Have you ever purchased a diet book or exercise program that promises good things such as getting in shape, losing weight or making your clothes fit better? “Yes, I want all of those things!” you tell yourself and make your purchase.

A few weeks into it you complain to co-workers, to family, to friends “This diet is a waste of time. This exercise program doesn’t do what it said it would do. It doesn’t work!”

Your listeners start asking questions:

“It says here what you’re supposed to eat and what you’re supposed to avoid. Did you follow this exactly?”

“No,” you reply. “I needed a cheat day and we have pizza night every Saturday night.”

Your listeners continue with, “It has exercise recommendations listed here. Did you really do these?”

“Well, no,” you reply. “I got busy and nobody can really exercise that much anyway, right?”

The truth is you didn’t actually follow the diet. You didn’t actually follow the exercise program either. But yet instead of taking responsibility for your own choices or actions, you decide to blame the diet. Blame the exercise program. They are a waste of time. They don’t work.

If you follow me on social media, you guessed what’s coming. I tire of people blaming Scrum for not delivering value any faster than their previous way of working. Does it really make sense to blame a framework when the truth is that the people claiming to use it, don’t follow it at all (other using some of the Scrummy words)?

I ask questions:

“So, you have disbanded your component teams and have created cross-functional delivery teams focused on one Product at a time right?”

People blaming Scrum answer, “Well no. We asked our existing teams to try to make Scrum fit into the way they do work.”

I continue with “Even though you know the goal is to change the way you are doing that work, not to keep the same structure but label it as Scrum now right?”

People blaming Scrum answer, “Yes but it’s our leadership that doesn’t get it, not me.”

I continue “So you’ve talked to your leaders and explained the confusion you are experiencing and they have told you too bad, is that right?”

People blaming Scrum answer, “No! I couldn’t possibly tell my leaders I’m confused by what they are doing or saying. Do you know how much trouble I’d be in? Besides since Scrum doesn’t work, they have now paid for us to go to SAFe training.”

At this point I leave the conversation as I have no desire to beat my head against a brick wall. Just the economics alone of this scenario should give every person in this situation great pause. If the company is wasting their money on training and coaching for something they won’t follow anyway, then turns around and spends even MORE money on another framework that they probably won’t follow either,  how much cash do they really have to burn? And I’m not knocking SAFe. It’s more expensive and I don’t see companies “really” following it either. How much better off would an organization be if it saved its money and did nothing. Spending money to make change and then choosing not to change anyway and blame what they learned tells me the root cause of the problem isn’t any framework. 

So here’s a radical idea. What if in spending all the money on Scrum training and coaching resulted in the company deciding to actually try it. What’s the worst that could happen? Make the minimal changes required by the framework for an agreed period of time. Inspect when that timebox expires. Adapt accordingly.

And hey, if it’s deemed a waste of time or a failure, just go back to the previous way of working. If the organization is meeting its goals and objectives and delighting its customers with the way it does work, why change in the first place? 

New diet and exercise fads come and go. New ways of working come and go. If saying “we tried Scrum it doesn’t work” or “we tried Agile it’s a waste of time” resonates with you, take stock of whether you did try them or if you’re still looking for that next great way of working. Please post or comment what that next great work fad will be.