The words our parents used in their childhood are not cool for us. And ‘cool’ isn’t ‘dope’ for our children. And ‘dope’ won’t last either. Language evolves and hence we always need stronger versions to impress others.
The same applies to buzzwords in a business environment: ‘Agile’, ‘Self-organisation’, ‘Co-creation‘, ‘Sustainability’, ‘Engagement’, ‘Empowerment’, ‘Customer Centricity’, ‘Lean’, …
The natural evolution of buzzwords does not really serve business. It merely creates confusion & scepticism: the principles of ‘Agile’ do not become bullsh*t because several organisations have used it only as a marketing term (without really doing it) and others have sold bullsh*t wrapped as ‘Agile’.
If I tell you: “I will coach your organisation to embrace agile”, you might think:
- Yet another person doing some sales using buzz words. Would they offer real value to us?
- Yet another person who does not understand that 2-week sprints do not work in our context. The promise of Agile seemed great. Sad to say, I have lost faith because of all the bullsh*t I was told by other consultants and coaches.
And you are absolutely right. Unfortunately, that does not help you, does it? As a result, many leaders have returned to the good old ‘common sense’. Unfortunately, ‘common sense’ is not so common, and it does not work well in complex, non-linear systems. So you are stuck.
Applied correctly, ‘Agile’ does offer value (ok, I understand you don’t believe me yet).
And that is why I will write blog posts about these buzzwords: to explain how Ithaki uses these concepts.
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