Breaking Organizational Debt and Fear with Modern Agile

Corporations want share prices to move only up and to the right. They need to move the needle now, which means revenue or earnings growth. Executives are compensated in stock to align their interests with those of shareholders. They all fall victim to a kind of collective quarterly myopia. The antidote to the diminishing returns of the status quo is to think. To avoid the pitfalls of organizational debt, we need constant and vigilant simplification. We must create agile roles, rules, and processes — built to learn and change. Org debt creates bureaucracy, and bureaucracy protects org debt. It’s a tragic love affair.

Considering the modern world of work, the assumptions of Theory X still feel present. Our job description tells us what to do. Our manager tells us how to do it. Our office hours tell us when to come to work. Our meeting invites tell us which conversations we can take part in. Our performance review tells us how to learn and grow. They are all distrusted from believing we cannot take responsibility for our contribution and growth. Increase autonomy, and motivation thrives. Decrease it, and motivation erodes. Treat them like all-stars, and they will become all-stars. To be People Positive is to assume and expect the best of everyone.

Agile is modernizing. While Modern Agile doesn’t tell you what to create, it…