Did we make Agile Adoption and Transformation more difficult than it was?

When you look back the Agile and Coaching which are two different paradigms and shifting the paradigms with the Adoption and Transformation for better ways-of-working is pointing towards a better retrospective on what we think we have done compared to what we have actually done.

The Agile adoption and transformation seems to have suffered in the past 1-2 years and steady decline of the need for adoption of agile ways-of-working at least to start with by using a framework or some existing practices that worked, and transforming from that point onwards with internally reflecting on what worked and what did not.

In the past 1-2 years, the coaching efforts are not seen as needed efforts in the organization context, and this can be practically seen, when the Coaching efforts are transferred to Delivery Context, than Transformation Context, because of the misunderstanding of adoption and transformation, and Agile and Coaching.

But the actual scenario in organizations shows a different story, there are organizations started with the first step of adoption and but not actually transforming or we call it as continuous improvement journey. The trigger part of adopting an agile practice as-is from an inspiring framework like Scrum, Kanban and Agile at Scale frameworks seems to have been distracted with training, coaching, mentoring, consulting and more and more certifications internally and externally by experts, rather actual adoption as a trigger for transformation. While this is not a blame-game or in that direction, like any other organization topic, the agile related commercial perspective happened as the industry saw the potential of agile for consulting for change.

Either the organization has finally cut the budget for the transformation and closed these roles or minimized the agile adoption to an extent that heavy processes and tools still exists (which was supposed to be transformed) in the organization flow of value and delivery.

The key points that I would like to reflect are:

1. Agile Manifesto or Agile values and principles are with an intention of finding better ways-of-working for an organization than how perfect we adopt Scrum or Kanban or any other Agile at Scale Framework, and certifications.
2. Agile Manifesto and the agile mindset is a trigger for an adoption, reflection and starting the transformation and not a debate on Agile Manifesto has to be changed or how it should be for the modern day, the adopting organizations aim is to adapt to change and create agility.
3. The Agile mindset is meant to create awareness for the organization and its members to understand the current state and what could be improved and incrementally applying that as a continuous improvement practice.
4. The Training, Coaching, Mentoring, Certifications are generally applicable to any discipline and applies to Agile Transformation that we get clarity and focus on transformation, but Agile adoption comes first to see what we know and what we don't know.
5. Most importantly, the Agile mindset is valuable when adopting the practice at the organization level than at team level and starting the transformation. It is ok to transform the entire organization than slicing as business lines, because the more we divide the organization for agile adoption, the variation and budget discussions come as a impediment. Because, Agile adoption does not rely or triggered by budget but by need to change.

Please do let me your valuable comments, suggestions and feedback.