BOUNDARYLESS CONVERSATIONS PODCAST — EPISODE 97

#97 — R.I.P. Agile, Long Live Agile 2 with Cliff Berg

On today’s podcast, we host Cliff Berg — who has been at the forefront of the Agile revolution, and, at the same time, became one of Agile movement’s most vocal critics, to the extent, that he dared to say: “R.I.P Agile”.

Cliff, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Agile 2 Academy, and a leading figure in Agile and DevOps advising joins our podcast bringing his fresh perspectives on the decline of Agile. He also gives us a peek into the story of a book he recently co-authored, ‘Agile 2: The Next Iteration of Agile’.

Cliff takes us through what it means to re-imagine organizational practices and challenges the conventional framework-oriented approach, that often needs more contextualization and grounded action-based research.

Join us, as we discuss balancing leadership and self-organizing, and explore pragmatic approaches to operating successful businesses with agility and accountability.

Podcast Notes

This episode goes through a journey — we talk about Cliff’s viral post on the demise of Agile, and what he and a team of co-authors have done to consciously course-correct it, and publish a whole set of new ideas on how to approach Agile with a more contemporary and less ideological stance: Agile 2.

Cliff dismisses the narrative of “You don’t need managers”, and challenges why it’s important to reel our thoughts back in when it comes to decentralization of organizations.

He lays it out as it is: structure is not a bad thing per se, and the conversation goes through healthy ways of administering structure in organizations.

Tune in, if you’re interested in non-ideological ways to embrace agile practices, mixed with some of Boundaryless’s staple topics: building optionality, entrepreneurial organizations that go big with skin in the game, and more.

Stream Now

You can also watch the full episode here on YouTube.

Key highlights

👉Agile 2 addresses the limitations of traditional Agile by incorporating a more holistic view of organizational change and software development practices.

👉 Success in Agile environments hinges not on the absence of leadership but on its transformation.

👉 Effective Agile leadership involves guiding, decision-making, and creating a culture where empowerment and accountability are coupled.

👉 While self-organizing teams are a goal, they require the right mix of leadership, culture, and structure to thrive. Absolute self-organization is a myth; what’s needed is balance.

👉 The adoption of Agile frameworks should be nuanced and tailored to the specific context of an organization, avoiding the pitfalls of a one-size-fits-all approach.

👉It’s imperative to encourage teams to take ownership of their work while providing them with the freedom to innovate within defined constraints. This leads to further accountability and optionality.

👉 Agile 2 champions the idea of making informed decisions quickly, learning from feedback, and being prepared to pivot based on new insights, rather than adhering rigidly to plans.

Topics (chapters):

00:00 R.I.P. Agile, Long Live Agile 2 — Intro

02:09 The transition from Agile 1.0 to Agile 2.0

10:36 Solving Limitations of Agile 1.0

18:26 Frameworks as a means to an end

30:52 Increasing Optionality and Designing for Problem Solving

37:46 Finding a Balance in Beauraucracy

44:13 The transformation that sticks

To find out more about their work:

• Cliff Berg — Agile 2 Academy | LinkedIn
• Cliff Berg’s Personal Home Page
• Cliff Berg — Medium
• Agile 2 — THE NEXT ITERATION OF AGILE

Other references and mentions:

• What is CI/CD?
• The Post That Went Viral | — R.I.P Agile
• Single-Threaded Leaders at Amazon
• Scott Ambler’s Home Page
• Bjarte Bogsnes / X (twitter.com)
• A Theory of Voluntary Cooperation (markburgess.org)
• Serving joint customer needs through a modular Platform at HubSpot — with Scott Brinker — Boundaryless
• Nimble Leadership (hbr.org)

Recorded on 23rd February 2024.

Streaming Platforms

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Music

Music from Liosound / Walter Mobilio. Find his portfolio here: https://blss.io/Podcast-Music

Transcript

Check complete notes on our Blog.

Get in touch with Boundaryless:

Find out more about the show and the research at Boundaryless at https://boundaryless.io/resources/podcast

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