I believe that we’d be better off if we stopped talking about Agile.

By ‘we’ I mean anyone involved in business.

By ‘better off’ I mean better able to meet the needs of business, staff and customers.

By ‘stop’ I mean: stop using the word. Stop pursuing it. Stop selling it, blaming it and scaling it. Stop coaching it, training it, lauding it and forcing it. Stop mandating it, faking it, advocating and hating it.

Now before you assume that I’m on some kind of batch-and-queue renaissance trip or that I’m hitching a ride on the Agile-is-dead train, let me reassure you. I’m not. I’m fond of Agile. I even wrote it a love letter.

My love for Agile has however matured from the wide eyed, all-day-in-the-sack-smothered-in-whipped-cream type of love to a more mature appreciation and acceptance of our graces and flaws. Don’t get me wrong, the fire’s still there, it’s just that we have perspective now. And this is what this post is about. Perspective.

I believe we’d be better off if we stopped talking about Agile for two reasons.

It has a weak denotative meaning Agile != effective

Denota-what you say?

I mean that semantic diffusion has smeared the word ‘Agile’ to such an extent that it’s no longer possible to infer meaning or intent when someone uses the word. This is hardly news, but it is important.

To illustrate the point, imagine for a moment that we’re engaged in a conversation about say, domestic cats. You’re pretty sure that the animal you’re talking about is the same animal I’m talking about. We’re discussing the same topic. Cats.

The same is not true when we talk about Agile. We may be using the same word, we may even be agreeing wholeheartedly, but my Agile’s an entirely different animal to yours and we’ll never realise. Agile’s meaning is in practice 100% connotative, 0% denotative.

In other words, I simply don’t know what you mean when you talk about Agile and you don’t know what I mean either. This provides a pretty weak platform on which to build an effective conversation, let alone an effective organisation.

Regardless of the definition of Agile or its menagerie of associated connotations, I posit that the word is most commonly and consistently used as a synonym for ‘good’, ‘best practice’ or ‘effective’. A glance at the variety of topics covered at Agile themed conferences or a quick amazon.com search might cause you to reach a similar conclusion.

There’s a problem with this:-

Agile != effective

Agile is not the same thing as effective.

It may be a path that happens to lead you to effectiveness but it is most definitely not the same place.

While we’re busting a gut trying to be more Agile, it’s quite easy to think of it as the destination rather than the vehicle. And while Agile is linguistically and conceptually so slippery, it’s tempting to grasp onto methodological certainty (Scrum etc) in order to light the way. Once you’re basking in the comforting glow of methodological certainty it’s super easy for continuous improvement to metastasise into ‘continuously improving adherence to the methodology’ when the intention was to continuously improve ones effectiveness in meeting peoples’ needs.

These two things aren’t the same. They’re very different.

There’s an antidote to this. One weird trick that may increase your chances of getting stuff done.

Next time you feel the word “Agile” forming on your lips, pause for a moment, take a deep breath and mindfully, specifically, substitute it for the word “effective”.

Let’s try this out for size on a few commonly overheard utterances from a workplace near you…

“We need to be more agile” / “We need to be more effective”

“How agile are we?” / “How effective are we?”

“But that’s just not agile!” / “But that’s just not effective!”

Are we an Agile organisation? / “Are we an effective organisation?”

Fun huh?

You may find that some sentences don’t make sense or sound ridiculous when you do this.

“The problem with Agile is…” / “The problem with effective is…”

“We don’t have senior management buy-in for Agile” / “We don’t have senior management buy-in for effective”

“Do you do Agile?” / “Do you do effective?”

“Is Agile agile?” / “Is effective effective?”

I tentatively suggest that if replacing the word “Agile” with the word “effective” renders a sentence incomprehensible or silly, the sentence was probably not very clear in the first place.

Granted, some such sentences stop making sense precisely because Agile != effective. Agile is an approach, while ‘effective’ is a value judgement based on how well ones needs have been met. However, wouldn’t it be nice just once in a while to go directly to effectiveness without having to take a potentially confusing detour?

Might you be willing to try this for a few days? See what happens.

“What do you mean by effective?”

One thing that’ll happen when you start switching ‘Agile’ for ‘effective’ in your everyday conversation is that someone will ask the question “What do you mean by effective?”

When you hear this question, don’t dismiss it. Look up. The clouds will part, the trumpets will sound and a million angels will sing in glorious harmony as you realise that you’re finally engaged in a conversation that holds potential.

Some answers to this question may be unpalatable. You may hear, “effective means following the plan to the letter” or “effective means on-time on-budget”. If that’s the case then discussing the virtues of Agile is unlikely to change a thing. Questioning what ‘effective’ means for you, your business and your customers however, just might.