3. Adapt or Get Out of the Way! The New Manager's Role

What is Agile leadership? What does it mean to lead in an "agile" manner? This was the theme of the hands-on, dynamic and creative workshop "Agile Leadership" given by Johanna Rothman, the author of Behind Closed Doors and Manage It!, together with her coauthor Polyanna Pixton. The workshop concentrated on collaborative environments, trust, transparency of information, and building productive and sustainable teams.

The group considered that the most important duty of an Agile leader is to build trust on every level; it compared situations where "trust has not been built yet" and "trust has been broken." Trust is a fragile binary state; regaining trust is much more difficult than building it. Sometimes, broken trust cannot be rebuilt; a leader needs to simply accept this fact and move on, said the presenters.

According to Pixton, a key factor in building trust with the team is a leader's consistency in making decisions and what these decisions concern. We managers often forget the second part of that statement. When we do so, it leads to micromanagement, underutilization of the wisdom of teams and eventually to the deterioration of trust.

No matter how many people are on your team, the presenters insisted, you need one-on-ones with every team member at least once every two weeks. This includes the leader's peers. While this maxim hardly seems feasible for larger teams, every inch of retreat from it costs in trust deterioration.

The workshop was full of such "simple revelations" that offer "obvious" but often underutilized bits of wisdom. For example, one participant asked, "How do you make team members trust each other?" Rothman immediately replied, "You trust them first!" Perhaps the answer seems obvious, but do we always "walk the talk"?

Not every bit of advice is as easy to adopt. One presenter said, "Never rescue your team." Teach as little as possible, she said; instead, create as many options as you can. The team should feel the same pressure its manager feels. It's the only way to force your team to think and to offer solutions; and, she said, it's the only way to create a self-organized team. The manager's duty is to discuss with the team the risks associated with each solution. But when a team member comes to you for a solution, said the presenters, return the baton to him by first asking, "How would you do it?"

For example, one presenter said to a subordinate, "I have to apologize that I had to step in and do it for you. You probably think now that I do not trust you anymore. I apologize; this will not happen again." That's a tough lesson for a conventional manager!

4. Motivate, Don't De-Motivate: Appraisals, Bonuses and Compensation

Managing IT teams includes human resources (HR) tasks. According to Mary Poppendieck, one of the icons of the Agile movement, everything you are doing in your HR functions is wrong, because it is supported only by our illusions, not by facts.

In her presentation, "Appraisals and Compensation: The Elephant in the Room," Poppendieck offered her view on appraisals, bonuses and compensation, and on their dramatic negative impact on performance. She discussed the history and literature of reward systems in application to environments that require collaboration-a topic often avoided, as it causes conflict between rewards and teamwork.

Everyone hates annual appraisals. A significant amount of managerial time and energy is wasted on this process, bringing very little value. (The first known piece of literature about the negative influence of the appraisal system comes from sixth-century China, Poppendieck said.) Few people consider appraisal and reward systems fair, particularly in the eyes of the receiver. Our appraisal practices are based on assumptions that are seldom specified or confronted, such as the motivation to improve performance, career and development guidance, a paper trail for corrective action, and a basis for pay and promotion.

Step by step, Poppendieck demonstrated that these goals are rarely (if ever) achieved, but the harm they bring is almost certain. The only way to change behavior is to change the consequence, not the antecedent, she said. People invest their souls into their job only with positive reinforcement. When faced with negative reinforcement, people do just enough to avoid the threat.

Conventional appraisal and reward systems often create competition within the team. The consequences are obvious: If managerial efforts to create a collaborative environment contradict the company's appraisal system, team members will always believe what the appraisal system suggests. Should we be surprised when our incentive systems extinguish collaboration if individuals compete for rewards?

Incentives cannot solve a systemic problem. Nor can incentives increase training or skill. In software development, Poppendieck said, most people think others are motivated by money, but claim they personally are motivated by other factors.

Another assumption built into typical appraisal and reward systems is that an individual's performance can be reliably and unambiguously assessed. However, this is true only when performance can be objectively measured and attributed to individuals and when individual jobs have almost no interdependence. These conditions do not apply to software development.

But then what do we measure, and on what should we base our appraisal systems?

According to Poppendieck, it is difficult to come up with a good and sustainable system in the software development domain. Since most systems tend to demotivate people and teams, it is safer to abandon appraisals altogether. Use other means to motivate people, she said, and to create a high-performance culture.