Managing for collaboration. A talk I gave at Oredev 2011

1. Agile Management:
Managing for Collaboration
Johanna Rothman
New: Manage Your Project Portfolio: Increase Your Capacity and Finish More Projects
@johannarothman
www.jrothman.com
jr@jrothman.com
781-641-4046

2. Organizations Are Systems
2 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

3. 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
3 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

4. 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
4 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

5. 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
5 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

6. 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
6 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

7. 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
7 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

8. Management Iterations
Cycles allow you to (re-)assess strategy
Cycles help you see organizational obstacles
Frees the technical teams to do work
8 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

9. 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 what
9 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

10. 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
10 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

11. 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
11 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

12. What Keeps People in a Job?
12 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

13. Managers Become Champions for
Teams
No micromanaging!
Meet often enough, one-on-one, to build a trusting
relationship
Allows manager to see the system
13 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

14. 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
14 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

15. Build Organizational Capacity
How many of you know your organizational velocity now?
Remove system obstacles
Recognize when a team is stuck
15 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

16. Agile Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset
16 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

17. 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
17 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

18. 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
18 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

19. 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
19 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

20. 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.
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20 © 2011 Johanna Rothman