Enterprise Coaching

Understanding Fake Agile

How to identify when agile tools and practices are being adopted without deploying them with the accompanying mindset.

Steve Denning

May 23, 2019 • 12 min read

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Agile

Agile Adoption

Coaching

Coaching & Mentoring

Enterprise Adaptability

Summary

Agile senior contributor Steve Denning explains Fake Agile. It follows a request by a major corporation to give a talk on the topic describing what it is, how to identify it, and how to deal with it. He argues that the term “agile” is often thrown around without any agreement on its meaning and being applied to firms, or parts of firms, that have no substantive claim to any agility. Surveys by Deloitte and McKinsey show that more than 90% of senior executives give high priority to becoming agile, while less than 10% see their firm as currently highly agile. Based on his past research, Steve suggests that Real Agile is achieved by organizations embodying a mindset with three main laws: the "Law of the Customer", the "Law of the Small Team", and the "Law of the Network".

Takeaways

Based on his past research, Steve Denning suggests that Real Agile is achieved by organizations embodying a mindset with three main laws: The Law of the Customer, the Law of the Small Team, and the Law of the Network.
Most of the largest and fastest-growing firms on the planet don’t even call themselves Agile and shy away from standard Agile vocabulary but are recognizably Agile in much of what they do.
The term “agile” is often thrown around without any agreement as to its meaning. It is often applied to firms, or parts of firms, that have no substantive claim to any kind of agility.
With the growing recognition that “Agile is eating the world,” surveys by Deloitte and McKinsey show that more than 90% of senior executives give high priority to becoming agile, while less than 10% see their firm as currently highly agile.