What did Scrum ever do for Agile?

Developing an growth mindset (refer Carol Dweck) at an individual level is arguably the most important leap that needs to be made to make agile work. In a nutshell, a growth mindset is the belief that we can improve and grow, and that failures are great learning opportunities. The alternate mindset is the fixed mindset, which is the feeling that one cannot change oneself, and challenges are a threat.

So, “Will the adoption of Scrum help our team to develop a growth mindset?”

If Scrum is the only way to get a little agility into your organisation, then use it. Think of Scrum as the thin end of a wedge of organisational change, learning, and a way to initiate conversations that challenge 20th century management thinking.

Ironically, if Scrum succeeds in rapid feedback and learning, teams often discover ways to increase agility that result in eroding away Scrum ceremonies. Once they break the association between Scrum and Agile, they’ll find there’s huge opportunities to improve by looking into Lean, Kanban, XP, customer collaboration, optimising the flow of value, and so on.

So I wouldn’t be too quick to dismiss Scrum’s contribution to Agile. If Scrum is the only palatable way to start the journey towards Agile, use it. Just don’t think of Scrum as the final destination.