Author: Jurgen Appelo

"Agile actually means ..."

"Lean originally means ..."

Yeah, whatever. That's not relevant when judging what people do with it now.

Management By Objectives (MBO) was not intended to be about bonuses for financial targets. Peter Drucker would turn in his grave if he knew what MBO has become over time. And yet, nearly everyone these days sees MBO as managers setting targets for other people and incentivizing them accordingly. This has become the new purpose of MBO.

Agile never intended to revolve around agile frameworks, coaches, conferences, and certifications. And yet, here we are. The agile industrial complex is what we all ended up with. That is what Agile is now.

Likewise, Lean thinking was not intended to be about just delivering things faster to customers. And yet, I can wallpaper my house with all the quotes from consultants who say that better flow equals more/earlier value and unthinkingly praise faster and more frequent customer deliveries. That is what Lean seems to be now.

I'm a big fan of the POSIWID principle in systems thinking:

The Purpose of a System Is What It Does

When a company claims it supports sustainability and a transition to renewable energy sources but at the same time keeps getting subsidies for fossil fuels, then we can rightfully say the organization's purpose is a "greenwashed" energy policy.

When a religion or political movement preaches "love and peace," but we see the actual behaviors of its people show violence and suppression, then the purpose of the system is violence and domination, not love and peace.

When a community claims its ideology intends to do A, but everyone can see that the actual behaviors of community members are B, then the system's purpose is B, not A.

Historical intentions are interesting but not relevant.

It can be interesting to discuss what the etymology of a word is. For example, the word "gay" originally meant light-hearted and carefree. But that is irrelevant to understanding what people mean when they use this word in 2023. Similarly, for the current purpose of an ideology, religion, or political system, the intentions of their founders or thought leaders are irrelevant. The only thing that matters is the actual behaviors of people who use those words now.

The Purpose of a System Is What It Does, or

The Subversion of an Idea Is the New Version of the Idea

Intentions and interpretations change, and the world moves on.