This has been our pace for years; it’s already sustainable!
On occasion, during early discussions with leaders that I’ve started to work with as part of agile coaching, when the subject of sustainability for how their team(s) are operating is raised, the reaction is one of ‘we have been operating this way for years; it’s already proven to be sustainable’. When I’ve had those conversations, I recognize that the foundations of the discussion are perception and the context of where things are at the time. Thinking about ‘sustainable’ from one perspective, a Scaled Agile goal from adopting a lean-agile mindset is to deliver the maximum customer value in the shortest sustainable lead time1. Thinking about it from an Agile journey perspective, what ‘sustainable’ means may vary for one person or another (e.g., for leadership or for an Agile Team member), particularly when seen through the prism of different points during an Agile transformation.
