The Boy & The Hazelnuts
Illustrates Focus, WIP Limits, Sustainable Effort
Agile teams often struggle with taking on too much at once. Whether it's Sprint commitments, competing priorities, or the pressure to prove value quickly, we find ourselves grasping at every opportunity, thinking more effort will mean more results. However, spreading our energy too thin can have the opposite effect.
The parable of The Boy and the Hazelnuts reminds us that sometimes, the best way to move forward is to let go.
A boy was once offered a jar full of hazelnuts. Delighted, he reached his hand in and grabbed a great fistful. But when he tried to pull his hand out, it was stuck. He had taken too many.
He tugged and twisted, but the opening was too small for his closed fist.
Frustrated, he cried out. A wise passerby saw the boy's struggle and gently said, “Take only half as many, and you will be able to get your hand out easily.”
The boy opened his fist, let some of the nuts fall, and then pulled his hand out with ease.
Lessons Learned
Too Much Work Limits Flow
The boy's hand was stuck not because the jar was too small, but because he was holding on to too much. Agile teams often do the same. We fill Sprints with too many backlog items, or we try to tackle all priorities at once. But when our capacity is overloaded, flow grinds to a halt.
WIP Limits Aren't Restrictions, They're Enablers
The boy needed to limit how many nuts he grabbed to make progress. Work-in-progress limits serve the same purpose. They help us finish what we start and reduce bottlenecks. Fewer items in progress lead to faster completion and better quality.
Letting Go Creates Freedom
By loosening his grip, the boy gained what he truly wanted. Agile teams must learn the discipline of focus, saying no to certain tasks in order to say yes to delivering value. Trying to do everything often results in delivering nothing well.
Value Is Not in the Quantity
The boy's desire for more nuts led to none at all. We sometimes assume that doing more will result in more value. But value comes not from quantity, but from completion and impact. Teams that focus on fewer, more meaningful goals deliver better outcomes.
Urgency Can Cloud Judgment
The boy's impatience led him to grasp blindly. Teams under pressure often react similarly, pulling in extra work without a clear plan. A calm, focused approach prevents rework and enables steady progress.
Coaching Tips
- Use This Parable During Sprint Planning: If your team regularly overcommits, introduce this parable. Ask, “Are we grabbing too many hazelnuts?”
- Introduce WIP Limits Gently: Don't enforce hard rules immediately. Frame WIP limits as experiments. Show how they improve predictability and reduce stress.
- Coach Through Prioritization: When stakeholders demand everything now, share this tale to emphasize trade-offs. Help them see that focus enables delivery.
- Visualize Overload: In Retrospectives, invite the team to draw what their “jar” looks like. Are their hands stuck? What could they let go of?
Too much ambition, unmanaged, can leave teams stuck. Just like the boy with the hazelnuts, we need to recognize that letting go of some things is not failure. It's wisdom.
Focus is not about doing less. It's about creating the space to finish what matters.
