“If you focus on people being busy, you get people being busy.”
You’ve probably heard that one in some Agile training or coaching session. It sounds profound. But it’s often used in ways that are… well, wrong.
This kind of slogan gets thrown around as if it’s gospel. It’s Agile Coaching Dogma: stemming from half-understood principles and applying Goodhart’s Law in isolation.
Let’s be clear: it’s nonsense. And it misdirects.
The Castle Under Siege
Imagine a medieval castle under siege.
Enemy troops on horseback are approaching fast.
The guards are scrambling to prepare.
The defenders need bows: Everyone will be dead if the siege succeeds.
But there’s only one fletcher.
He’s already buried in work, literally stringing bows as if his life depends on it. There’s a line of guards waiting, each of them waiting for a bow. He’s clearly under pressure.
Meanwhile, his apprentice is chasing that irritating mouse which gnawed at the bread overnight.
Just at that moment, a bard arrives with a clearly urgent request:: “ My mandolin broke, and I really need you to take a look. It’s for the royal banquet tonight. The king will be very upset if there is no music!”
So what’s the real problem?
The issue here isn’t just who’s busy — it’s how busy they are - and what they’re busy with.
What we're talking about here isn’t micromanaging everyone’s calendar. It’s understanding the Critical Path and applying the Theory of Constraints.
1. You have a bottleneck on your Critical Path to success.
The fletcher is the bottleneck. No bows = no defense. No defense = everyone's dead. Preventing that situation is the mission. Everything else is a means to this end.
2. The performance of the bottleneck defines the outcome.
In any system, the bottleneck limits total performance. Here, it's the speed at which the fletcher produces bows which defines whether the castle stands or falls.
3. When the bottleneck is overburdened, stop everything that doesn’t contribute to the Critical Path.
Seriously - cancel that mandolin repair request. Forget that status report. And that retrospective can wait until the archers are equipped.
4. Everyone else's job is to support the bottleneck.
Even if they're inefficient. Two guards stringing bows badly still gives you more bows than one fletcher collapsed from being overworked.
"But they're not specialists, it's not their job description, they aren't trained ..." - you underestimate human ingenuity. They will learn. They will grow. And even if they can't do all of it, there's most certainly some steps where they can relieve your bottleneck.
5. If others are blocked, and it’s not on the Critical Path?
That’s not the bottleneck’s problem. Trying to make it the fletcher’s problem only increases the risk of failure.
Everyone has their own "highest priority. And that's exactly the problem: not knowing the Critical Path, not understanding the price your request towards the bottleneck has in the Big Picture - that's how you destroy performance and slow everything down!
Does it resonate?
In a cartoon, the issue is obvious. You see the problem.
But in real organizations?
- Workloads are hidden.
- Everything seems critical.
- Risks are opaque.
- Goals are unclear.
- And attention is given by status and urgency, not by impact.
So what happens?
- Managers ask the fletcher to put down the bows and provide a status update.
- Consultants draw the fletcher into working sesstions to map the fletching process.
- Agile Coaches pull the fletcher into a retrospective and point out that skipping the Dailies means he's not embracing Agile.
Meanwhile, the castle is about to be overrun.
The brutal truth
The fletcher doesn’t need your coaching right now. The fletcher doesn’t need an alignment workshop. The fletcher needs help!
If you’re not helping, get out of the way. And then figure out how you can help.
This is Theory of Constraints
- Identify the bottleneck.
- Utilize the bottleneck.
- Protect the bottleneck.
- Support the bottleneck.
Not everyone in your company is the fletcher. But someone is. Do you know who?
And if you’re not helping them?
You just might be the bard.