Episode

Renting The Change vs Owning It — Why LeSS Transformations Get Reversed | Aimé Flemm

Podcast
Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast: Agile storytelling from the trenches
Published
Jun 17, 2026
Duration seconds
910
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https://scrummastertoolbox.libsyn.com/renting-the-change-vs-owning-it-why-less-transformations-get-reversed-aim-flemm
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Summary

Aimé Flemm: Renting The Change vs Owning It — Why LeSS Transformations Get Reversed Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes . "They rented the change instead of owning it." - Aimé Flemm A year ago Aimé helped his Dutch employer adopt LeSS. The teams are happy. They're performing well. And now, he's watching it all get pulled apart. The company was acquired by a German parent that's "actually really German" — traditional, command-and-control. The parent wants to "align" all its companies and is pushing to revert the LeSS structure back to component teams. Why? Because higher management never went to the trainings. They never went through the change themselves. They signed off on it, but they didn't internalize it. And now the loud-but-few voices of the status quo are reaching upward, and management is panicking. That's what Aimé means by "renting the change" — you got the lease, you never bought the building, and the moment pressure rises, you walk away. His experiment for the next sprint, sharpened in this conversation: stop trying to defend the structure. Start a conversation with management to co-create success metrics for the merger itself . Decouple the structure from the definition of success. As long as the merger succeeds, the structure can stay fluid. Speak their language. And remember: coaching is the cherry on top — about 5% of the real gains. The big improvements live in the structural changes. Self-reflection Question: When you sold your last change to upper management, did they buy it — or are they renting? And what's your plan for the moment when they want to give back the keys? [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recom…