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by hkt 848 days ago
Exactly the same thing here. Once some interloper with paper qualifications and no tech background rocks up and says "this is how agile works!" you're doomed.

The only time I've ever seen this not happen was when we had a 55 year old delivery manager who viewed his job as facilitating team meetings in a way that meant everyone got the chance to speak and that consensus formed. Didn't try to dictate process or anything, just made sure everyone got heard and that decisions got made. He was patient enough to wait and not force the issues, too.

2 comments

Organisations make it very hard to be that manager. On top of the human tendency to overmanage there's often push from top for "more visibility and accountability" which results in forcing stuff rather than facilitating.
Blame Mckinsey and their ilk: "what can be measured can be managed".

(I refuse to utter the above phrase without accompanying it with tjis: "not everything that counts can be counted")

It's worse than that. Any sufficiently motivated person can phrase data any way they choose, particularly when their bonus is tied to it. Nor does the consumer of the data always validate that data. I've never seen a manager read a report they requested. That is on top of your suffix which I agree with a well.
Not everyone deserves a voice in every conversation. We had an office assistant once’s that had really strong opinions about how to implement features. They were not well informed.