by Rob van Linda

The (Agile) ‘Sanskrit trap’

This podcast was generated by NotebookLM

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Headline: ‘It was the system’ – The lamest excuse in modern management history.

When I say that Agentic AI needs more agility than any transformation before it, many managers look at me as if I were speaking Sanskrit.

Now I know why: Because agility hurts when it’s real.

For years, most companies have misunderstood ‘agility’ as a wellness cure for IT. A little Scrum here, a daily there – but no relinquishing of power and no real culture of error.

Agentic AI is putting an end to this show. Radically.

A name is not a first name, but a liability shield.

Naming an agent and giving it a persona is not a marketing gimmick. It’s about destroying the cowardly anonymity of ‘AI’.

  • If the agent is called ‘Finance Advisor’, thinks within an MCP (Mission Control Policy) and is limited by an ACP (Authority Control Policy), there is no longer any ‘Oops, the AI made a mistake’.
  • There is only: ‘We gave the agent a false assumption.’

Why you are afraid of agentic AI (and should be)

Agentic AI delegates decisions. And that’s exactly where the problem lies: many organisations are unable to delegate because they have never defined their own decision-making principles. They hide behind unclear processes.

The bitter truth: Agentic AI not only exposes your leadership weaknesses – it scales them in real time.

Grow up: Agile leadership or demise

Anyone who wants to introduce Agentic AI without embracing a genuine failure culture is building a time bomb.

  1. MCP reviews are mandatory: Anyone who lets an agent go live without reviewing their thinking limits is acting with gross negligence.
  2. Stop asking who is to blame: When the agent fails, it is not the technology that has failed, but agile leadership. You set the limits wrong. Period.
  3. Agility is not Sanskrit: it is the ability to correct a false assumption in the system faster than the damage to your reputation can occur.

My conclusion:

Stop pretending that agentic AI is an IT issue. It is a character test for your management.

Those who still don’t understand ‘agility’ and “responsibility” will be overtaken by systems that learn faster than your managers can hold meetings.

Honestly, are you ready for real responsibility – or are you still hoping that ‘the system’ can serve as a scapegoat later?