This is an exercise that we run to help understand how manager’s roles change. This is a re-posting of a session at Agile Open Northwest 2009 [[http://bit.ly/hrLemn]]. I opened with stories describing the reality that Senior Leadership is declaring their companies are “going Agile,” and that doing it well presents many difficulties. A potentially intractable problem centers on equipping Middle Managers to be supportive of agility within the business strategy. For sure, their job needs to change from a little to a lot. This is an exercise first described by Pete Deemer [[http://bit.ly/aufy23]].
Defining Middle Managers for this Discussion
We need a definition to continue. In this session we settled on
Gather and Process Data
We broke into small teams of 3-5 people and wrote down the “things managers do:” one per sticky note
Next, we had the groups integrate (removing duplicates as we go) their work onto two flip charts labeled:
Defining Middle Managers for this Discussion
We need a definition to continue. In this session we settled on
- Not Senior Leadership
- Not individual contributors
- Intermediaries at any level in between
Gather and Process Data
We broke into small teams of 3-5 people and wrote down the “things managers do:” one per sticky note
Next, we had the groups integrate (removing duplicates as we go) their work onto two flip charts labeled:
- Fine in Agile
- Conflicts with (or not needed) in Agile
We then reviewed the “Fine in Agile” information. With a bit of work, this could turn into a valid job description. In the “Conflicts with (or not needed) in Agile” area we realized we could convert this into an action list to change to role of manager for the better. We also found items that could be re-written in opposite form and included into the job description (e.g. Change “maintain status quo” to “challenge status quo”). |
The “Hook” Then we asked:
Thoughts
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