So, why do we have such a bad reputation? In recent times, part of the problem traces back to the early 80s when a strong demand for new managers drove ambitious college grads to head to B-school with very little or no business experience. Companies recruited  these newly minted MBAs with huge sign-on bonuses and ridiculous salaries. And for some years, a strong economy may have masked the fact that many of these bright, but inexperienced, kids didn’t actually know much about the practical aspects of management. Some learned on the job and excelled, while others floundered and became disillusioned with the realities of corporate america.

Consequently, we learned that formal education without practical experience doesn’t always produce the best managers. On the other hand, too many people have been have been promoted into management because they were the only person on their team who wanted to manage or, even worse, they chose management because they figured they could make more money while not having to do any “real” work. The problem with this approach is that some people just aren’t cut out to manage people and others have potential but may need some additional coaching, mentoring, and education. Only a very small percentage of workers are “natural” managers and even they could use a bit of help now and then.

I would argue that there is not nearly enough investment developing and nurturing this essential part of the workforce. As middle managers, we are in the best position to connect the dots between the reality of what’s happening on the ground and the larger goals of the company. From this vantage point, we can also be a key driver of change and innovation. However, doing so requires the support, and even encouragement, of senior management if we are to make any significant progress. Most of the middle managers I know do not get this support. They fight to be heard, sometimes for years, until, frustrated and disengaged, they either leave to start something on their own, or they join the ranks of the walking dead shuffling their way from meeting to meeting.

Some of the latter won’t wake up again until they are laid off during their company’s next downsizing. A friend of mine is a counselor who has been hired by corporations to work with recently laid off employees. In his experience, at least two-thirds of those affected experience, at least initially, a sense of relief: the company has done for them what they were not willing to for themselves. Of course, not everyone wants to wake up. For some, falling asleep at the wheel is an easy way to pass the time between breakfast and dinner, or between graduation and retirement. These managers don’t make it easy for the rest of us to break the stereotype of middle managers as lazy and incompetent, the bloat and scourge of corporations everywhere.

But I would argue that we matter now more than ever. The past two decades have brought huge advances in technology, psychology, information science and many other disciplines that we haven’t even begun to incorporate into how we run organizations. Middle managers are the key to bringing real innovation to large organizations: they are more open to change than top management and they have a better understanding how to implement change than most frontline workers. However, the question remains whether they will get the support they need or whether history will repeat itself and they will be scapegoated yet again.

Are you a middle manager? Do you feel that you are getting the support that you need to be a great manager and to lead change within your organization? If not, what do you think needs to be done? Where should we begin?

Once again, and as you would expect, Akof’s goal isn’t to bring your attention on “yet another team-building framework”, but to provide you with an alternative approach to “classic” team-building techniques… so just consider it before recovering your copy of Belbin’s books on Management Teams or organizing your next ‘off-site’. No doubt you’ve got all the “raw materials” to build your team. You’ve got all the “candidates” for the job in mind, there’s much to bet they “fit the bill” each in their respective roles… but the last thing you want is a Management Team that fails to recognize the benefits that teamwork provides, to the risk of fostering the symptoms of a dysfunctional organization.

Indeed, and as you are aware, in Management more than for any other discipline, what makes a Team successful is the ability of its members to work together. And this is the main challenge. “Gelling” strong, bright and self-confident middle-managers together. You need to forge “rock-solid” foundations and empower this “soon-to-be” team with the ability to kill “in the egg” emerging ’silos’ and personal agendas. No doubt that you’ll remind them that several times, starting with your off-site… but you will not be there forever.

So what you long for is a self-motivated and self-organized Management Team… and fortunately, this precisely where Agile Management frameworks can help you.
You may have heard of “agility” relating to other disciplines than Management, maybe from the (now famous) “Agile Manifesto“. If not no worries, the few core principles governing agile frameworks are universal enough to make them eligible to other domains of expertise… including middle-management.

Agile principles implicitly provide a good bed for team Values; Agile teams must harness change instead of reacting to change. Agile teams are empowered (by you) to get the job done, deliver results frequently… with a preference to the shorter timescale. Agile teams are focused, they get together daily and privilege face-to-face conversation. More specifically, Agile Management teams undertake and curve-out managerial initiatives in “Projects”. Results are delivered in “Sprints“, a week-long and intense effort, leading to a clear and tangible result. To this effect, Management Sprints are a way to bring your Management Team through a journey of successive… well, sprints, each having a clear purpose and a length set-in-stone.

So now you get it… in the Agile Management world, team-dynamics emerge from:

1. Focused Teamwork Execution
2. People’s Close Collaboration and
3. Shared accountability on the Frequent Delivery of Results.

Every week, your newly formed Management Team achieves something TOGETHER, and each week, the team builds itself a bit more.
So you’re cool with that? You want to give it a try? This is quite simple really, let’s begin with… Sprint Zero!

This cryptic name characterizes what will be in fact your initial brainstorming session. Nothing too complicated here. Get your Managers in room for a day (go off-site if you feel like it) and optionally bring a facilitator. Ask your guys to write on ‘posts-it’ the topics that matter to them the most, then re-group these on ‘thematic’ boards. As a rule of thumb, anything dear to their hart should be fine by you. Don’t filter, don’t push back. Be open-minded …you’re looking for ideas.

Your leaders will submit to your attention a substantial list of what they think your organization (and their team) should focus on. It can be about strategic intentions like it can be about infrastructure issues or people management… at this point anything is good enough.

…but DON’T PLAN (yet) and avoid setting milestones! Resist to the temptation of setting-up timelines. You may die to put things in shape at this point in time, but one of the promises of Agile Management frameworks is to “manage chaos“, so give it a chance and leave things at that. Your first job is simply to close the initial Sprint. At the end of this exercise, your Management Team has built its first tangible deliverable: an “Objectives Backlog“. The size of this “Backlog” may scare you a bit… but try not to think about how the hell your guys will ever get to the bottom of it.

Don’t prioritize the backlog on their behalf, and don’t set the main Objectives of your organization on their behalf. They’ll have to get to this point BY THEMSELVES, and that’s the purpose of the following “Sprints”… and the purpose of our following Post: “Sprint One to Many, Act on It!”, so stay tuned.