Do Cultural Differences Really Block Agile Adoption? with Jérôme Bourgeon

When agile adoption struggles, cultural differences are often the first explanation that comes up. Different countries. Different mindsets. Different ways of working. But are cultural differences really the problem?

In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I explore this question with Jérôme Bourgeon, an agile coach at Zenika, based in Singapore.

Looking beyond national culture. Jérôme and I share a similar conviction: national culture is rarely the real blocker when agile practices fail to take root. What we see far more often is that trust does not yet exist, beliefs remain unchallenged, and the local company culture works against the change. Building trust can take very different amounts of time depending on context — but that difference is not primarily explained by nationality.

What really influences agile adoption. Company culture matters more than national culture — Jérôme refers to Frédéric Laloux's model from Reinventing Organizations to explain how organizational worldviews shape behavior. Beliefs matter more than practices: what people believe about work, authority, learning, and responsibility has a direct impact on how agile is interpreted and adopted. And trust is a prerequisite, not a byproduct — without it, frameworks remain mechanical and fragile.

Using Appreciative Inquiry to move forward. We explore the power of Appreciative Inquiry as a way to approach change differently. Rather than focusing on what is broken or missing, it helps teams build on what already works, surface what people care about, and create movement without forcing alignment.

Accepting meaningful differences. Not all differences need to be resolved or normalized. Some are deeply important to people and deserve to be respected. Agile adoption becomes more sustainable when teams can accept these differences, make them visible, and design ways of working that acknowledge them.

Instead of asking "What culture are we dealing with?", a more useful question is "What beliefs, relationships, and conditions need attention right now?"