This August 2016 post explored how daily standups became hollow rituals in many Agile teams. Updates were scripted, blockers were buried, and real conversations happened only after the meeting ended. The post explained how fear, not apathy, drove the silence — and how a lack of psychological safety turned valuable ceremonies into checklists. It celebrated teams that reimagined their standups as moments of honesty and collaboration, and it warned against confusing motion with meaning.
By early 2018, some teams had started experimenting with alternative formats: async standups, walking meetings, and open-ended prompts. But many organizations still struggled to create environments where truth-telling felt safe, especially in cross-functional or high-pressure settings.
In 2025, teams that thrive treat rituals like standups as flexible moments of connection, not fixed processes. Status updates have largely moved to async tools, freeing real-time conversations for what matters — surfacing friction, celebrating small wins, and asking better questions.
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