Agile management.managing for collaboration

Agile Management: Managing for Collaboration

Johanna RothmanNew: Manage Your Project Portfolio: Increase Your Capacity and Finish More Projects

@johannarothmanwww.jrothman.com

[email protected]

© 2011 Johanna Rothman

Organizations Are Systems

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Collaboration

“to work jointly with others or together especially in an

intellectual endeavor”

In agile organizations, managers

Guide

Conduct

So that the project teams, program teams, management

teams can work together

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Why “Managing?”

Agile project and program managers create and manage

their local project and program environments for success

in the context of organization

Managers manage the entire system for success

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What Do Agile Managers Do?

Set strategy

Manage the project portfolio

Remove organization obstacles

Build trusting relationships with people

Lead hiring decisions and process

Build the capacity of the organization

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Strategically Important Work

What it is

When to start it and stop it: project portfolio

Not making those decisions creates management debt

As well as chaos

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When Managers Collaborate

They maximize value for the organization

Problem solve for the organization, not for the project

or the program

Optimize at the highest level, not the lowest level

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Management Iterations

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Cycles allow you to (re-)assess strategy

Cycles help you see organizational obstacles

Frees the technical teams to do work


Leaders Remove Organizational Obstacles

Individual reviews are an organizational obstacle

Instead of individual reviews:

Build a trusting relationship with each person

Share the strategy

Share the profits

Provide cost of living raises to the team

Give the team a team bonus

The team can decide who gets what9


Build Trust

Deliver what you promise to deliver

Be consistent in your actions and reactions

Make integrity a cornerstone of your work

Be willing to discuss, influence, and negotiate. Don’t get stuck

on your position

Trust in yourself and your colleagues

-- Solomon, Building Trust in Business, Politics, Relationships, and Life

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You See Group Collaboration When ...

They have a common goal.

They listen closely.

They concentrate on just the issue at hand.

They are in control of their work.

They are willing to blend their work.

Everyone participates.

They are familiar with each other and the problem at hand.

They practice their communication often.

They move the conversation forward.

They learn from failure and move on.

-- Sawyer, Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration

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What Keeps People in a Job?

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Managers Become Champions for Teams

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No micromanaging!

Meet often enough, one-on-one, to build a trusting

relationship

Allows manager to see the system


Managers Help Provide Feedback and Meta Feedback

Not evaluation or praise; feedback

When you use a peer-to-peer feedback approach:

Create an opening

Describe behavior or results

State the impact

Make a request

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Build Organizational Capacity

How many of you know your organizational velocity now?

Remove system obstacles

Recognize when a team is stuck

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Agile Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset

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Encourage Team-Based Challenge, Not Perfection

Encourage risk-taking with frequent feedback

Help the team know where its boundaries are

The team will help the members collaborate

The members will make the micro-commitments to

each other

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Lead the Hiring Effort

Recognize when you need more people

Initiate the hiring

Job analysis

Job description

Manage the phone screens

Manage the interviews and interactions with HR

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Agile Management is Collaborative Leadership

Managers serve the people in the organization

Guiding

Coaching

Using their influence to ease the way for the work

Managers make decisions so they avoid management debt

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References and Reading

Dweck, Carol. The New Psychology of Success. Random House. 2006

Solomon, Robert. Building Trust in Business, Politics, Relationships, and Life

Lots more on jrothman.com and in Behind Closed Doors, Manage It!,

and Manage Your Project Portfolio and in Agile Managers: The Essence of

Leadership, Cutter IT Journal, Vol. 23, No. 3, March 2010.

If you’d like me to stay in touch with you, please sign up for my email

newsletter, fill out a yellow form, or email me.

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http://www.jrothman.com

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http://www.jrothman.com/pragmaticmanager