I feel bad for all the folks in this thread who have to deal with the manager's version of optimizing scrum/agile to the point where everyone hates it.
At my company, we enforce a 'little a agile' culture where we take the spirit of iteration and short-term planning, but we don't do certain ceremonies because we have to. Our standups take 15 minutes, we have a quick banter and then update on what we're working on and any blockers. Our retros/sprint planning are an hour each two weeks. We share responsibilities so that we take turns running retro and tie in themes and silly things to make it more bearable. My team is engaged and gives feedback on the process when it's annoying, which we take and apply as much as we can if the team agrees.
Managers (like me) need to learn that agile isn't for them to get a status report every day on what their reports are doing. It's a set of tools for engineering to be effective. Hire good people and get out of the way. Let engineers tell you how to do their jobs effectively, your job is to clarify company goals and support them to reach those goals.
If you hire good people, it won't matter what framework they use, is my position. Give me a good team and I will deliver a good product agile/scrum/kanban/SAFe/waterfall - doesn't matter - thats all window dressing if you don't have a good team.
The word enforce here is a marker that shows that you failed to do Agile. You do something that is not the Agile as in "Agile Manifesto" and brand it like that.
Because in the original agile concept, that is the team itself that can "self-organize" to what fits them the best. If management impose an organization, like mandatory meetings and co, it is not anymore Agile.
I read it similar to enforcing free speech; that doesn't mean making people talk, it means protecting it from violations. Enforcement of little "a" agile implies preventing more pomp and circumstance and growing into capital "A" Agile.
Seems like you interpreted my use of 'enforce' quite heavily which isn't a good representation of our work culture. "We practice" would have been better phrasing.
If you read the rest of my comment, I mention that we regularly solicit and apply feedback to our process which gives the team the opportunity to "self-organize", as you say.
Truly self organizing team is pure hell. I have worked in that setup and never again. Management in fact have position and responsibility to set up culture and basic rules.
Also, "team" is an abstraction and cant organize nothing. Team members push and organize. "Self organizing team" is just euphemism for "micromanagement by most aggressive jerk" or "the one non passive person don't get recognized" or whatever dysfunction currently runs on unchecked.
At my company, we enforce a 'little a agile' culture where we take the spirit of iteration and short-term planning, but we don't do certain ceremonies because we have to. Our standups take 15 minutes, we have a quick banter and then update on what we're working on and any blockers. Our retros/sprint planning are an hour each two weeks. We share responsibilities so that we take turns running retro and tie in themes and silly things to make it more bearable. My team is engaged and gives feedback on the process when it's annoying, which we take and apply as much as we can if the team agrees.
Managers (like me) need to learn that agile isn't for them to get a status report every day on what their reports are doing. It's a set of tools for engineering to be effective. Hire good people and get out of the way. Let engineers tell you how to do their jobs effectively, your job is to clarify company goals and support them to reach those goals.