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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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 

8. Now 2017 is almost over…what did we learn?

9. 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

10. 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!

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

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

19. Thank you!