How line managers lead in an agile environment

www.p-a-m.org

Successful Agile Leadership

Siegfried Kalteneckeris an organisational consultant with almost 20 years of experience in leadership training and management coaching. co-owns and co-manages Loop Organisationsberatung GmbH, an open consulting network, focusing on IT, financial services and industry www.loop-beratung.at. is a Certified ScrumMaster and co-editor of the PAM - currently busy with completing a book on “Kanban in der IT” to be published in May 2012 (in German)

Thomas Spielhoferhas been using agile methods since 2001. has facilitated the introduction of Scrum as responsible manager in different organizations and is now supporting others in doing so as consultant. has 17 years of IT experience leading heavy-weight international projects based on IPMA and CMMI as well as lean product development initiatives based on XP and Scrum.is co-editor of PAM - Platform for Agile Management www.p-a-m.org,

Results of the 2011 Study

http://p-a-m.org/2011/06/exec-summary-of-the-study-on-successful-agile-leadership/

Successful Leadership in Agile Organizations

What we wanted to find out:

What is required to successfully lead in an agile environment?

What are the key factors from the point of view of teams and their managers using agile methods?

Our approach

58 face-to-face interviews with IT and business-experts from 5 different companies

7 clusters of qualitative and quantitative questions Aggregation of the questions both per company

and across companies Interdisciplinary research team with backgrounds

of agile and traditional project management, organizational development and line management

Middle Management as Change Agents

Success factors of agile leadership

Quality of communication

TrustProfessional Self Management

Leadership as a Team Sport

Context Management & Coaching

Organizational Change Management

Quality of communication

Communication has improved in all 5 companies

This is perceived very similarly by all hierarchical levels

IT sees improvement in a better light than business

Impact of agile transition on communication(1: very positiv 3: neutral: 5: very negativ)

„Internal communication has become more honest, more specific, things are said more straightforward” – team member

Trust

Trust in ... the competence of the team their ability to self-organize

... requires leaders to... adopt to change learn sincerely delegate responsibility cope with uncertainty and democracy

Also see www.p-a-m.org: „A recipe for trust building“

„To work agile is like climbing stairs without handrails“ – Senior Management Business

Middle Management as Change Agents

Not middle management, but command & control leadership becomes obsolete

New core challenges: Recruiting, Role Clarification, Change Management,…

How do you rate the potential that the entire company can benefit from the agile transition?(1: very positiv, 3: neutral, 5: very negativ)

„Why do we have line managers – so that someone signs our vacation forms?“ – team member

What we would like to know

How do the results of our study fit to your own experience?

Confirmations, surprises, lack of clarity… ?

What are the most important challenges for leadership in your onw environment?

Please form table groups and talk about these questions for about 15 minutes

At the end of your discussion please agree on your TOP 3 challenges and write them on three pincards

Dinner. Enjoy!

Time for dessert

Draft of our Agile Leadership Model (ALM)

Get more information by the end of march on www.p-a-m.org

Results

Core Competencies

Basic Skills

Basic Assumptions

Cross-functional

Hierarchy-bridging

Management

Teams

Agile Leadership Core Competency:

Cross-functional, hierarchy-bridging management team

As a line manager you can:– take time to negotiate stakes and manage

expectations in a new assignment– Establish trust within management team – Bridge silos with cross-functional teams

You can not:– Implement your corporate strategy top-down

Stakeholder Map Interviews with most important

business partners

Presentation of most important results, feedback and commitment on further steps

Agile Leadership Core Competencies

Stakeholder Management

Agile Leadership Kernkompetenzen

Stakeholder Management

Als Line Manager you can:Focus on most important customers and partnersSurvey different expectationsStrengthen a culture of open and trustful communicationFacilitate mutual commitment

You can not:Clarify expectations once and for all timesSolve all communication problemsAvoid conflicts

High Performing Teams

Agile Leadership Core Competency:

High Performing Teams

As a line manager you can:- Staff the teams, balancing skills and tempers- help creating alignment among stakeholders- be a resource to your team

You can not: – change the intrinsic motivation of your staff– Compensate for a lack of experience by

becoming a “playing captain”– Compensate a lack of (self-)organization by

micromanaging the team

Also see: http://p-a-m.org/2011/09/high-performing-teams/

Finale Digestion

Discussion in small groupsComments and questions in plenaryGuest BookClosing

Chill Out