Management ignores Scrum principles, leading to misaligned goals and stalled velocity; the article offers concrete steps to get executives onboard and restore true self-organizing teams.
Scrum only works when the whole organization, not just the development team, buys into its purpose. The piece opens by exposing how managers treat Scrum as a checklist-forcing sprint deadlines, demanding velocity numbers, and micromanaging JIRA-while ignoring the framework's emphasis on empowerment and cross-functional ownership. Those actions cripple performance and create a culture where priorities shift constantly, leaving teams stuck in a perpetual "Scrum but" state.
The author then reframes the organization itself as a product, arguing that executives should apply Scrum to solve complex adaptive problems at scale. By establishing an Executive Action/Transition (EAT) team that tracks "ScrumButs" in a backlog, leaders can surface the hidden costs of half-hearted adoption and systematically address them. The article stresses that the EAT may initially feel like micromanagement, but its purpose is to build a shared understanding and gradually shift toward genuine Agile leadership.
Practical tactics include training leaders with Scrum.org's Professional Agile Leadership Essentials, making progress visible with colorful walls of post-its, and encouraging teams to take collective stances without waiting for permission. The narrative is peppered with vivid analogies-corporate "zoo" departments, spaghetti email threads, and the dreaded intranet archive-to illustrate the chaos that results from ignoring Scrum's core values. By following these steps, technical leaders can align management with the team's reality, improve communication, and boost overall performance.
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