#Agile scaling frameworks don’t actually scale. Employee engagement is what actually scales.

Repeat: Employee engagement is what actually scales.

Pushing practices lowers employee engagement. And if employee engagement is low, that means that employee DIS engagement is your biggest risk now. That’s why pushing your chosen framework on the organization is a terrible and very expensive bet, if what you are after is very strong results, and very positive business outcomes.

That is: lasting improvement, beyond next week. Next month. Next year.

Your framework is actually a set of patterns and practices. And frameworks do not scale.

So obviously, those elements, those patterns and practices in the framework, they do not scale either, unless they are raising levels of employee engagement.

Open Space doesn’t scale either by the way. What actually scales is the employee engagement that Open Space generates. 

So there’s a myth out there. The myth that your #Agile framework can be “rolled out” or imposed and actually work. It doesn’t actually, because that approach creates an iceberg of disengagement.

And only 10% of that is actually visible.

So go ahead. Roll it out enterprise ride with help from super-expensive coaches. That might work for awhile. Like 15 or 20 minutes or so.

Yes, those temporary effects are very real. Then they go away.

Usually right after the budget runs out, and the well-meaning yet highly authoritative coaches leave.

So. Don’t focus on your framework.

Definitely stop focusing on your #Agile framework.

Instead, focus your entire leadership team on engaging employees in the change. Do that first. Because that’s what actually scales.

Focusing on engaging employees in the change will also tend to…

  • …Reduce your Agile-coach consulting spend by up to 70%;
  • …Cause nearly-immediate and lasting improvement in just about everything you are measuring;
  • …Rapidly identify members of the leadership structure who have objections;
  • …Generate the need for some very awkward conversations about policies & procedures.

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