by Esther Derby | Dec 2, 2008 | Leadership & Management
Many organizations have a model that feedback rolls down hill. The VPs give feedback to the Directors that report to them. Directors give feedback to the Managers. Managers give feedback to developers. It all cascades downward.A manager’s job is to create an... by Esther Derby | Nov 5, 2008 | Leadership & Management, Organizational Change, Systems and Complexity
I attended an Organizational Change BoF last evening at the AYE conference. Among other things, we talked about why it is that some managers fail to act when there are many signs of big problems. I see three conditions that are prequisites for change (at any level):... by Esther Derby | Oct 9, 2008 | Leadership & Management
Most of the time I hear people talking about trust, they are talking about trust between team members. It’s equally important to have trust between managers and team members. In fact, the relationship between an employee and his/her manager consistently shows up... by Esther Derby | May 2, 2007 | Leadership & Management, Systems and Complexity
I’ve been watching a discussion on the Agile Project Management yahoo group, which poses the question, “Does everyone in agile need to be above average?”The question behind the question is, “Does agile need extremely competent people in order... by Esther Derby | Apr 4, 2007 | Collaboration & Teams, Leadership & Management
When I talk to teams about self-organizing, people worry about what to do when some one on the team isn’t working out. If we’re a team, they posit, we have to work things out so we can work together. Not necessarily so. Teams need to manage team membership...