What the Beatles Can Teach Us About Working the Agile Way
- Brainz Magazine
- Nov 10
- 6 min read
Updated: Nov 11
Certified Scrum Trainer and former physicist with a PhD in Theoretical Physics from Cambridge, Paul Lister brings over 20 years of fintech experience to help teams minimise risk and embrace Agility. He is passionate about making work better, sharing knowledge through training, coaching, writing, and community building.
In January of 1969, the Beatles embarked on an ambitious project. They decided to spend two weeks in a studio in Twickenham, write a complete album, and then perform it live on a TV show. They hadn’t performed in front of a live audience for a couple of years, and the cracks were beginning to show, with relationships already frayed (Ringo had already left the band once and returned at this stage). This process was documented on film with the intention of perhaps using some of the footage within the potential television show. A hundred and sixty hours of footage was shot, with three times that in audio. Recently, it was pared down to three two-hour episodes, which formed a fascinating fly-on-the-wall documentary. As is my want, it was hard to watch these without thinking about Agile and, in particular, Scrum. They had, after all, decided to create a product in a short period of time. But was there really any comparison to make? Let’s see.
When all the broken-hearted people living in the world agree
It became obvious very quickly that the rehearsal space the Beatles had been given in Twickenham Studios was less than suitable. The ‘sound stage’ had been chosen because it was a large room that would not only fit in the band but also the myriad of cameras that would surround them during filming. The Fab Four ended up sitting on chairs around a drum kit in this voluminous space, looking very much like they were under a microscope. In Scrum, you want the team to be able to focus on their work with as few distractions as possible. I defy anyone to tell me that they do not feel uneasy being constantly stared at. It also became apparent, once the Beatles started playing, that the acoustics in the place were inadequate for the task at hand. The Scrum guide states that a team should be co-located, but it is important that the location be conducive to the work. There’s a lesson here that Scrum teams should be consulted about where they are going to work if they are to work to the best of their ability.
There will be no sorrow
What surprised me while watching the documentary was how much the band seemed to spend mucking about. This started off good-natured, with the four playing songs from their own repertoire and ridiculing them or putting on silly voices. This eventually led to frustration when the pressure of having a hard deadline, with no complete songs written, began to build up.
Paul McCartney made a very astute and interesting observation about this reduction in work ethic. Their manager, Brian Epstein, had died a year earlier, and Paul ascribed the lack of discipline to Brian no longer being there to crack the whip when they got out of hand. Reading between the lines, the singer-songwriter was saying that there was no real framework guiding them during the process of creation. Not only is Scrum such a framework, but it has a guide in the form of a Scrum master to keep the teams on the right path. The ‘right path’ in Scrum is to mitigate risks by following Agile methodology.
Casting a slightly different eye on this ‘messing about’, it could be said to be healthy.
Working long hours is never healthy without sufficient breaks. These sessions not only gave the Beatles those breaks, but they were all engaging in such japery together. It is important for teams to engage with each other as much as possible, as it improves their interactions, and the individuals increase trust and respect between them.
Whisper words of agile wisdom
I mentioned earlier that relationships had become frayed within the band, and this was an understatement. A few days into the project, an artistic difference led to one member of the band deciding to leave, not just the ‘studio’, but the Beatles. George Harrison had tried to come up with ideas for a track and had been shut down by Paul McCartney, who wanted to do it his way. There’s an important message here about team hierarchies. Again, the Scrum guide explicitly states that these shouldn’t exist in teams, but even if there are no titles (i.e., junior developer, senior developer, etc.), such strata can accidentally evolve with people dominating discussion or digging in with regard to the ‘right’ way to do something. This is the kind of behaviour that a good Scrum master will try to coach out, by finding ways in retrospectives to expose the problem without spotlighting the individuals involved.
Interestingly, the dominant songwriting duo of Lennon had a meeting to discuss the issue, examining their roles in the disagreement. Then the whole band met up with George, and after a series of talks, the Beatles got back together and continued with the album. The important thing to note here is that it was sorted out by the ‘team’, not by anyone in a position of authority. Neither the road manager, Mal, nor the band manager, George Martin, tried to intervene to solve the problem. This was self-management long before Scrum had been thought of.
And that was not the only Scrum team trait that was visible. The Beatles were a T-shaped band. I.e., they were experts on some subjects but jack of all trades on others. It was a surprise for me watching the Peter Jackson documentary to see them swapping instruments to try out ideas. Ringo on the piano, Lennon on the drums, everybody seemed to have enough skill to play something that they were not well known for.
However, as the plan was to play the new songs live, sometimes four people were not enough. By sheer luck, a keyboardist named Billy Preston, whom they had met in their early days playing in Hamburg, was in England to do some TV and dropped in to say hello. He agreed to play on the tracks as a temporary Beatle for the album. Even the most experienced Scrum teams, who have been working to attain new skills, still might not have the prerequisite levels to complete a project. Bringing in an SME (subject matter expert) for a Sprint to complete a goal is common practice.
And when the night is cloudy, there is still a light that shines on me
There were good and bad elements of Lean practices within the organic way in which the band constructed songs. It would normally start with a riff of some kind and then all four members playing off it to see what would work and what didn’t. McCartney wouldn’t try to construct lyrics but sort of mumble half words to see what would fit with the evolving tune. As the song slowly built, the members would contribute single words to the mumbling until they slowly added up to whole sentences. However, as the days passed, the Beatles began to find that they had a lot of half-written songs, but nothing was actually finished. This was mostly due to spending time trying to finesse parts of songs rather than getting a lightweight version of the whole thing. Again, Scrum developers can often get tied up in the details of a product, especially when working in the Complicated rather than Complex domains, and then suffer from not completing their Sprint Goal, or ‘Scrum falling’.
Let it be
It became increasingly obvious that the Beatles wanted to focus on songwriting, with the TV show being put on the back burner. After a brief retrospective, they retreated to the newly built Apple Studios in London to complete the album. Some ideas were mooted about doing a live show in foreign climes and even on a cruise ship, none of which were practical or viable. But the Beatles still wanted to satisfy their Sprint Goal, to do a show. The Fab Four might not have known it, but they made a Lean decision. They decided to play the gig on the roof of the Central London Studio. It meant they wouldn’t have to travel far, it meant their equipment wouldn’t, and it meant they could get instant feedback from the crowds below.
Whether there really are elements of agility in the way the Beatles worked is debatable. But what is not, is that working in a collaborative organic way led to one of the great albums of the twentieth century and possibly one of the most iconoclastic performances of all time.
Get back – The documentary about the creation of Let it Be is on Disney+.
Let it Be, the album, is accessible on Spotify and maybe in record shops if such things still exist.
Read more from Paul Lister
Paul Lister, Agile Coach
Paul Lister is a Certified Scrum Trainer with the Scrum Alliance, one of only around 250 worldwide, with a PhD in Theoretical Physics from Cambridge University and a background as a physicist. He has over 20 years in fintech as a developer, manager, Scrum Master, and Agile Coach. Drawing on experience in both Waterfall and Agile, he helps teams minimise risk, embrace Agility, and achieve their goals. Beyond coaching and training, Paul writes novels, directs short films, and founded the Surrey & Sussex Agile meetup. Passionate about making work better, he loves connecting with others to share ideas on Agile, creativity, and collaboration.
