Project methodologies promise smooth sailing and predictable outcomes when you stick to the by-laws, but when you’re so caught up in sticking to the rules, you can forget the most important part of any project, the people.
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When we put all our energy into processes, rituals, and keeping to the letter of the framework, we risk turning teams into a set of tick-boxers.
The Obsession
There’s comfort in frameworks. They make you feel in control when things are complicated. But when you start obsessing over the process, you forget what it’s all for. Projects aren’t won by how religiously you stick to the framework, they’re about delivering value, working together, and solving problems. Don’t let frameworks get in the way of realising the benefits scoped out at the start of the project.
The Risk of Framework Law
When frameworks take over, they can backfire in ways you might not expect:
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Creativity gets cramped: teams can feel boxed in by the “rules” instead of free to find innovative solutions.
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It’s all about rituals: tick-box culture kicks in: “did we run the stand-up?”, “did we fill in the board?”. Meanwhile, the actual work might be suffering. If people feel like they’re just a cog in a machine—constantly sprinting but never resting, they’ll burn out fast.
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Empathy takes a back seat: Sticking to a process often means ignoring the fact that teams are made of actual people with actual challenges.
Putting People First
You can use frameworks without letting them take over. The trick is remembering that people come first.
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Build trust: Teams need to feel safe. Safe to share ideas, safe to admit they’ve messed up, safe to push back when something doesn’t feel right.
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Stay flexible: Frameworks aren’t gospel. If a ritual’s not working, tweak it. Got a team who hates daily stand-ups? Try twice a week. Or maybe asynchronous updates.
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Focus on the end game: It’s not about running perfect sprints or flawless phase gates. It’s about whether the project delivers what it’s supposed to.
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Celebrate people: Processes don’t solve problems; people do. Acknowledge their effort. Celebrate their wins.
Rituals with a purpose
Rituals and cadences should be evaluated through a lens of value, value for the team, the stakeholders, and the broader business. The goal is to ensure that these rituals drive collaboration, improve clarity, and help deliver project goals more effectively.
Regularly assessing and adjusting your project management rituals based on feedback, time spent, and the impact on project outcomes ensures they stay productive and aligned with business objectives. If a ritual isn’t serving its purpose or is causing more frustration than benefit, it’s time to rethink how it’s being executed—or whether it’s needed at all.
Wrap Up
Delivering outcomes can be full of rules, frameworks, and fancy terms, but they’re just tools. And tools are designed to help people, not control them. When you focus too much on the process, you lose the spark that makes teams great.
Frameworks are brilliant, but they’ll never beat a motivated, supported, and inspired group of people.
Because at the end of the day, projects don’t run on rituals, they run on people.
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This blog is written exclusively by The Scale Factory team. We do not accept external contributions.
