In my career, I’ve been involved in various Agile-related change initiatives, ranging from large-scale company-wide Agile transformations to introducing Scrum for a few teams.
I wasn’t fully aware of it back then, but in hindsight, I’m surprised how many decisions were made based mostly on gut feeling. I’m not talking about small choices like the type of sticky notes.
I mean big decisions like:
✅ Redesigning departments with 100+ teams
✅ Hiring multiple Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches
✅ Sending dozens of employees to a specific training
✅ Remove a coach or Scrum Master from a team
✅ Merge teams because they seemed too small separately
These decisions affect employees personally, are costly, and impact team and organizational effectiveness. So, you would expect a thorough analysis before jumping to conclusions, right?
This happens in some organizations. But I’ve also witnessed ‘professional’ organizations offering ‘professional’ services make big decisions based on the gut feelings of the Agile coach/consultant or Scrum Master.
Gut feelings and intuition might be spot on, but they can be fraught with biases, personal preferences, and wrong heuristics. ❌
What I found most worrying is the trust the organization places in the gut feelings of an *external* coach or consultant.
👉 Assignments start with a home-made ‘maturity assessment’
👉 Teams complete a short survey — assessing their maturity
👉 Interviews with various team members and managers are conducted
👉 The outcome is captured in a nice report with a few recommendations
👉 Recommendations often heavily influenced by the coaches’ gut feelings
👉 The report is presented to management, and a decision is made
👉 Especially if the recommendation already matched the gut feeling of the decision-maker him/herself.
These decisions sometimes impact the entire organization, meaning people may have to switch to an entirely new role or even lose their jobs. It might even be considered unethical.
In hindsight, I would have felt more comfortable if we had used a more data-informed, evidence-based, and scientifically validated approach. This approach ensures Agile Coaches and Scrum Masters make decisions grounded in real-world insights and measurable outcomes rather than assumptions. By applying proven techniques backed by research, coaches can identify what works, continuously improve, and drive team- and organizational effectiveness.
Unsurprisingly, this is precisely the path we’re walking nowadays. By building Columinity, we offer coaches and consultants a product to improve the team- and organizational effectiveness based on evidence-based feedback and scientific insights.
What do you think about this? Any thoughts or experiences you want to share?