Why Agile Struggles at Scale and How Lean Helps Organizations Grow

Agile transformed how small teams build software.But what happens when organizations grow to hundreds or thousands of people?In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, Alexis Monville welcomes Fabrice Bernhard, co-founder and CTO of Theodo and co-author of The Lean Tech Manifesto.Fabrice explains why the four values of the Agile Manifesto have inherent scale limits, and how Lean thinking helps organizations keep the same intention, without falling into bureaucracy.They explore:– what “value for the customer” really means at scale– why autonomy requires both leadership and architecture– how tech-enabled networks of teams work in practice– what it takes to build a true learning organization– and why Lean is not just good for people, but also for businessA grounded conversation for leaders, tech professionals, and change agents navigating growth, complexity, and responsibility.Find the transcript and the references in the companion blog post: https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2026/02/10/when-agile-scales-something-breaks/