A Discussion of Agile Management

1. A Discussion of Agile Management David C. Songco CIO, NICHD NIH September 10, 2008

2. Objectives for Today It is my pleasure to share my experiences as a career Federal Government engineer, PM, manager and CIO with over 45 years of service

3. Management Perspectives • Objectives: this presentation will introduce a variety of management concepts including practical suggestions for implementing these ideas in your own organization • Goal: to provide a few fundamental concepts of management that may help you as you transition form technical to PM to senior manager

4. Key Concepts for Today • The role of management • Management functions • Leadership vs. Management • Project management • Management skills • Types of power • Organizational structure • Working smarter not harder • Directing and delegation • Participative management and teams • Sample Career Paths • What can you do? • Balance – Zen

5. What is the Role of Management? • Management is responsible for defining and carrying out the mission of the organization • Management is getting things done through others • Management focuses on deciding what to do and when NOT how Leadership: the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because they want to do it. ----Dwight D. Eisenhower Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity. ----George S. Patton, Jr.

6. Management Functions • Planning • Organizing • Directing • Measuring

7. Influence derives from formal authority Rely on the line relationship, which is defined by the organizational hierarchy Influence is based on positional power Influence comes from the right to command Can only use their authority “down” the organizational ladder to direct subordinates Influence derives from the interaction between the leader and the followers Rely on a relationship of rapport, trust and recognized credibility Influence is based on person-to-person power Influence comes from commitment, desire, and the ability to inspire and collaborate with others Can exert influence in any direction: up, across, down, and outside the hierarchy Leaders vs Managers MANAGERS LEADERS

8. Leadership vs. Management • You don’t have to be a manager to be a leader • Not all managers are leaders • Act like an owner – Blonchek and O’Neill • You are the face the customer sees • Managers are given their role in the organization • Leaders take their role in the organization - From 108 Skills of Natural Born Leaders – Warren Blank

9. Communication A Project Manager’s Many Roles: You wear many different hats! Technical Performance Resources Risk Management Quality & Configuration Cost & Schedule Acquisitions

10. Semper Gumby Main Entry: ag·ilePronunciation: 'a-j&l, -"jIlFunction: adjectiveEtymology: Middle French, from Latin agilis, from agere to drive, act 1: marked by ready ability to move with quick easy grace 2: having a quick resourceful and adaptable character <an agile mind> • The only constant is change. • Embrace change • Be Agile

11. Critical Elements of Project Management Customer Satisfaction • Project Management is a process used for getting the job done right • On Time • Within Budget • According to Customer’s and Sponsor’s technical objectives and performance criteria Time Cost Scope Technical Objectives & Performance Criteria

12. Management Skills • Technical • People • Conceptual • Verbal and written communication is • often overlooked by technical people. • Increasingly important as you rise in the organization CTO, CIO Branch Chief PM, Tech Conceptual People Technical Management Level vs. Skills

13. Keep It Simple - Concise • Concise: marked by brevity of expression or statement, free from all elaboration and superfluous detail • No Matter how “sophisticated” the product or process. If you can’t explain it in a phrase, a page, or to a 14-year-old …. You haven't got it right yet • Senior management is interested in ROI, schedule, cost and risk The golden Rule of Business: The people with the Gold make the rules!!

14. Types of Power • Influence Progression • Body • Mind • Heart • Positional power • Assigned • Value often overestimated • Inferred power • Can open doors • Can be abused • Leadership power • Most important • Has to be earned • Knowledge power • Available to anyone • Can be the most effective Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't. ----Margaret Thatcher

15. Organizational StructuresOne size does not fit all

16. Football Team • Dominant characteristic - control • Central planning and control • Plans meticulously crafted ahead of time • Coordination achieved by managerial plan • Hierarchical • Stress loyalty • Risk avoiding • Excellent model for a Data Center • Cast of thousands

17. Baseball Team • Dominant characteristic - autonomy • Free standing roles • Emphasis on Individuals • Stress self reliance • Risk embracing • Minimum management overhead • Good model for R& D labs

18. Basketball Team • Dominant characteristic - Cooperation • Coordination mechanism - Distributed • Spontaneous teamwork • Coordination achieved by mutual adjustment • Stress adaptability - offense and defense • Risk accepting • Good model for flattening the organization • Self directed teams • Excellent model for customer support • Lean mean development team

19. The Horizontal Organization • Reduce the number of layers • Reduce the number of managers • Use self managing teams • Increase the span of control • Increase delegation • Decrease reaction time

20. 9 by 9 Team Task vs. People Orientation • 1 by 9 Drill Sergeant • 9 by 1 Cheerleader • 9 by 9 Build with a team

21. The Agile Team System • Managers have complete confidence in their staff • Motivation is by economic rewards based on goals which have been set in participation • Personnel at all levels feel real responsibility for the organizational goals • Effective communication among management and staff is practiced • Emphasis on teamwork ----Derived from work by Rensis Likert

22. OrganizingYourself

23. OMB CIO Conceptual HHS Conceptual Technical Technical Who Do You Serve - First? IC Management People Skills Communication Skills The PM serves as the critical link Keyword: Agile User Community Your Team Remember that the project manager isn't (normally) the line manager of everyone on the team. The line managers may not even be working on the project. Building and maintaining good working relationships with the line managers will forestall problems later.

24. Be Proactive • Work smarter not just harder. • The most common solution that most employees use is simply working longer hours in order to catch up. • However at some point, keeping up may prove impossible, so a strategy to work more efficiently should be developed • Understand the difference between urgency and importance. • Focus on the compass more than the clock • Efficiency - doing something right • Effectiveness - doing the right thing • Delegate work and define levels of freedomand responsibilities.

25. Urgency vs. Importance – Covey Emphasis on Effectiveness NOT EfficiencyIs what I am doing important? HIGH U R G E N C Y I M P O R T A N C E Quadrant I - Urgent and Important • crises • pressing problems • deadline-driven projects, meetings, reports • many important activities become urgent through procrastination, or lack of prevention and planning • excitement - short term • stress - long term Quadrant III - Urgent but NOT Important • quadrant of deception • ‘noise’ of urgency creates illusion of importance • activities usually only important to someone else • drop in visitors, some phone calls, some meetings, some mail • we spend a lot of time in QIII responding to other people’s priorities and expectations - thinking we are in QI Quadrant II – Important but Not Urgent • planning, preparation, and prevention • empower others • listen to others • increase our skills - sharpen the saw • the quality quadrant • the quadrant of personal leadership • when we ignore this quadrant we feed quadrant I Quadrant IV - NOT Urgent and NOT Important • the quadrant of waste • we often escape to QIV for survival but this survival can quickly lead to deterioration LOW

26. Importance Paradigm • Operate in QI and QII • Eliminate unnecessary QI by spending more time in QII • Stay out of QIII and QIV • The more we spend time in QII preparation, prevention, planning, and empowerment the more we decrease the time in QI • Move to QI by choice rather than by default • Make more time for QII by less time in QIII and QIV

27. It’s not where the puck is…..It’s where the puck will be Wayne Gretsky – All time Great Hockey Player

28. Project Rescue

29. Cows in the Ditch • What to do when you find the cow in the ditch? • Get the cow out of the ditch • Find out how the cow got in the ditch • Develop plans and procedures to keep your cows out of the ditch Anne Mulcahy, CEO Xerox – FORTUNE March 2005

30. HAVE A BARBEQUE When the Same Cow Keeps Going Into The Ditch

31. Directingand Delegation

32. Motivators • Management often concentrates on security needs by providing fringe benefits • People want to have a high evaluation of themselves that is based on recognition and respect by others • Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.----Theodore Roosevelt

33. Participative Management • Emphasize leadership not control. • Belief that workers can learn to make decisions and take initiative • Establish trust. • We mean them no harm • Empower the individual by establishing and nuturing the environment. • Empowerment can’t be installed, it has to be grown • Nurture the conditions that facilitate empowerment • People will empower themselves given the environment • Encourage independent thinking and action • The best way to develop responsibility in people is to give them responsibility. Empowerment takes more than a minute – Ken Blanchard

34. Participative Management • Three essential elements of assigning work • Work that the employee would like to do • Work that the employee has the skills to do • Training • Work that the organization needs done • The manager acts as a “catalyst” to speed up the reaction between the employee’s talents and the organization’s goals and between the employee’s talents and the customer’s needs • First Break All the Rules – Buckingham and Coffmann • If we have all three most of the time we can go with one or two some of the time Good is the enemy of great – Jim Collins

35. Excellence Staff Goals and Values Clients Requirements and Expectations Capabilities, Skills and Resources Participative Management Organization Goals and Mission

36. Good Fit Career Time Line Fit is good – Skill increases Position growth – Zen is excellent

37. Moderate Fit Career Time Line Fit is moderate – Skills may level off Position growth may slow - Zen is moderate to weak

38. Poor Fit Career Time Line Fit is poor – Skills level off then decrease Position growth slows or stops - Zen is weak to poor

39. Next Steps

40. What can you do? • Don’t be a victim – Jack Welch, Former CEO General Electric • No one has more control over your future than yourself • Be yourself • Develop a plan – Covey, First Things First • Focus on the compass not the clock • Set personal goals and write them down • Develop training plans

41. What can you do? • Develop your people network • In the end relationships are the most important element for success • Be agile – The only constant is change • Read and track • Write, write, write • Listen

42. What can you do? • Zen - Strive for balance in your life • Choose to be happy • Don’t sweat the small stuff • Keep your “I Love You’s” up to date • Practice random acts of kindness • Give back – Pass it on • Seeking the best in others, we find the best in ourselves

43. What can you do? Have you invested as much this year in your career as in your car? …Molly Sargent

44. Actual Career Time Line CENSUS NASA NIH ENGINEER MEA CIO DARK SIDE NIH MANAGER 1960 2006

45. Basics – Drucker Plan – Covey, Sun Tsz Empower – Blanchard Delegate - Oncken Customer Service – Peters Coach – Blanchard and Hershey Win – Welch, Lombardi, Coach Z Risk – Roosevelt Balance - Fulghum • People want to be part of something larger than themselves. They want to be part of something they’re really proud of, sacrifice for, that they trust. • - - - Howard Schultz, Starbucks Achieving Balance If you were arrested for being a leader, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

46. Words To Live By Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much or suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory or defeat. - - - T. Roosevelt.

47. Semper Gumby Thank You

48. Risk management • Risk is a function of • how likely an undesirable event will happen • how likely that event will cause loss; and • how serious is that loss • Risk management tackles these by • reducing the likelihood of the event happening • reducing the likelihood of an accident or loss occurring and/or • reducing the amount of loss • Procedure to mitigate risk • Identify the risks • Devise a list of possible precautions • Select from list those that you consider cost effective • "Danger makes men devout" W.Baldwin (in "Beware the cat"), 1584

49. Anticipating risk • Common sense • gut feel, something doesn't feel right, a sense of uneasiness • Past experience • learning from our mistakes, or better still, other's • Historical data • our memories are unreliable, our perceptions flawed, our experience limited • database of past events • Tools and aids • Check-lists, expert systems, Event Trees, Fault Trees • Independent assessors • from elsewhere in the organization or bought in • may be able to spot things we miss (due to over-familiarity or a reluctance to admit to our failings) • not always very effective (due to unfamiliarity, or over-emphasis on irrelevancies) • Analogues • comparing with dissimilar risk situations eg. motor insurance • Creative thinking • spotting unprecedented risks by asking "crazy" questions

50. Risk Example