Southern Fried Agile 2016

Agile makes middle managers very uncomfortable. Why does the team not need me anymore? Do they secretly hate me? Will I have a job in the 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. We'll talk about managers in the context of scaled Agile frameworks -- not just how to conform to these guidelines, but how managers are needed to decide when they need to be tweaked or replaced.

As an Agile trainer, coach, and researcher, I've had a lot of experience with the middle management layer. I'm currently a senior consultant at Net Objectives. Prior to that, I was practice director for Agile at Cutter Consortium, and a senior analyst at Forrester Research.