Cargo Cult Agile and why the planes don't land

Cargo Cult Agile:

Richard Feynman famously used Cargo Cults to describe Bad science in his 1974 commencement address at CalTech.

Here is how he explained "Cargo Cults".

In the South Seas there is a Cargo Cult of people.?During the war they saw airplanes land with lots of good materials, and they want the same thing to happen now.?So they’ve arranged to make things like runways, to put fires along the sides of the runways, to make a wooden hut for a man to sit in, with two wooden pieces on his head like headphones and bars of bamboo sticking out like antennas—he’s the controller—and they wait for the airplanes to land.?They’re doing everything right.?The form is perfect.?It looks exactly the way it looked before.?But it doesn’t work.?No airplanes land.?So I call these things Cargo Cult Science, because they follow all the apparent precepts and forms of scientific investigation, but they’re missing something essential, because the planes don’t land.

So, the form is perfect, and all the outer appearances are there, however, something is missing... Scientific integrity, as Feynman calls it.

Read the full text here , it is so good, I understand, I will wait.

Now to "Cargo Cult" Agile...

The cargo cultists had observed the superficial elements of the Western forces' practices without understanding the underlying principles that made those practices effective. Similarly, in the world of Agile implementation, teams can adopt the superficial elements of Agile without really understanding the underlying principles that make it effective.

It is all there: Mission statements, OKR's, Obeya and kanban boards, agile processes such as daily stand-ups and retrospectives and people in roles such as Scrum Master, Product Owner and agile coach. However... The planes don't land...

Organisations, leaders and teams that do not fully embrace the underlying principles of open and honest collaboration, customer focus and iterative development will not reap the benefits.

Start being more open, honest and find ways to collaborate better. Really find out what your customers want and go after it and find joy in delivering small improvements more often and celebrate all the learnings along the way, together.

You will find your way, and yes, all the Agile trimmings might just help you get there safely as they bring in the planes to land.