Post-Agile: What Organizations Actually Need Now - Michael Mahlberg

What happens to the teams and organizations left behind after an agile transformation that didn't deliver what it promised? With Michael Mahlberg I talk about why the word "agile" has lost its meaning, how big consultancies pushed companies deeper into rigid structures under an agile label, and what it actually takes to help an organization find its footing again. We get into the question of what genuinely worked from the last 25 years, from fast iterations and real customer feedback to decision-making practices borrowed from outside the agile world entirely. What stays with me is Michael's point that arguing for change rarely works, but pulling people into the experience of what isn't working just might.

"There actually is no agile manifesto." - Michael Mahlberg

Michael Mahlberg has been supporting clients in organizational development with lean approaches, light weight processes, systemic organizational development, and Kanban, since the 1990s. He was co-founder of the Cologne-based "Limited WIP Society" and speaks regularly at conferences. His focus is on the helpful use of these methods at personal team, and organizational level, accompanied by his mantra: Accept Reality.

https://mastodon.online/@MMahlberg

Highlights:

• The Agile Manifesto is a manifesto for agile software development only, not for agile management or organizational leadership, yet companies applied it as if it covered all of those.
• Applying a fixed framework like SAFe pushes differentiation-phase companies deeper into rigid role structures rather than helping them adapt, because it copies organizational blueprints instead of developing fitting solutions.
• Fast iterations and genuine customer feedback are practices from the agile era that still hold value, but most organizations claiming to run agile no longer collect real feedback because they delay rollout.
• Arguing with management about dysfunction triggers automatic defensiveness, and the more a position is defended, the more the defender believes it, making direct argument counterproductive.

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• Michaels Info

📌 Testing is a people business, humanity as a superpower. That is my talk on October 7 at HUSTEF 2026 in Budapest: See programme and tickets