Malte is speaker at the GOTO Aarhus 2022

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

I think we've got it all wrong. Agility doesn't start with the teams. When we do, we constantly clash with the environment. We think managers are stupid, while we engineers think we have all the answers. That's where respect goes down the drain. Soon after, we start talking about contracts, "That's your job." - "No, that's your job.". Agility can't grow on that basis, we know that.

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

In the end, I would like to bring both worlds together: We know what management can do for us to be agile. But in the end, I hope we also know what we can do the other way around for management and the organization."