Managers are asking how they fit into agile teams now that the focus is on self-organizing teams. Managers previously directed work, but an agile approach calls for a new leadership model of catalyzing teams rather than directing them. To support agile teams, managers can help reduce dependencies between teams, reduce technical and quality debt, minimize waste, and create collaborative environments that invest in learning. Managers can also change the organization to understand strategy, create a culture of learning over fear, and optimize the whole system rather than individual parts. Agile requires significant organizational change and strong leadership to address challenges beyond just development.

1. WHAT ARE WE
SUPPOSED TO DO
WITH THESE
MANAGERS NOW?
Skip Angel

2. 20+ Industry
5+ Agile
@skipangel

3. WE KNOW AGILE
FOCUSES ON THE TEAM

4. YET SOME ARE LEFT ASKING
“WHERE DO I FIT?”

5. ONE SUCH GROUP
MANAGEMENT

6. HOW DID WE GET HERE?

7. “EVERY
ORGANIZATION IS
PERFECTLY ALIGNED
TO ACHIEVE THE
RESULTS IT’S
GETTING.”
Stephen Covey

8. SO WHAT HAPPENED HERE?

9. THEORY X
• If I did not drive my people • I find that most people are
constantly, they would not unambitious and must be
get on with their work. forced to raise their sights.
• I sometimes have to fire • I keep my distance from
somebody or tongue-lash the team since it is
them to encourage others. necessary for effective Taylor
command.
• Leaders have to lead by
making all key decisions
themselves.

10. THEORY Y
• If somebody falls down on the • People should appraise their
job, I must ask myself what I bosses as well as be appraised
did wrong. by them.
• I should sometimes take a • Anyone can have creative,
back seat at meetings and let innovative ideas if they are
others take the lead. encouraged.
Deming
• If I ask someone for their
opinion on an issue, I try to Plan
do as they suggest.
Act Do
Check

11. NEW IDEAS EMERGE
• Delighting the Customer
• From Controller to Enabler
• From
Bureaucracy to
Dynamic Linking
• Radical Transparency
• FromCommand to
Conversations

12. ... AND WHERE DO WE GO?

13. MOVING FROM
LEADER AS
DIRECTING
TOWARD....

14. LEADER AS
CATALYSING

15. Directive Leadership Catalyst Leadership
Analytical Thinking Systemic Thinking
Either/Or Both/And
Mutuality and
Unilateral Control
Collaboration
Management through Management through design of
coordination and control environments
Deterministic Chaordic

16. ATTRIBUTES OF A
CATALYST LEADER

17. INCLUSIVE, COLLABORATIVE

18. FLEXIBLE,
ADAPTIVE

19. POSSIBILITY-
ORIENTED

20. FACILITATIVE

21. SELF-REFLECTIVE

22. COURAGEOUS

23. FOCUS AT ALL LEVELS
Organization Systems Thinking
level Increasing throughput and not just cutting costs
Servant Leadership
Management
Serving others — including employees, customers,
level
and community — is the number one priority
Team
Collaboration Quality Focus
level

24. CHANGES IN MINDSET
Organizational
Systems Thinking Throughput and not 100% utilization is Multitasking reduces
Emergence
cost cutting harmful ROI
Center on providing Progress visible &
Being responsible Not Manufacturing Quality
value to the customer transparent
Team
Sense of Urgency Continuous Individuals and Joint ownership
Improvement interactions Working software
Planning, Measure the right
not the plans Rethink teams Rethink schedules
Middle-Management things

25. WHERE CAN MANAGERS
SUPPORT TEAMS?

26. Outcomes Principles
Keep it Barely Sufficient
Simple Minimal Processes
Tools
daption
A
through
g
Teams
Learnin

27. REDUCE TEAM DEPENDENCIES
Dev
BA
QA
From Functional
Teams...

28. UI DB
Interfaces
Services
beyond Component
Teams to...

29. Feature Set 1
Feature Set 3
Feature Set 2
Feature Teams

30. REDUCE DEBT
•Technical Debt
•Quality Debt
•Software Configuration Debt

31. MINIMIZE WASTE
• Partial Work
• Finding Info
• Delays
• Over Produce
• Extra Steps
• Defects
• Handoffs

32. CREATE
COLLABORATIVE
ENVIRONMENTS

33. F ormal Re search
Tra ining Time
INVEST IN LEARNING
Set
Comm unities Based
ractice
of P D esign

34. WHERE CAN MANAGERS
CHANGE THE
ORGANIZATION?

35. EVERYBODY
NEEDS TO
UNDERSTAND
STRATEGY

36. Culture of
Learning
Culture of
Fear

37. OPTIMIZE THE WHOLE NOT
THE PARTS
1 Hour 4 Hours 4 Hours 1 Day 4 Hours
X
3 Days 10 X
Days 10 X
Days X
5 Days X
3 Days
Approve Verify and
Tech Code and Deploy
Request and Fix
Assessment Test
Prioritize
10 Min 10 Min 30 Min 4 Hours 2 Hours 1 Hour
20 X
Min 12 Hours
X 6 Hours
X
5 Min 2 Hours 2 Hours

38. Utilization Queues &
rate Bottlenecks
Hours
Worked
Rate of
Return
Degree of
multitasking
Number of Cycle Time
defects
Time to form
teams
Burnout
Ability to
respond to
changes
Effectiveness
Team
Turnover energy Pressure
to deliver
EVERYBODY NEEDS TO
SOLVE THE PROBLEMS

39. AGILE WILL HELP, BUT CANNOT
ADDRESS ALL CHALLENGES

40. AGILE IS NOT A “DEV” THING BUT
A SIGNIFICANT
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE

41. AGILE IS NOT
A
DESTINATION
BUT A
JOURNEY

42. AGILE NEEDS
STRONG
LEADERS TO
MAKE THE
DIFFERENCE

43. WILL YOU BE THAT LEADER?