#179: Leadership Decisions That Quietly Derail Agile with Mike Cohn
About this episode
Mike Cohn discusses how leadership decisions can derail agile efforts and what leaders can do to improve outcomes.
Many agile struggles don’t start with the team. They start with leadership decisions that seem reasonable but create friction, confusion, or misalignment over time. In this episode, Mike Cohn outlines the patterns that most often hold organizations back and what leaders can do differently. Overview In this episode, Brian Milner and Mike Cohn examine the leadership decisions that most often derail agile efforts. Rather than focusing on team-level practices, the conversation centers on how leadership behavior shapes outcomes across the organization. Mike highlights several recurring issues: treating agile as a process change instead of a mindset shift, scaling before understanding what works, limiting product owner authority, and prioritizing speed over focus. He also addresses how well-intentioned leadership actions can unintentionally slow teams down or create dependency. The discussion emphasizes that agile is not something leaders delegate. It requires changes in how leaders make decisions, set boundaries, and engage with teams. When those changes do not happen, teams may follow the motions of agile without seeing meaningful improvement. If your organization is “doing agile”…
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- #175: When AI Makes Agile Teams Worse with Hunter Hillegas
- #174: Why Estimating Still Matters with Mike Cohn
- #173: Hiring for Agile Roles That Actually Work with Cort Sharp
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