An agile culture isn't created in the boardroom or written on posters. After nearly a decade in senior leadership, I’ve learned it's shaped, every single day, by small, visible acts. Every message sent, every silence held, every behaviour tolerated or celebrated.
Though I’ve only been formally involved in the agile world for the past 18 months, I've come to see that an agile culture is exactly what I've been striving to create. A system that values openness, curiosity, and shared ownership.
Learning more about agile has helped me better articulate what I instinctively believe and evolve my leadership more intentionally. At the Agile Business Consortium, culture sits at the foundation of our Framework for Business Agility. It is the non-negotiable bedrock, because without it, agility simply doesn’t take root.
What is Agile Culture?
In the most basic sense, agile culture is a way of working that reflects an organisation’s personality; including its beliefs and values. An agile culture provides an organisation with a set of core values. For us at the Agile Business Consortium, it is one where trust, transparency, learning and shared ownership enable teams to adapt continuously rather than follow rigid plans.
In a recent podcast, researcher and storyteller Brené Brown discussed how systems are made up of relationships and connections, and how what happens in one part will inevitably affect the whole. That really resonated with me. Culture is exactly that: a living system. Every individual action, every relationship, and every piece of communication has a ripple effect. Agile thinking mirrors this by viewing the organisation as a connected ecosystem.
When we think of culture this way, it shifts from something that is ‘set’ by leaders to something that is co-created every day. Every person (not just those in senior roles) contributes to whether a culture is open, agile, and resilient, or rigid and closed.
How to Create a Culture of Agility
For me, leading with agility starts with behaviour. It’s being honest when things aren’t going to plan and showing that rethinking, testing, and adapting are part of progress. I’ve learned that transparency builds far more trust than trying to present a perfect picture.
Leading this way also means setting the tone; calling out behaviour that undermines trust and recognising actions that strengthen it. The small moments where we choose to be direct but kind, open but grounded, have the biggest cultural impact.
Protecting Against Toxic Workplace Culture
A friend recently discovered Japanese Knotweed in her garden. This aggressive, silent threat is a perfect analogy for toxic pockets of behaviour in a workplace. Tolerating it, ignoring it, or hoping it will go away on its own is a costly mistake. Ultimately and inevitably, it permeates and spreads under the surface until it damages everything around it.
Like that pesky vegetation, toxic pockets of culture can quietly take root if ignored, and once established, they can be difficult and costly to remove. When cut back, fragments can remain in the soil, and even tiny pieces can regrow.
I’ve seen this firsthand, with the echoes of an unhealthy culture casting a shadow of pessimism and hesitance to trust across an organisation, long after the initial issue has been 'dealt with.' A healthy culture needs early and honest intervention to protect the environment we all share.
Why Agile Mindset and Culture Drive Performance
We all know a strong and positive culture has positive effects on business outcomes.
Studies have shown that culture is one of the strongest predictors of organisational performance and innovation. A study by Iskamto (2023) found that organisational culture explained over a quarter of the variation in employee performance, showing how day-to-day behaviours truly shape outcomes. Astuti et al (2023). also demonstrate that culture combined with agile leadership supports organisational agility through innovation, proving that openness, reflection, and feedback are not just ideals but practical drivers of adaptability. It’s not a soft ‘extra’; it’s a critical enabler of success and a reliable indicator of an organisation’s health.
This perspective is echoed in a February 2024 article from McKinsey, where their emphasis on tracking organisational health perfectly mirrors core agile practices like retrospectives and continuous improvement. Both depend on openness and trust, and those conditions can’t exist in environments where toxic behaviour goes unchallenged.
My team often hears me mention Kim Scott’s idea of Radical Candour. This is a feedback approach that balances two things – caring personally and challenging directly.
I recognise this principle is at the heart of an agile culture. Feedback isn’t a performance ritual; it’s a learning loop. It can sometimes be uncomfortable, but it creates clarity, accountability, and respect. I try to model that by inviting feedback on my own leadership and encouraging others to be honest with each other.
There are times when, with hindsight and the benefit of invited feedback, I’ve realised I could have handled something differently. Perhaps by speaking sooner, or by having a conversation rather than relying on written communication, which felt more professional and controlled at the time. Agility depends on human connection rather than control. Admitting when something hasn’t worked as intended shows others it’s okay to learn in public. We proactively strengthen an agile culture through openness, reflection, and learning.
Creating that type of openness takes time and consistent reinforcement. Psychological safety doesn’t just happen because we say we value it. It builds slowly, as people see that honesty isn’t punished and learning is valued over perfection.
Agile and Collaborative Cultures Are Built on Trust and Transparency
At their core, agile and collaborative cultures rely on trust. Without it, feedback becomes performative, learning stalls, and agility turns into process rather than progress. Trust is what enables people to speak up early, challenge ideas constructively, and admit when something hasn’t worked.
This is where psychological safety becomes real. It isn’t created by statements or values on a wall or simply saying “this is a safe space”, but by what happens when someone raises a concern or questions a decision. When openness is met with curiosity rather than defensiveness, trust grows.
The challenge of course, is translating these principles into everyday behaviour, which is where small, consistent actions make all the difference.
Everyday Practices That Sustain an Agile Culture
In an agile work culture, consistency of behaviour matters more than grand gestures. To cultivate a truly agile environment, I focus on these simple Do's and Don'ts:
- Make it safe for people to share ideas and feedback.
- Recognise and reward behaviour that aligns with your values.
- Use regular retrospectives and informal feedback loops to reflect and adapt together.
- Create space for experimentation.
- Be transparent when something isn’t working and show what you’ve learned.
- Have the confidence to be vulnerable and human. No one has all the answers.
- Treat connection and communication as the work, not distractions from it.
- Tolerate behaviours that erode trust. Address them early, respectfully, and directly.
- Confuse agility with speed; it’s about learning and adaptability, not haste.
- Avoid open and honest communication when it’s needed. Leaning into the discomfort can pay dividends.
- Avoid reflection or inviting feedback on your own leadership style - the mirror is where improvement starts.
Cultivating an Agile Culture Together
Looking back, I realise I’ve been trying to create an agile culture long before I joined the agile industry. I just didn’t have the language for it. What’s exciting now is being able to recognise those instincts and build on them with intention through the values of a strong agile culture.
Culture isn’t something we set once; it’s something we cultivate and sustain together. The most powerful shifts always come from the smallest acts, the simple, human choices we make every day to show up and treat one another with respect.
If you would like to find more about assessing or strengthening your culture, check out our Agile Culture Toolkit and other resources.