(Caught in the) Middle Manager

I feel a great deal of empathy for middle managers; after all I used to be one before I joined ThoughtWorks and entered a world of a (nearly) flat structure. In the past they only had to deal with change coming on down from above. However, as the word about Agile and Lean starts to build the middle managers are in danger of being hit from above (golf course agile) as well as below from frustrated development teams who know there is a better way of working.

ThoughtWorks is increasingly seeing more and more demand for Agile adoption consultancy, based on its track record in using Agile to deliver.

There has recently been a lot of internal discussion about managing the stakeholders in the change programme and the threat that middle management poses to the successful adoption of Agile and Lean.

I think this could well be true. Middle management may well see Agile and self-organising teams as a threat to their authority and even their job. I have seen one example of a senior manager swallowing the blue Scrum pill, believing they didn't need Project Managers anymore and made them all redundant.

I believe that middle managers are people too. They have hopes and fears. I have seen training programmes created for Scrum Masters, Product Owners, BAs, developers and QAs, but it is all too easy to overlook managers.

So I wanted to canvass opinion from the great wild interweb. Are you one of those middle managers, the PHB in Dilbert? Are you having Agile done to you right now? How do you feel and more importantly what suggestions do you have to make the transition from the waterfall way to Lean and Agile.?

What's this all about then?

Ever since I joined ThoughtWorks last year I've heard people constantly saying 'it's all about the people' and they mean it. I've previously worked in a number of large organisations where following the process, or behaving like your boss was mandated. I've even worked for one guy who refused to think of contractors as anything more than resources and that they were there only to do his bidding. ThoughtWorks genuinely cares for its people and loves them for their differences.

Everything we do has an impact on people. The work we do in IT often can have a profound impact on the people we interact with, whether we are engaging with them to build a system, or changing the way they work, or even whether they have work.

My passion is in that interface between people and systems, the way that different behaviours can impact development projects, the way that design can impact people's lives and the way that people can change and be changed.

Those people who know me will also know that I tend not to be too serious, life is far too short (as I have tried to prove a few times), so you should also expect observations about the lighter, but as equally important, things in life as well.