Malte is speaker at the GOTO Aarhus 2022

"MANAGERS AREN'T THAT STUPID Wed, Jun 15th 2022, 13:50 CEST.

I think we got it all wrong. Agility does not start with teams. If we do that we constantly crash with the environment. We think the managers are stupid while we engineers think have all the answers. There goes the respect down the drain. Soon afterwards we start to talk contracts: ""That is your job."" - "No, that is your job". Agility can't grow from that footing, we know that.

In this talk I want to explore with you the radical thought: What happens if we start agility with management? What happens if not just the managers are there to serve engineers, but if we engineers are also there to serve management and the organization? Are we ready to take on this responsibility? And if we believe you have to experience agility in order to understand it - what opportunities does management have to experience agility in their own work? How can we help engineers? And last but not least there is the claim of self-management - not just a claim of self. That means, we have to be managers, too. What does that mean for us? Which responsibilities do we take?

At the end, I would like to put both worlds together: We know what management can do for us to be agile. But at the end, I hope we also know what we can do for management and the organization the other way round."

View presentation slides:

Find the slides for the presentation "Managers aren't THAT stupid" here.