Pyramid of Success

There is something akin to Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs as it applies to success, and the foundation is something like “I still have a job”, with the next step up being “On track for raise/promotion” and it’s a few more steps up the pyramid before we get to “customer success”.

The thing is, Agile and its adherents can help a team through those subsequent steps, but the first two layers of the pyramid come from their leadership structure, usually in the form of their immediate management. If that leadership cannot create enough safety to get past the foundation, we are never going to get to the peak.