Stelian ROMANProject Manager| MicroSafetyCarlingford, New South Wales, Australia
Agile is now truly global. Distributed teams bring together diverse perspectives, creative problem-solving, and a richer tapestry of experience. But with this diversity comes the challenge—and opportunity—of navigating cultural differences in communication, authority, and participation.
How is your team adapting Agile to fit your unique culture?
Program Manager| HARPER SRLSanto Domingo / Distrito Nacional, Dominican Republic
Stelian ROMAN as we know, Agile practices don’t land the same way in every team or culture, even when the framework is technically the same.
Some teams are naturally more collaborative and vocal, while others are more reserved or hierarchical, so we’ve had to adapt how discussions, feedback, and decision-making happen during ceremonies.
My team has also been incorporating components of the framework little by little. We started with some practices from the beginning and then kept adjusting along the way until we found what suited the team better, instead of trying to force everything at once.
In distributed environments, especially, creating enough space for people to participate comfortably becomes just as important as following the Agile process itself. Saving Changes...
Adapting Agile to culture means we should not force the framework exactly as written and then wonder why people are not participating.
In construction and project delivery environments, teams can be very diverse — different companies, different disciplines, different seniority levels, and sometimes different national or working cultures. Some people are comfortable speaking openly in meetings, while others prefer to raise concerns offline or through a smaller group first.
So the key is to protect the Agile principles while adjusting how we create transparency and feedback. For example, not every team will get the best result from open discussion in a large meeting. Pre-read notes, one-to-one check-ins, shorter working sessions, or clearer decision logs can improve participation.
To me, adapting Agile to culture is not about reducing discipline. It is about making work processes realistic enough that people can actually collaborate, assess risks, and make decisions. Saving Changes...
Product Operations Program ManagerBarcelona, Cataluña, Spain
Any framework presents its challenges and agile is not different. It is essential that everyone has the same understanding of what agile is and what is not and to ensure that cultural and geographical nuances are embedded in the proposed ways of working and processes. Saving Changes...
Luis BrancoCEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, LdªCarcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
Excellent reflection.
One of the most important challenges in distributed Agile environments is recognizing that teams do not only differ by location or language – they also differ by cultural expectations around communication, authority, collaboration, disagreement, and participation.
Many organizations attempt to scale Agile globally by standardizing ceremonies, tools, and workflows while unintentionally assuming that people across cultures will engage in the same way. In practice, they often do not.
Cultural context influences:
• How openly people challenge ideas, • How risks and blockers are surfaced, • How decisions are escalated, • How disagreement is expressed, • How psychological safety is experienced within the team.
That is why inclusive Agile is not simply about applying the same framework everywhere. It is about creating conditions where diverse teams can contribute meaningfully without losing trust, transparency, responsiveness, or delivery coherence.
For distributed teams, an important question is not only: “Are Agile practices being followed consistently?”
But also: “Do people across different cultural contexts genuinely feel able to contribute, question assumptions, raise concerns, and influence decisions safely and constructively?”
In many global organizations, the real challenge is not framework adoption. It is sustaining shared understanding, mutual respect, and coherent collaboration across different human realities.
Because distributed Agile does not succeed when everyone behaves the same way. It succeeds when different perspectives can collaborate effectively within a shared system of trust, learning, ownership, and adaptive coordination. Saving Changes...
Stelian ROMANProject Manager| MicroSafetyCarlingford, New South Wales, Australia
Lissette Indhira Pimentel Sosa thank you for your comment. Agile is defined as an empirical approach; teams need to adapt frameworks to their needs and the cultural, organisational, and even national context. A big mistake that I see, mostly initiated by trainers and coaches ho never managed a team or a product, is Agile by the book. I believe that the only 'Must' in Agile is that you MUST adapt. If someone forces or advises you to do what others do because someone created a framework 30 years ago, that's the first step towards an Agile implementation failure. Saving Changes...
Stelian ROMANProject Manager| MicroSafetyCarlingford, New South Wales, Australia
Aung Sint thank you for your feedback. Construction may look like a different industry than the one where the Manifesto for Agile Software Development was conceived, although the morning stand-up led by a foreman is very similar to what an Agile trainer will call a Scrum daily meeting. Making (cultural) mistakes is part of learning. Australian IT Teams are very multicultural, and they learn how to overcome cultural challenges as part of self-organising. From an ethical point of view, respect and fairness are a good foundation. Most problems start with the 'coach' assigning tasks or enforcing 'equality'. Seniority given by professional skills or experience is a fact that may not fit into the Scrum training material but it is a fact that leads to success. Ignoring it leads to failure. Saving Changes...
Stelian ROMANProject Manager| MicroSafetyCarlingford, New South Wales, Australia
Eduard Hernandez thank you for the feedback. A framework, like an ISO standard, is not law. It is a recommendation that the team should take into consideration. Understanding what Agile is is not that easy, especially when people expect to learn in a 3-day course. Promising that is unethical. Saving Changes...
Stelian ROMANProject Manager| MicroSafetyCarlingford, New South Wales, Australia
Luis Branco, thank you for the feedback. I advise coaches and trainers to follow 2 simple ethical principles, principles that are fundamental for project managers: 1) "First do no harm". Replacing 'old' roles with new labels and forcing people out if they resist 'change' is unethical and a loss for the organisation. Replacing a good PM with 10 years of management experience with a SM with 1 year of software development experience is a loss-loss. The organisation loses a good PM and a good developer. 2) baseline the outcome before Agile and make sure that Agile delivers better outcomes and financial benefits cover (at least) their cost. Saving Changes...
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