Johanna Rothman

FEBRUARY 4, 2021

We often hear that agile is a mindset. That we need to change our thinking to use agility. Our culture defines our environment. Define Mindset, Behaviors, Culture. We need behaviors if we want an agile culture. The culture is a combination of: How people treat each other. Is that correct?

Agile 102

Agile Culture Financial System 102

Effective Managers

JUNE 19, 2024

This transformation involves not only adjusting to new realities like remote work and digital transformation but also developing key traits such as agility and empathy. Leaders must now manage teams that are dispersed across various locations, requiring new strategies for communication, collaboration, and maintaining company culture.

Leadership 243

Leadership Agile Operations Data 243

Johanna Rothman

SEPTEMBER 1, 2020

Several of my clients want to use some sort of maturity assessment for their agile transformations. For agile transformation, an assessment can help people see how they change—how they innovate the products and the culture. Part of what might not work is the culture. (Is Is agility even possible?)

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Agile Culture Data Productivity 128

Johanna Rothman

JANUARY 10, 2024

I see many teams and team members who say, “Agile stinks. ” When I ask people what's happening, they say: We're doing an agile death march because someone else already told us what we have to do and the date it's due. And don't get me started on how coaches tend to do life coaching instead of support for agility.)

Agile 88

Agile Culture Efficiency Management 88

Johanna Rothman

AUGUST 18, 2021

They think that the agile tools they use, such as boards, offer a strategic advantage. However, they adopt or “install” an agile framework or process without customization. Instead, agile organizations need flexibility, not rigidity. Commodity businesses don't need agility for product development.

Agile 116

Agile Tools Productivity Development 116

Harvard Business

FEBRUARY 21, 2022

Scrums and kanbans can’t help you if you’ve got a legacy culture that punishes vulnerability.

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Agile Culture Management 187

Harvard Business

MAY 15, 2018

Increasing volatility, uncertainty, growing complexity, and ambiguous information (VUCA) has created a business environment in which agile collaboration is more critical than ever. Intuitively, we know that the collaborative intensity of work has skyrocketed, and that collaborations are central to agility. This story is not unique.

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Agile How To Efficiency Groups 135

LSA Global

JANUARY 22, 2025

How to Optimize Team Potential: A 7-Step Guide for Managers High performing team managers optimize potential by unlocking their teams collective capability. Proportionate acknowledgment of individual and team performance fosters a culture of appreciation and positivity.

Management 68

Management How To Construction Training 68

Johanna Rothman

AUGUST 19, 2021

So when does it make sense to customize your agile approach to gain a strategic advantage? They want an agile approach, so they started with Scrum. We don't think we need to be “religious” about our agile approach as long as we get the benefit. Then, they Built their agile approach based on their needs.

Agile 105

Agile Tools Productivity Development 105

Johanna Rothman

AUGUST 24, 2021

In Part 1 and 2 of this series, I wrote about how an agile approach might offer strategic benefits. And because an agile approach changes your culture, I said the agile approach was part of your strategy. So let's ask this question: Can any tool—agile or otherwise—offer you a strategic advantage? (I

Agile 105

Agile Tools Productivity Analysis 105

Clarity Consultants

OCTOBER 19, 2023

L&D leaders have been instrumental in helping employers and employees pivot to pandemic protocols and navigate both remote and hybrid operations and corporate culture. When viewed in the context of an unstable or uncertain job market, continuous learning is essential to creating and maintaining an agile workforce and operations.

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Agile Trends Training Training 147

Johanna Rothman

AUGUST 26, 2021

They think agile approaches are tactics and agile tools are part of their strategy. That's why they want to Buy an agile approach. Because the managers don't realize that when they create a “standard” board, they demand every team follow the same workflow. They can manage the cost of the tools.

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Agile Tools Culture Strategy 96

Johanna Rothman

APRIL 14, 2021

One of my clients wants to use shared services “teams” as they start their agile transformation. The organization lives with many delays when the managers choose a shared services model. That's because the managers think resource efficiency works. Why Managers Thought Shared Services Worked.

Agile 119

Agile Efficiency Productivity Development 119

Harvard Business

MAY 22, 2018

The most common conversation I have these days with discouraged employees below senior management levels goes like this: “This company’s bureaucracy is killing me. I know it is critical for the leadership to embrace agile, but the sad reality is that I’m not sure our leadership team will start before it’s too late.

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Agile Energy Retail Case Interview 132

Johanna Rothman

APRIL 13, 2021

I had great fun with Cherie Silas and Alex Kudinov on their podcast, “Keeping Agile Non-Denominational.” You've seen or heard about this problem: Senior leadership says, “Yes we need agility!” ” The teams say, “Yes, we got the agile goodness here!” ” And the middle managers?

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Agile Management Culture Leadership 108

Johanna Rothman

SEPTEMBER 28, 2021

More of my clients say they want business agility. Yet, we don't share a common definition of business agility. Instead, let's consider how to see management's adaptable and resilient actions. Those actions show that managers change their actions in the face of new information or feedback. That's a good thing.)

Agile 89

Agile Management How To System 89

Johanna Rothman

MARCH 21, 2024

I started this series by discussing why managers didn't perceive the value of agile coaches and Scrum Masters in Part 1, resulting in layoffs.) That's why I then asked people to review their product-oriented domain expertise and agile-focused domain expertise in Part 3. Especially, Agile is Not a Silver Bullet.

Agile 96

Agile Management Metrics Culture 96

Johanna Rothman

APRIL 8, 2021

See Behaviors Create an Agile Culture with Johanna Rothman. We spoke about the Modern Management Made Easy books. In our wide-ranging discussion, we discussed the various traps that managers create or encounter: Rewarding heroics instead of collaboration. One-on-ones and how to use them to good effect. And much more.

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Agile Culture Management Consulting 73

Johanna Rothman

MARCH 6, 2024

In Effective Agility Requires Cultural Changes: Part 1 , I said that real agile approaches require cultural change to focus on flow efficiency , where we watch the flow of the work , not the people doing tasks. What about those cultural changes? Let's start with risks and how feedback loops manage those risks.

Agile 81

Agile Culture Efficiency Metrics 81

Johanna Rothman

OCTOBER 8, 2020

Back in Part 1 , I wrote about how stage-gate approaches were as agile as we could use at the time. We had one delivery, so our agility was about canceling the project if we couldn't finish it. The spiral model assumes that if you get feedback early enough, you've managed the technical and requirements risks.

Agile 117

Agile Development Productivity Management 117

Johanna Rothman

MARCH 23, 2021

I had a terrific time with Chris Williams on his Badass Agile podcast. We discussed the Modern Management Made Easy books. Some of the topics we covered: Are managers born or made? How managers need to collaborate to achieve agility. How managers micromanage at all levels. We had a terrific discussion.

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Agile Management Consulting Company 106

Johanna Rothman

FEBRUARY 25, 2021

The managers don't believe the teams need product owners, so the teams don't have POs. The managers think a Scrum Master can support at least four teams. The managers (often with the assistance of a consultancy) decided Scrum was the answer. However, the managers didn't define the problem(s) they want to solve.

Agile 108

Agile Management Comparison Productivity 108

Johanna Rothman

AUGUST 12, 2019

I spoke at Agile 2019 last week. Here are my thoughts and where I think the “agile” industry is headed. Problems I See with “Agile” Here's a summary of problems I saw last week: Too many people think “agile” will solve all their problems. Culture requires management involvement.

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Agile Culture Conference Management 87

Johanna Rothman

MARCH 11, 2021

That often creates a problem: great technical people become insufficient managers. Let's not blame these people—many of them didn't want to become managers However, if people want more responsibility, the career ladder often forces people into management. Managers focus on the people. Influence Can Offer Movement.

Agile 95

Agile Engineering Productivity Culture 95

Johanna Rothman

OCTOBER 6, 2020

Are you trying to make an agile framework or approach work? Maybe you've received a mandate to “go agile.” Or, maybe you're trying to fit an agile framework into your current processes—and you've got a mess. I've seen plenty of problems when people try to adopt “agile” wholesale. Yes, cancel.

Agile 111

Agile Software Construction Analysis 111

Epicflow

JANUARY 31, 2023

Becoming a competent and sought-after project manager is impossible without constant professional development. So, we’d like to give you guidance in this flow of resources – we’ve selected 11 project management books that any successful project manager should discover. Enjoy the reading!

Management 29

Management Handbook Case Studies Case Study 29

Johanna Rothman

SEPTEMBER 15, 2023

They (the team) feel that the tasks for the sprint are too varied to manage to a single sprint goal. Instead, I see assumptions that reveal a divide-and-conquer, and possibly a command-and-control culture, not an agile culture. Agility requires a collaborative cross-functional team. What should the Scrum Master do?”

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Interviews Culture Agile Efficiency 96

Johanna Rothman

OCTOBER 12, 2020

In the olden days, the project manager with the help of the team ranked.) Opportunities for More Agility. Because we release every time we finish a feature set, we have these opportunities for agility: Re-rank the remaining feature sets. Manage the project portfolio more easily because the project releases value more often.

Agile 113

Agile Productivity Management Development 113

Harvard Business

JUNE 3, 2024

When companies leverage the diverse talents of their Asian workforce, they can evolve into more global, agile, and powerful hubs of innovation and growth.

Leadership 248

Leadership Agile Talent Company 248

Johanna Rothman

MAY 18, 2021

I had the pleasure of being on the Agile Uprising Podcast: Modern Management Made Easy with Johanna Rothman. We had a wide-ranging discussion, including: What the manager's job is (and is not). Why, if people manage through the seven principles, we don't need to use transparency and communication as principles.

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Agile Exercises Management Consulting 93

Johanna Rothman

AUGUST 14, 2019

In Part 1 , I wrote about how “Agile” is not a silver bullet and is not right for every team and every product. This post is about how management fits into agile approaches. Too often, managers think “agile” is for others, specifically teams of people. Managers Create and Refine the Culture.

Agile 69

Agile Management Efficiency Culture 69

Harvard Business

JUNE 27, 2016

Many of us know this intuitively: best practices are optimized for a particular place and time and don’t necessarily transfer well between cultures. That’s how it is with practices that don’t quite fit another cultural context. Managing Across Cultures. What Leadership Looks Like in Different Cultures.

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Culture Research Case Interview Development 130

Johanna Rothman

FEBRUARY 4, 2021

I had a great time on the Agile Coffee podcast, 75. Managing with Coffee. We spoke about a variety of issues that managers, teams, and people encounter, such as: Culture and how that plays out at all levels. The role of the manager: to create an environment where everyone can succeed. I hope you enjoy listening!

Agile 66

Agile Management Culture System 66

Harvard Business

JUNE 20, 2017

Culture is like the wind. For organizations seeking to become more adaptive and innovative, culture change is often the most challenging part of the transformation. But culture change can’t be achieved through top-down mandate. It is invisible, yet its effect can be seen and felt.

Culture 134

Culture Company Enterprise Leadership 134

Johanna Rothman

APRIL 9, 2024

I was on the Agile Uprising podcast this past Sunday, discussing my most recent book. Some of what we discussed: That managers want agility but do not care about any agile methods or frameworks. While we might think “agile” is another project organization method—or lifecycle—it's not. See (and hear!):

Agile 74

Agile Culture Productivity Consulting 74

Johanna Rothman

APRIL 14, 2020

Manage for effectiveness. Anytime I've seen a successful innovation culture, I've seen these principles. Let me address a little about business agility and innovation. Business agility allows us to create a culture where we plan to change. Applies to management teams, too.). The post Want Business Agility?

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Agile Efficiency Culture Resources 83

Johanna Rothman

JANUARY 6, 2023

Several people on social media have denigrated the terms “project manager” and “program manager.” ” These people claim there is no need for either role in an effective team, especially an agile team because the team can manage its own deliverables. Facilitating the team's collaboration.

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Management Agile How To Productivity 109