The Agilists' Dilemma?
Legend has it that the first Model T salespeople working for Ford had a big challenge. When taking potential customers out for a test drive, instead of pushing the brakes to stop the car, they would often shout "WHOA!" as if trying to get their horse to respond to a verbal command. I think something analogous happens with Agilists as we try to help organizations benefit from Agile. Often, they hire us, are our "boss" (or at least client), and when they try to run an Agile transformation using their older way of thinking, it puts us in what I am calling the "Agilists Dilemma". If we go along with the command & control/waterfall approach, then we are in effect saying "whoa" to the car, but if we push against that and try to use an Agile approach, we risk being seen as insubordinate, or violating the rule "The customer is always right". In my 12 years or so as a coach, I have found this to be one of the more challenging