I find it baffling when someone tells me that Agile is just theory and does not work in the real world, completely ignoring that Agile started basically as a curated collection of what helped outstanding development teams thrive in IT giants such as IBM.
But it is even worse when basic stuff like psychological safety is seen by ignorant executives as hippie mumbo jumbo out of a Mr. Wonderful mug. Listen up, armchair experts in management positions! And listen carefully:
The core objective of agile is to achieve and sustain that success over time.
Elements like psychological safety, which you belittlely label as fluffy nonsense, are fundamental for organizations to achieve and sustain success. If you don’t believe it, let me tell you the story of the Great Unifier of Japan, Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
Yes. It always comes to Japan with these damn agilists.
The Rise of the Peasant Toyotomi Hideyoshi
Hideyoshi was a humble peasant in the Japanese feudal era who joined Oda Nobunaga’s army at 21. The head of the Oda family was determined to unify the whole country under his command, and Hideyoshi was instrumental in some of their most significant victories. This granted him the favor of Nobunaga and allowed him to rise quickly through the ranks of the most formidable military force of its time.
Nobunaga died before he could realize his vision. It was Hideyoshi who eventually unified Japan by age 48, taking on the highest positions among both the military and nobility at that time. In an extremely traditional society such as Japan, this was unthinkable for a commoner until then, but such was his power, intelligence, and martial prowess.
With time, Hideyoshi became increasingly authoritarian, violent, and ambitious. Furthermore, Hideyoshi felt there were no limits to what he could achieve. With no more Japanese land to conquer, he looked to the West and bestowed his eyes upon China.
The Fall of the Taikō Toyotomi Hideyoshi
To ensure his succession, Hideyoshi became the Taikō, a retired regent, but kept ruling with an iron hand. His frequent outbursts often ended with the death of those who enraged him and became infamous and logically dreaded. He even forced his own heir to commit suicide for fear of an uprising and killed all his family members, including women and children.
People surrounding him were reluctant to advise the Taikō honestly, and most of the cohort only focused on their survival instead. This included his generals who, during the campaigns to invade China, were absolutely terrified to communicate the actual situation on the battlefield.
Despite the initial victories, when China started to support Korea, nobody dared to inform the ruler about the recurrent defeats, and reports from the front were kept positive no matter what. To the point that Hideyoshi believed Japan had triumphantly conquered China while the truth was that they could not even fully take control of Korea.
Without a clear understanding of the situation and fueled by his overreaching ambition, Hideyoshi kept making strategic decisions that were not only unrealistic but also disastrous. Historians estimate that this madness led to the death of between 100.000 and 200.000 Japanese soldiers, basically for nothing.
Despite his many achievements and his immeasurable impact on the history of Japan, Hideyoshi died knowing to be alone, regretting his attempts to invade Korea and leaving a country on the brink of a civil war.
The Legacy of the Great Unifier Toyotomi Hideyoshi
After the Taikō passed and the counsel he appointed failed, Tokugawa Ieyasu became Shōgun, the ruler of Japan, instead of Hideyoshi’s heir. Interestingly enough, and is often regarded as the man who finally was able to keep Japan peacefully unified.
Hideyoshi made the impossible; he came from nothing and achieved everything. And yet he failed towards the end of his life because nobody told him he was failing.
You are no Toyotomi Hideyoshi. And even for him, the time came to realize that when those who speak the ugly truth are punished, you end up surrounded by people who are full of shit. By people who will whisper your ear into your downfall.
Yes, you can be successful by your own means for a while, but time plays against you. Keep acting like psychological safety is a pointless indulgence born out of wishful thinking, and see what happens when the clock keeps ticking, and the corpses start to pile up.