Why Most Companies Fail at Adopting Agility Beyond IT

Most companies trying to “adopt agility” fail because they think it’s an IT problem.

It’s not.

The biggest impediments to agility are organisational, not technical:

• Hierarchical structures that kill autonomy.
• Annual budgeting cycles that resist adaptability.
• Performance reviews that reward individual output over team outcomes.

Scrum Masters must understand organisational transformation. They need to navigate politics, drive change, and push leadership to remove systemic blockers—not just “protect the team” from the dysfunction.

Agility doesn’t start with Daylies and retrospectives. It starts with how an organisation funds, measures, and enables work.

What’s the biggest non-technical barrier to agility you’ve seen?