Organizational Behavior & Culture
Culture shapes how Agile practices land. These parables reflect the underlying patterns, myths, and norms that influence team behavior within organizations.
| Concept | Agile Relevance | Usage in Agile |
|---|---|---|
| The Pot Roast Story | Inherited practices. | Surface legacy behaviors during transformation. |
| The 84th Problem | Acceptance, systems thinking, and coaching boundaries. | Encourage teams to focus on meaningful change instead of chasing perfection or fixing every issue. |
| The Rooster Prince | Identity, empathy, and change from within. | Use to explore servant leadership, psychological safety, and how transformation begins through understanding and trust. |
| The Five Monkeys Experiment | Culture of fear, mindless conformity. | Use in workshops to discuss anti-patterns and challenge status quo. |
| The Apes & The Two Travelers | Psychological safety, reward systems, and cultural distortion. | Reveal how organizations may reward flattery over truth and create environments hostile to transparency. |
| The Tragedy of The Commons | Overuse of shared resources. | Frame discussions around team ownership and collective responsibility. |
| The Goose That Laid The Golden Eggs | Over-optimization and short-termism. | Advocate for sustainable pace and avoiding burnout. |
| The Cobra Effect | Perverse incentives. | Evaluate metrics and KPI design critically. |
| The Shepherd & The Wolf | Trust and false alarms. | Discuss reliability and credibility within teams. |
| The Emperor's New Clothes | Groupthink and fear of dissent. | Foster psychological safety for dissent and critique. |
| The Starfish & The Spider | Centralized vs. decentralized systems. | Align organizational structure with Agile values. |
| Jupiter, Neptune, Minerva, and Momus | Critique vs. contribution; unproductive feedback culture. | Highlight the difference between constructive feedback and cynicism in Retrospectives and leadership reviews. |
| The North Wind & The Sun | Influence vs. force in change leadership. | Promote psychological safety and guide change through empathy and environment. |
