ACB: Modern Management: Adapt How You Lead for Agile Success

Too many people say, “With agile, we don’t need no stinkin’ managers.”
However, because managers create and refine the culture, modern managers create and refine the agile culture. Without modern management, any agile initiative will die. It’s time to invite managers to change their behaviors and create a real agile culture.

Transcript

1. Johanna Rothman @johannarothman www.jrothman.com Modern Management: Adapt How You Lead for Agile Success
2. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Why do people think we don’t need managers in agile approaches? 2
3. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Too much of what passes for “management” has little to do with leadership and everything to do with control. 3
4. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Why Management Exists • Manage themselves before they manage anyone else • Create a harmonic whole by leading and serving others • Every organization exists for one reason: Innovation 4
5. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Principles for All Managers 1. Clarify purpose, for you, your team, your organization. 2. Build empathy with the people who do the work. 3. Build a safe environment. 4. Seek outcomes by optimizing for an overarching goal. 5. Encourage experiments and learning. 6. Catch people succeeding. 7. Exercise your value-based integrity. Note: I did not add transparency or communication. If you manage with these principles, you will be as transparent as is possible and you will communicate effectively. 5
6. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Our Agenda • Great managers manage themselves first (Think) • Great managers serve and lead others (Feel) • Great managers create an environment of innovation (Act) 6
7. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman 1. Great Managers Manage Themselves 7 Satir Congruence Model
8. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Brief Explanation of Congruence • Blaming: Disregard Other • Placating: Disregard Self • Super-Reasonable: Consider Only Context • Irrelevant: Consider Neither Self, Other, or Context • Congruent: Balance Self, Other and Context 8 Satir Congruence Model
9. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Manage Yourself Myths • Managers are more valuable than other people. • Managers must solve the team’s problem for them. • Managers are too valuable to take a vacation. • Managers can still do significant technical work. (Or, player-coach works.) • Managers can estimate for the team. • Managers micromanage to see state. • Managers think the team needs a cheerleader. • Managers don’t admit mistakes. • Managers can concentrate on the run. • Managers expect people to bring solutions to problems. • Managers believe in indispensable employees. (Or “10X”) 9
10. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Principles for Managing Yourself • Clarify your purpose. Where do you add value? • Build empathy with the people who do the work. Assume they know what they’re doing. • Build a safe environment. Admit when you don’t know. • Seek outcomes by optimizing for an overarching goal. Delegate problems and outcomes, not tasks. • Encourage experiments and learning. Offer coaching, not solutions. • Catch people succeeding. • Exercise your value-based integrity. Do the right thing, even when it hurts. 10
11. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman 2. Great Managers Lead and Serve Others • “Managing” others is about leading and serving. • Leading and serving != directing and controlling 11
12. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman People Remember How They Felt • Think back to the best manager you had. How did you feel when you worked there? • Do you remember the work or the teams? • Take just one of your terrible managers. How did you feel when you worked there? • Do you remember any of the work, except to remember how you felt about it? 12
13. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Outdated Management Assumptions Color Management Actions • People can do the job • People can master the challenges • People can take responsibility for the work and the relationships • … and more • People might need support or training, but they can. • People live up or down to your expectations of them 13
14. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Lead & Serve Others Myths • No limit to the number of people you can manage. • People don’t need feedback. • Measure busy-ness, not outcomes. • Managers want to know the people are engaged. • Thinking isn't work. • Performance reviews or other evaluations are useful. (They are not. They damage relationships and performance.) • People don’t need credit for their work. • Hiring shortcuts are fine. • People are resources. (No, they are not.) • We need experts for this work. • Promote the best technical person to be a manager • You can keep even marginally-useful people on a team. 14
15. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman When Managers Don’t Lead & Serve… • Incongruent • Lack of respect • Insufficient empathy • Work feels like drudgery 15
16. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Principles for Leading and Serving Others • Clarify the team’s purpose.What value does your team offer? • Build empathy with the people who do the work. Offer autonomy, mastery, purpose. • Build a safe environment. Teach feedback and coaching. • Seek outcomes by optimizing for an overarching goal. Use flow efficiency. • Encourage experiments and learning. • Catch people succeeding. • Exercise your value-based integrity. Make those difficult decisions. 16
17. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman 3. Great Managers Lead for Innovation 17 “...every organization…needs one core competence: innovation.” — Peter Drucker
18. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Where Do Managers Spend Their Time? 18
19. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Organizational Leadership Myths • Great management looks easy so it is easy • Treat everyone the same way • Performance management creates employee engagement (It does not!) • Comparing teams is useful • “Friendly” competition is constructive • 100% utilization works • No time for training • It’s okay to move people wherever they need to go, whenever the manager wants. • Lower salaries means lower project cost • Manage by spreadsheet • It’s a great idea to standardize on how people work (especially their agile approach.) 19
20. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Embrace the Organization’s “Messiness” • Define the organization’s “Why” • Iterate on the strategy • Plan for change 20
21. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Innovation Principles • Clarify purpose (why) for your organization. • Build empathy with the people who do the work. Reduce bureaucracy. • Build a safe environment. Decriminalize mistakes. • Seek outcomes by optimizing for an overarching goal. • Encourage experiments and learning. • Catch people succeeding. • Exercise your value-based integrity. (Say No to too much work.) 21
22. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Resource Efficiency vs Flow Efficiency 22 The big question: What does your organization reward?
23. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Origin of Many of the Myths • Too many organization use management approaches from slavery • Knowledge work != factory work != slavery • That leads to problems in management thinking: • Divide-and-conquer works • Inventory is good • Cost accounting works for software • All of these are antithetical to agile approaches 23
24. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Managers Create & Refine the Culture • For everyone as individuals, in teams, and in groups • (Schein discusses artifacts, values, and assumptions) • How people treat each other • What people can discuss • How the manager and organization rewards people 24
25. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman “The Culture of any organization is shaped by the worst behavior the leader is willing to tolerate.” — Steve Gruenert and Todd Whitaker, School Culture Rewired, ch.3 (2015) 25
26. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Build Your Agile Management Habits • Progress, not perfection!! • Behaviors before beliefs • Start with yourself • Remember that people remember how you make them feel • If you don’t know the “why” nothing else matters. 26
27. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Let’s Stay in Touch • Pragmatic Manager: • www.jrothman.com/ pragmaticmanager • Please link with me on LinkedIn • Modern Management Made Easy books: • https://www.jrothman.com/mmme 27