Agile Roles in a Flat Organization Kevin Reiter Senior Agile Coach - Geonetric

Introduction Kevin Reiter Kevin.reiter@geonetric.com Started at Geonetric in 2008 Scrum Master Agile Coach CSM, CSPO Adjunct Professor at Kirkwood College and Upper Iowa University Have taught Algebra, Management, Business, Corporate Finance, and Business Math

Geonetric – About us Provide software and services for hospitals and health care providers across the country Around 80 employees Located in Cedar Rapids, IA Been active for nearly 20 years

Geonetric Story Fall 2007 - Scrum training for Engineering team Fall 2011 – Sought out Richard Lawrence (Agile for All) to train us in Behavior Driven Development and Automated Test Driven Development Early 2012 – Manager of Engineering left the organization Summer 2012 – Made the decision to transition our company to “Agile” Fall 2012 – Full company training on all things Agile January 2013 – Started transition to Agile AND removed our traditional management structure

Why take out the managers? Traditionally, there has been some waste built into the job of a manager Agile promotes Self-organizing teams Quarterly Reviews/Performance Appraisals were not worthwhile Brilliant managers, not getting to do what they love

Why take out the managers? All Managers are not Leaders All Leaders are not Managers If we have interesting problems to solve, the work should be it’s own reward (autonomy, mastery, and purpose) Good managers are still an asset to any organization

What happened? Some managers became Product Owners Some people left the organization Some thought this crazy idea would go away after a few months Agile does not mean No Managers We said “How Fascinating!” quite a few times 

Now 2017 is almost over…what did we learn?

How do traditional Scrum Roles factor in? We have Agile Coaches (Relentlessly Focused on Building Great Teams) We have Product Owners (Relentlessly Focused on Delivering Customer Value) We don’t currently have any Scrum Masters (we used to) Every team operates a little bit differently, but we started in the same place

Managers vs. “Managers” vs. Emergent Leaders Many still deferred to the previous Managers for decision making ”You’re not my manager!” Some emerged from within to grab hold of decision making opportunities…and thrived!

People still wanted feedback No managers = no quarterly reviews Moved towards a culture of continuous feedback Giving constructive, honest feedback is HARD for most people Employees wanted an organized structure for receiving and giving feedback

People still need direction and executive leadership Product Owners now got to create backlogs and decide on team priorities How do they know if they are prioritizing the right work? Impact Maps – how does the teams work affect Geonetric’s goals? This required leadership to have a vision and set course for our company

People still wanted to get raises and promotions ”Money is not a motivator!” (Dan Pink, Drive) Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose – the reward is in the work And people like that…but still want to get paid Band Review process – allows employees to grow in their discipline

Who gets to make decisions? What decisions do they get to make? Empowerment to make decisions versus Empowerment to make the RIGHT decisions No manager appointed to make a decision, how does the team decide? Leadership sets boundaries on decision making Levels of Delegation based on subject-matter expertise

Financial and HR literacy Teams control their budgets Employees needed to learn the language of Finance and Accounting Teams are now learning the language of HR Role of the Agile Coach and Product Owner in building great teams

Transparency and Visualization Work is visible on boards, available for group discussion – not locked away on someone’s hard drive Radical Transparency – all information and data is available for employee consumption (short of some confidential HR pieces) “If it’s a problem, make it visible” –Richard Lawrence

What are non-negotiables? All teams must have a Product Owner All teams must have an Agile Coach All teams must work in sprints All teams must hold regular standups, retrospectives and planning sessions

What do you think? Questions? Comments What do you want to know more about?

Thank you!