises:

1. Easy Adoption: ABC provides a structured, AI-assisted approach that simplifies the adoption process. Recognising that change in big companies can often be complex and daunting, ABC has been expressly developed to make this transition as seamless as possible. By offering clear, practical guidelines and roadmaps, ABC reduces uncertainties, instils confidence, and minimises resistance to the new approaches. Its carefully crafted processes ensure that every stakeholder understands their role in this transformation, enabling them to contribute effectively and align with the agility at scale vision.
2. Enhanced Flow and Continuity: ABC places a high emphasis on maintaining a continuous flow of work. By streamlining operations and breaking down silos, ABC facilitates the smooth progression of tasks across an ever-decreasing number of different teams and departments. This systematic approach minimises interruptions, reduces bottlenecks, and promotes a constant rhythm of productivity. It ensures that all elements of the organisation are working harmoniously towards the same objectives, thereby maximising output and promoting efficiency. With ABC, organisations can achieve a steady, unobstructed workflow that underpins their success.
3. Respecting the Status Quo: ABC respects existing organisational structures and cultures, recognising their unique value and the stability they provide. Instead of recommending radical, disruptive changes, ABC encourages a gradual, inclusive transition that blends the new with the existing. It considers your organisation’s unique characteristics and balances them with modern practices. This approach eases the transition, minimises culture shock, and fosters an environment of respect and understanding, resulting in higher acceptance and less resistance.
4. Consensus and the Advice Process: ABC promotes a collaborative decision-making process that values every team member’s input. This approach recognises the importance of collective intelligence and diverse perspectives in forging a path forward. The advice process, an integral part of ABC, is a tool that seeks suggestions and insights from everyone involved, thereby building consensus. This method not only ensures the best decisions are made but also enhances commitment and alignment, as each team member feels heard and involved.
5. Rightshifting: ABC encourages the concept of ‘Rightshifting’, that is, continuously advancing and improving competence over time. The goal is not just to adopt agility at scale but to excel in it, driving the organisation and its teams towards increasing effectiveness. ABC promotes a culture of learning and continuous improvement, ensuring your organisation evolves, adapts and always stays ahead of the curve.
6. Cadres: People are the heartbeat of any organisation, and ABC understands this. It emphasises the importance of nurturing interpersonal and interdepartmental relationships, developing skills, and building strong, diverse teams. ABC recognises that your organisation’s success lies in the hands of its teams and encourages the cultivation of a supportive, growth-oriented environment. In this way, ABC ensures your adoption is people-centric, thereby boosting team morale, enhancing collaboration, and ultimately driving productivity.
7. Control and Oversight: While ABC champions the autonomy of self-organising teams, it also recognises the need for effective control and oversight. By providing a framework for checks and balances, ABC ensures that accountability is maintained and that the adoption meshes with the organisation’s strategic goals. This balanced approach facilitates innovation and problem-solving at the team level while ensuring overall coherence and direction at the organisational level.

ABC in Practice

ABC enables quick, low-cost, low-disruption adoption and ensures quick results through AI-powered assistance tools. These tools analyse your organisation’s unique attributes, predict potential hurdles, and provide data-driven advice to facilitate a smooth and easy transition.

Conclusion

ABC offers a viable route to achieving enterprise agility. With its unique approach to adopting agility at scale, ABC paves the way for big companies to stay competitive and resilient in a fast-paced business landscape. ABC does more than just solve the problem of adopting agility in large enterprises; it redefines how these organisations can harness the power of agility at scale. By putting a simplified adoption process at its core, ABC is truly making the adoption of agility at scale as simple as ABC.

About ABC

Agility for Big Companies (ABC) is designed specifically for large enterprises. Leveraging AI and open source, ABC simplifies the process of adopting agility at scale, reducing costs and ensuring a smooth, disruption-free transition. ABC is built on decades of experience successfully working with major corporations, making it a trusted solution for achieving enterprise agility.

A public, online version of this white paper is also available.

The mantra “Fail early, fail often” has become a guiding principle across various innovative and creative fields, but let’s understand that this philosophy’s aim is not to fail, but to learn. By recognising that

“Learning has only happened when behaviour has changed”

we can see that failure is not an end in itself but a means to an end. Let’s explore this concept in the context of business, design thinking, entrepreneurship, and the cultural shift towards iterative learning.

Learning Through Failure: A Definition

In the context of “Fail early, fail often,” failure is not an objective but a pathway to learning. But what does learning really mean? As succinctly put: “Learning has only happened when behaviour has changed.” This definition underscores that genuine learning isn’t just about acquiring knowledge; it’s about transforming that knowledge into actionable changes in behavior. It’s about adaptation, growth, and tangible improvement.

Applying the Philosophy in Various Fields

1. Business: In the broader business context, this philosophy encourages companies to see failures in strategy, products, or execution as opportunities for learning and growth. It promotes an approach where mistakes lead to insights, refinements, and strategic pivots. By fully embracing that “Learning has only happened when behaviour has changed,” businesses can become more resilient, innovative, and responsive to market dynamics.

2. Software Development: In iterative development, failures are not mistakes but learning opportunities. A bug or a flaw in the code is a chance to inspect, learn, adapt, and improve. With each failure and subsequent adaptation, the software evolves.

3. Design Thinking: Design thinking emphasises empathy, experimentation, and prototyping. Here, failing early and often is part of a process of continuous refinement and learning. A design that doesn’t adequately meet folks’ needs is not a failure but a lesson, leading to changes in approach and better solutions.

4. Entrepreneurship: For entrepreneurs and startups, every failure is a step towards understanding the market, the product, or the business model. Adapting to these failures, changing behavior in response to lessons learned, aligns perfectly with the understanding that true learning is evidenced by changed behavior.

The Cultural Shift: Learning as a Change in Behaviour

This shift towards embracing failure as a learning tool has profound cultural implications. It fosters an environment where innovation, creativity, and continuous growth thrive. Here’s how:

• Encouraging Experimentation: Organisations embracing this philosophy promote a culture of experimentation and risk-taking, knowing that failure is not a dead-end but a catalyst for change and learning.
• Building Resilience: By viewing failure as a learning opportunity, teams become more resilient and adaptable, capable of transforming setbacks into progress, fully embodying the idea that “Learning has only happened when behaviour has changed.”
• Fostering a Chaordic Mindset: This approach nurtures a mindset where challenges are opportunities for growth and improvement, reinforcing that genuine learning results in changed behavior, not just theoretical understanding.

Fear of Failure in Big Companies

Larger corporations often struggle with the fear of failure, and this can manifest in several ways:

• Risk Aversion: Big companies avoid taking risks due to the potential negative impact on personal status, their established reputation, market position, or shareholder value. This aversion stifles innovation and slows response to market changes.
• Bureaucratic Hurdles: A complex hierarchy and decision-making process slows down experimentation. The fear of failure leads to endless deliberations, committees, and approvals that hinder agility and creativity.
• Cultural Barriers: Organisational cultures emphasise success to the point where failure is seen as unacceptable. This can create a stifling environment where employees are afraid to try new things or propose innovative ideas.
• Short-term Focus: A focus on quarterly results and immediate profits discourages long-term investments in research, experimentation, culture change, and innovation. If failure is not an option, the approach to growth becomes conservative and incremental rather than bold and transformative.

However, even large corporations can learn to embrace the philosophy of “Fail early, fail often” by understanding that “Learning has only happened when behaviour has changed.” By fostering a culture that sees failure as an opportunity for learning, big companies can become more agile, innovative, and resilient.

Conclusion

The philosophy of “Fail early, fail often” is a reminder that failure is not something to be feared or avoided but embraced as a valuable tool for learning. By recognizing that “Learning has only happened when behaviour has changed,” we shift our focus from failure to the transformative power of learning.

In software development, design thinking, entrepreneurship, and beyond, this approach fosters a culture of innovation, resilience, and continuous growth. It’s not about celebrating failure; it’s about embracing the learning that comes from it and recognizing that real growth and innovation happen when we allow ourselves to fail, learn, and change our behavior accordingly.

The next time you face a setback or a “failure,” remember that it’s an opportunity to learn, adapt, and grow. Embrace the process, and let the philosophy that learning is manifested in changed behavior guide your journey to success.

The quest for success in today’s complex business environment often leads companies down paths that promise agility but fall short in delivering tangible results. Approaches like SAFe, LeSS, and DAD have left organisations yearning for something more substantial, more aligned with the pursuit of genuine success.

Introducing ABC (Agility for Big Companies): A New Pathway

Today, I am proud to unveil the open sourcing of ABC (Agility for Big Companies), a growing compilation of documents and guidance designed to foster success at scale. What sets ABC apart is not just its innovative approach but its open source, evolving nature. It’s a living community effort that will continue to grow and adapt to the ever-changing needs of big companies.

Success, Leadership, and an Evolving Repository

ABC’s approach focuses on aligning agility with the real-world needs of large companies. It subtly enhances leadership influence and fosters an environment where success is achievable and sustainable. It’s not just about a static set of guidelines; it’s about a community effort in making an ongoing journey towards excellence.

Read Through the ABC Document Repository

The ABC Google Docs Document Respository is now open to everyone to read. You’ll find insights, strategies, and tools to help drive success, all within a repository that is intentionally unfinished and ever-evolving.

You might find the Working Drafts document ABC – A Reading Path one handy place to start.

If you’re interested in just reading, great! But if you want to contribute to this growing movement, I invite you to request commenting or editing access. Your active participation (subject to review) will help shape the ABC approach, adding to its richness and relevance.Most of the current content is unfinished, and will benefit from many eyes, comments and edits.

24x7x365 Support and Collaboration

I’m here for you 24x7x365, ready to support, listen, and collaborate. Together, we can build an approach that not only resonates with the demands of big companies but also reflects our collective wisdom and desire to improve the world.

Join the Movement

The open sourcing of ABC is an invitation to join a movement that celebrates success and provides real agility at scale (not just hollow promises). With your insights, your participation, and your commitment, we can create an approach that’s not only about agility but also about a fulfilling pathway to success that continues to evolve.

Your success, our success. An unfinished journey, a shared vision. Let’s make it happen. Together.

And please share with your friends!

I’m Here for Everyone

Contact me through the WordPress comments section (below), or email, for support, insights, and to request active membership of this dynamic and evolving community.

Google Meet, etc. chats are also possible, by arrangement.

Remember the ancient African proverb:

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”