The Agile Middle Manager Muddle - by Tom Grant

The Agile Middle Manager Muddle - by Tom Grant

Agile makes middle managers very uncomfortable. Why does the team not need me anymore? Do they secretly hate me? Will I have a job next year?

While some of this anxiety is justified, a lot of it is not. Middle managers need to accept a different role in an Agile organization, but it can be an extremely important one. Be warned, the new job is not for everyone. For managers who embrace this new role, the job can be far more fulfilling than what they were doing before.

During this talk, we will take a Lean perspective on the role of managers. The discussion will center on the tasks and responsibility in the new role, as well as the type of mindset, experiences, and personalities needed to thrive in it. We'll be honest about what challenges middle managers face. Finally, we’ll discuss a way to assess the manager’s positive contribution to Agile teams and the larger value stream.

About the Presenter - Tom Grant

Tom Grant is a senior consultant at Net Objectives. He has a long career helping clients with their Agile and Lean transformation challenges, in areas like executive and managerial leadership, measurement, technical debt, frameworks, requirements, governance and compliance, and tools. He has a special interest in Agile games, which have immense power to disrupt behaviors and provide key insights. He is a contributor to the Agile Alliance’s working group on technical debt, which includes his game Dice Of Debt as part of its published package of support materials. Prior to joining Net Objectives, Tom was Agile practice director at Cutter Consortium, as well as a senior analyst at Forrester Research. A California native, Tom moved to Washington, DC in 2012.