There were sticky notes on every wall. Stand-ups in every team. Sprint rituals scheduled. And yet… nothing really changed.
If you have ever led or lived through an Agile transformation, you may recognise this scene. Everything looked right. But the energy? Off. The behaviour? Unchanged. The decisions? Still slow, still top-down. It felt like theatre.
I call this phenomenon Doing Agile, not Being Agile. It basically means Agile on the outside, old habits on the inside. And you know what? I see it far more often than I should.
So, let’s talk about why this happens and, maybe more importantly, what you can do instead.
The illusion of progress
You roll out an Agile work form like Scrum and send your people to yet another training. You set up Agile coaches and rename roles. But when pressure hits, the same bottlenecks return: leaders override, there is a lack of alignment, handoffs, and silence in retros.
The illusion is that rituals are the same as results. Real change never starts with rituals. It starts with relationships, rhythm, and rewiring how people think and decide. This is the difference between doing Agile and being adaptive. One follows a checklist. The other rewires your system.
Three reasons Agile changes freeze and stall
So where does it go wrong? Why do so many Agile journeys start with energy and end in frustration? In my work, I notice three common traps that silently stop your progress. This can happen even when things seem busy and the words sound correct.
- Agile is rolled out as a method, not a mindset. People receive tools, not context. They know how to run a daily stand-up, but not why it matters. They do not see how it links to purpose, customer value, or decision autonomy.
- Leaders are not role-modelling the change. You cannot ask for empowerment and still expect to approve every move. You also cannot promote team ownership while micro-tracking delivery. In the end, when leaders do not change, neither does the culture.
- The change ignores the middle layer. Executive pressure and team expectations squeeze middle managers. If they aren’t engaged and supported, and if they’re seen as enablers instead of controllers, the change loses energy and comes to a grinding halt. You really need everyone on board.
In Gallup’s 2025 State of the Global Workplace report, manager engagement fell 3% points, from 30 % to 27 %. When managers break, teams follow. Agile change is no exception.
What real Agility looks like
In truly adaptive organisations, Agile is not a product delivery method. It is a mindset embedded in how the whole organisation moves. That means:
- Purpose and strategy are visible and connected. Everyone knows the why.
- Teams are trusted to decide based on intent, not on instructions.
- Learning loops are fast and continuous.
- Leadership behaviour aligns with what the walls say.
- Governance is designed to enable flow rather than to control.
When these elements are in place, Agility becomes a competence and not a project.
The Twinxter Change Journey: From purpose to practice
I frequently help organisations to pursue true Agility. We begin with purpose and work together to shape their future way of working. This approach brings their organisational purpose to life. All the way to the front line. The Twinxter Change Journey does the heavy lifting:
- Explore: Align on purpose, vision, mission, and strategy. Without a connected narrative, purpose stays abstract. Here we help teams build a shared understanding of what the organisation stands for and where it is going. This creates clarity and coherence from leadership down.
- Design: Build the future way of working. Purpose only becomes credible when embedded in daily operations. We work with teams to co-design operating models, create flow, and behaviours that reflect the purpose and do not contradict it.
- Empower: Enable self-organisation and aligned autonomy. Teams become high-performing when leaders trust them to act. We coach leaders and managers to lead with clarity and let go with confidence. This turns strategy into local action without losing direction.
- Grow: Scale what works and build rhythm. Sustainable purpose requires rhythm. We help organisations set up rituals, rhythms, and visual frameworks, such as Obeya. These tools support learning, adaptation, and progress on a larger scale.
This way, Agility does not become a new process. It is a new pattern of thinking, trusting, and evolving together. And just like that, it integrates into your company’s operating system.
Leadership shifts that turn theatre into traction
Tools do not transform organisations. People do. When a transformation stalls, it is rarely because people resist change. It is because they lack clarity on why it matters. That is where leadership comes in.
If purpose is the compass, leaders are the conductors. They set the rhythm, protect the tempo, and make sure the movement stays coherent. Here are key leadership changes I think are vital to shift from Agile performance to adaptive traction:
- From fixing to framing. Let leaders describe why work matters, not prescribe how to do it.
- From control to constraints. Replace blanket approvals with clear guidelines. For example, any decision under €50K can be made locally if it meets our purpose metric.
- From metrics to meaningful measures. Track customer outcomes and learning velocity, not just capacity utilisation.
- From heroic project manager to system gardener. The leader’s job becomes removing blockers, protecting learning time, and celebrating adaptation.
None of these shifts require a new framework, and you can start with it today. But they do require a new perspective and the courage to lead differently. Because in the end, Agility does not begin on the work floor. It begins with how leaders show up.
Ask yourself: Are we performing Agile… or becoming adaptive?
If it feels like theatre, it probably is. But theatre is not set in stone and can change. Shifting your focus from Agile as just a label to Agility as a real ability changes your transformation from performance to progress. And the best part? You stop managing change and start becoming it.
If your Agile journey feels stuck in rituals, reach out and let’s talk. I help organisations co-design adaptive ways of working where purpose leads, people thrive, and transformation becomes real.
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I look forward to connecting with you and collaborate to shape a thriving future for all.
Have a great day!
Alize Hofmeester
It’s my purpose to create space where everyone is able to thrive.
Human-centric. Purpose-driven. Value-based
Are you ready to change the status quo? Let’s talk accelerating change.
