Agile has its pros and cons. One key advantage is how agile can shift culture.

Back in my days as a management consultant, I recall hearing -- culture eats strategy for breakfast. I think this is valid in many cases, including software delivery. That is, culture is a more significant factor in your success than any framework or approach -- agile, kanban, waterfall or anything. An organization must focus on the right culture, rather than just blindly say "we're doing agile".

The obvious next question is how to shift the culture. My answer -- implement agile. Agile is broader than just meetings and backlogs. It is about values, principles, practices, and benefits -- it is about culture.

At first, this might seem somewhat contradictory. To implement a culture change, we need agile, but to get the most from agile, we need the right culture. With this slight chicken and egg argument, the answer is both. You can start off following basic agile methods, like stand-ups, retros. This will kick off a culture shift and force people to collaborate, share and discuss. Over time the culture will change. The formality and rigor of some agile activities, such as stand-ups, meetings, and backlogs, are simply ways of getting people to behave in a certain way. Over time, these behaviors become the norm, the culture shifts, and it will be easier to introduce more agile concepts.

With agile, like many things, sometimes you first build the habits, then the habits build you.