Culture impacts all areas of our lives. Some are obvious such as religion, family values. Many, however, fall below the radar but still have lasting effects. In this article we will look how you could create an alignment between your organisational culture and the Agile framework you choose to adopt.

What is Culture?

I don’t think you can go far wrong with William Schneider’s definition of Culture: How we do things around here to succeed.

Schneider describes four distinct cultures summarised below in his model, as illustrated by Michael Sahota in his book ‘An Agile Adoption and Transformation Survival Guide’.

As a teenager, I used to row for a local club. I remember I preferred rowing practice on the river to the gym and dry land exercises. There was something really exciting about being surrounded by fast moving water, first using its flow to get to the end of the planned track and then fighting against it to return to the club. And then doing it all over again.