Framework proponents - you don't get a pass by blaming your adopters' failings on them

 

One of the foundations of Lean is that it is based on systems thinking which tells our system causes most of our failures. When recurring failures occur, system thinkers don't look to blame those in the system, but rather look to the system itself. This is why in the 21 yrs of my adjusting my org improvement methods, I look for patterns of challenge.

Unfortunately, I see many proponents of several Agile approaches blame the people attempting to adopt them - saying things like "they didn't follow our methods" or "of course people blame the framework" or "frameworks don't tell you what to do."

Besides the lack of responsibility being taken here, it demonstrates a lack of systems thinking. What needs to be asked is "why do these patterns of challenges exist? What about my approach encourages this?" Poorly designed frameworks are the bane of Agile now. They are promoted as providing solutions without taking responsibility for how they are misused.

No approach is fool proof. All require people to truly want to improve. But many failures are due to the way an approach is designed. With little responsibility being taken by the designers, little improvement is made.