“My Agile is better than your Agile.” It seems like every day, I witness a Twitter war between two thought leaders criticizing one another’s framework. Ironically, these frameworks are simply a set of practices that apply the same set of values and principles.

The truth is frameworks and practices are simply a means to an end, better business outcomes. CEOs are not interested in Scrum, SAFe, or Kanban, but rather customer satisfaction, time to market, reliability, and innovation, to only name a few. As practitioners, I included, we tend to get hung up on the framework, allowing it to drive outcomes. Instead, we should be applying an experimental approach in which we enable the desired outcome to drive the practices we adopt.

Over the past few years, I have shifted to this somewhat backwards approach of Agile transformation and organizational change. I have had my share of successes and failures as a change agent, but I am finding more success with this approach, and it just feels right. The purpose of this presentation is to help others see change initiatives through the same lens.

As Agilists, we need to be adaptive and maintain an open mind. Organizations are complex adaptive systems, each unique with its own set of challenges, values, and objectives. Given the enormous complexity, where do we start? The answer is not Scrum, but rather outcomes.