Johanna Rothman, Management Consultant
Expert in Managing Product Development
I had a terrific time with Chris and Austin on the Mob Mentality Show: Modern Management with Johanna Rothman. Is “mobbing” is the right word for management collaboration? Maybe. I’m not sure. However, the reasons we mob—to get all the people we need to learn and think together—those reasons work as well in management decisions. …
Continue reading “Fun Discussing Management “Mobbing” on the Mob Mentality Show”
I explained in Leadership Tip #8 that measuring happiness was a lost cause because happiness is a function of more than just work. I suggested we measure satisfaction. And I didn’t tell you how. (You didn’t mind-meld with me, did you?) Here’s how I’ve measured satisfaction with several teams. I start with the 5-point scale …
Continue reading “A Simple Way to Measure Work Satisfaction and See Trends”
One of my clients wants to use shared services “teams” as they start their agile transformation. Their developers work on a product for months and years at a time. However, the testers and UI people are part of pools of people. The organization calls these testers and UI people, “shared services.” Shared service-thinking denies the …
Continue reading “Why Shared Services “Teams” Don’t Work with Agility”
How should agile coaches work? I’ve heard several questions and problems around what agile coaches should and should not do. Should agile coaches focus on: How well the teams use their pre-determined agile framework. (For example, how good is their Scrum?) Enroll (or somehow persuade) the managers in an agile mindset. (As an example, how …
Continue reading “The Focus of Every Agile Coach: Support How the Business Creates Value”
You want business agility. The teams have worked hard to change how they work. And you realize your current career ladder isn’t working for you—or the people you serve. The people and teams continue to experiment with agile behaviors. You would like more lateral, not just vertical options to support any person’s growth. What can …
Continue reading “Want Business Agility? Rethink Your Easy Career Ladders, Part 4”
As people gain experience, they often want new and different responsibilities. In a typical career ladder (Part 1), they had one direction: up. That often creates a problem: great technical people become insufficient managers. Let’s not blame these people—many of them didn’t want to become managers However, if people want more responsibility, the career ladder …
Continue reading “Encourage Lateral and Vertical Movement in an Agile a Career Ladder, Part 3”
Part 1 discussed a typical career ladder. I said that when we focus on individual achievements and deliverables, we ignore the agile system of work. Worse, when we reward individual achievements we prevent an agile culture. That’s because agile teams learn together as they create the product. We need career ladders that reward working together. …
Continue reading “Define Agile Behaviors We Want to Reinforce in an Agile Career Ladder, Part 2”
As I’ve been speaking about the Modern Management Made Easy books, people ask these questions: We’re pretty good with our agile approach. It’s time for performance reviews. How do we reward someone based on individual work when we want teams to work together? What do we do? Can we extend whatever that is to our …
Continue reading “Why the Popular & Easy Career Ladder Prevents an Agile Culture, Part 1”
I’ve been speaking with several possible clients. They’re having trouble with Scrum. The managers don’t believe the teams need product owners, so the teams don’t have POs. The managers think a Scrum Master can support at least four teams. The teams start a lot and finish very little. The teams think they have too many …
Continue reading “Want a Successful Agile Project? Start with Why Before How”
We often hear that agile is a mindset. That we need to change our thinking to use agility. Is that correct? That you need to change how you think first, before anything else? I can think I change my mindset all day long. However, I don’t change until I change my actions, my behaviors. That’s …
Continue reading “A Contrarian’s Perspective on Agile Mindset, Behaviors, Culture”