Agile may be in crisis. For Business Leaders, Agility is as relevant and needed as ever.

It was never going to be an easy ride and I remain optimistic about the future ahead.

Here are:

• 4 challenges we are facing

• 3 reasons why I am optimistic

• 1 dramatic success outcome

Challenge 1: The Agile Manifesto forgot to address the Why.

Read the manifesto carefully and it only covers the What and How.

Why Agile was needed was understood by those of us working in IT in the 90s.

Over 20 years later, many people have never experienced how bad IT was.

Challenge 2: We have cyclical events affecting us.

The economy and the job market are in a negative phase and contracting.

This is not new. I'm in my 40s and it is the third crisis of my career.

It's natural people get anxious amid a stream of bad news.

It will get better.

Challenge 3: Permanent change in working habits.

I believe the pandemic enabled new and permanent "consumer habits".

Remote work is here to stay. How we work, learn, collaborate and communicate has evolved.

Many companies & people are still trying to return to 2019.

We can't.

Challenge 4: We have inflicted Agile Misery on people

Too much enforced Agile happening in many companies.

Whenever an Agile Coach (or whatever job title they choose) enforces Agile on teams, it undermines people's agency, autonomy and decision-making.

It is not sustainable.

There are more challenges associated with:

• How we run Agile Transformations

• How Agile is creating pseudo-Agile silos

• How Agile can be brittle and dependent on a single sponsor

• and more...

But I remain very optimistic about the future of Agility in business.

Why?

• Companies need to exhibit Agility to remain competitive.

• Agility is a multi-generational journey. We have barely started.

• We are gardeners of ideas with more and more people showing Agility

And the Dramatic Outcome of successful Agility? It's silence!

Agility is a personal and business attribute. Something we are, not do.

As people and companies reach Agility, they do not need to talk about Agility any more.

It's like the fish cartoon where one fish asks the other: "How's the water?"

And the other fish responds: "What's water?"