The following is an AI summary of the video.
Tackling the “Wicked Problems” of Agility
At the close of the Agile2025 conference, approximately 100 Agile practitioners gathered in Denver for a special event hosted by PMI Agile Alliance. Their mission: to tackle some of the most complex, “wicked problems” facing the Agile community today. Facilitated by Kate Megaw and hosted by board members David Luke and Margareth Carneiro, the attendees broke into groups, each selecting a challenge to work on for the day. The goal was not to find a final solution, but to develop a concrete approach for making progress. The readouts from these groups offered a compelling snapshot of the future of agility.
From Leadership Culture to Scaling Value
A central theme was the disconnect between Agile teams and enterprise leadership. One group focused on creating a shared vision and language to bridge the gap between executives, middle management, and developers. They emphasized that executive requests are usually reasonable, but the translation often fails. The solution lies in building credibility and becoming better partners with leadership, helping them understand the “bowl of fruit” (Agile outcomes) when they’re used to asking for a “red pen” (traditional metrics).
Another group reframed the problem of “scaling Agile” entirely. They argued the focus should not be on scaling practices, but on scaling value and impact. This shift moves the conversation away from rigid frameworks and toward customer-centricity and outcome-driven work, urging organizations to amplify what works rather than just rolling out a uniform process.
The Hybrid Reality: Agile Meets Traditional PM
One of the most practical discussions acknowledged that few organizations are purely Agile. Most operate in a hybrid world where Agile and traditional project management coexist. Instead of trying to boil the ocean, this group focused on tangible, immediate experiments. Their plan is to bring project managers and Scrum Masters together for workshops on “non-negotiables,” pilot unified readout templates for leadership, and rework traditional milestones into Agile outcomes. Their core takeaway was to accept the hybrid reality and find practical ways to communicate and collaborate within it.
Fostering a Culture of Innovation and Learning
How do you foster innovation and continuous learning? A key insight from this group was that true learning comes from a culture that embraces failure. This requires top-down support from leadership to create a safe space for experimentation. The group challenged the notion that innovation should be confined to a specific iteration or event, arguing it must become an embedded part of the culture. They also highlighted the critical role of connecting work to a larger purpose, noting that teams are more motivated to innovate and learn when they understand the real-world impact of what they are building.
Reimagining Education Through Agile
In a unique addition, one group created their own wicked problem: Agile and Education. They identified a systemic issue where traditional, rigid teaching methods fail to prepare students for the complexities of the modern world. Their bold vision is to empower educators at all levels—from kindergarten to universities—with Agile, project-based learning methods. By focusing on training the teachers, they aim to cultivate a generation of adaptive, curious, and collaborative learners who are prepared not just to live, but to thrive in complexity.
Final Takeaways
The day’s sessions produced a set of powerful, actionable ideas for the future of the agile movement:
Agile principles have the power to transform adjacent domains, like education, by empowering educators to cultivate more adaptive and resilient learners.
Agility is about scaling value, not just practices. The focus must shift from frameworks to customer-centric outcomes.
True innovation requires a leadership-driven culture of psychological safety, where teams are empowered to experiment and learn from failure.
The hybrid model is the real world. Bridging traditional and Agile methodologies requires practical, small-scale experiments, not wholesale conversions.
AI and automation are tools to augment human capability, not replace it. Fluency in these tools is becoming essential for Agile practitioners to understand the human-to-machine continuum.
Video by Dave Prior.
