Can LeSS Help Dealing With DOGE Without Painful RIFs?

How is your organization dealing with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative?


On its surface, DOGE represents a well-intentioned drive to streamline federal operations, cut excess spending, and modernize information systems across agencies. By centralizing savings efforts and aiming for measurable performance improvements, DOGE has surfaced long-standing inefficiencies that warrant attention.  However, one of the most visible side effects has been the increased reliance on Reductions in Force (RIF), a practice that, while compliant with federal guidelines, functions as a surgical intervention—often removing skilled personnel and institutional knowledge critical to sustainable reform. RIFs are frequently disruptive and are based more on tenure and roles than on value contribution or adaptability, leading to organizational instability, lowered morale, and long-term productivity loss.  Instead of defaulting to workforce cuts, agencies can adopt more therapeutic, system-focused methods that target waste, not people. Lean-Agile principles offer a proven framework for reducing inefficiencies by eliminating overproduction, redundant approvals, and excess deliverables—freeing up capacity for innovation without sacrificing workforce integrity.

One important thing to note that not all frameworks, methods are approaches that contain the word “agile”, are the same. Some, like SAFe, have been very commercially successful, due to their compliance/seamless fitting to existing organizational structures and their roles, yet have done a very poor job, removing bureaucracy/waste and improving efficiency.


On the other hand, some more authentic agile approaches, like Scrum (for small products) and Large-Scale Scrum/LeSS (for large products and customer-centric solutions), advocate a simplified, value-aligned organizational structures and redefine management roles, toward enabling rather than controlling.  According to LeSS organizational design principles, the key to sustainable transformation lies in de-scaling complexity, organizing around customer value, and creating adaptive, learning organizations. When applied thoughtfully, these approaches help achieve the core objectives of DOGE—greater efficiency, lower costs, improved business resilience and improved public service—while preserving the human capital essential for long-term government innovation.


Advice: Before jumping into radical solutions, such as big-bang RIFs, to meet DOGE expectations, please consider more thoughtful, methodical approaches, to improve your organizational structure and increase performance, efficiency, productivity and overall organizational success.  Ask for advice and help.

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