Agile Rollback – Diepresse.com

Three years ago, Katzenkrauler completed an agile leadership training. Half a day, that was enough. It’s not that difficult. Everyone had to do that in the company. So all team leaders. The group and department heads were released. In addition, not necessary anyway. There were only a few time in the operational hustle and bustle. Also understandable – they really have a lot to do, i.e. meetings and such. Only the bathing foam, group leader with only one team leader underneath, who has a lot of time, sat in at the time. Only planned his vacation and hardly listened.

Katzenkrauler led his team agile for three years – all seventeen employees. Now it is not the case that you would nominate a Scrum Master for it – it is missing in the implementation. So Katzenkrauler took over the function of the product owner and the Scrum Masters. That works. Besides, they don’t do scrum. His team edited tickets that are assigned to you in a ticket system: set up something there because a certificate imports, carry out an installation. So stuff. The tickets come unplanned, so Katzenkräler immediately realized that Scrum is not the right one. The course instructor also said that during a coffee break. You make Kanban.

You have given yourself the team name « Avengers » in an elaborate brainstorming process. They liked that – almost everyone. Twelve were already disappointed, they preferred to « Justice League », but Katzenkrauler was for « Avengers ». As a team leader, you can’t please everyone.

He now has a beanbag in his office. Nobody sits in it. You can hardly get up. What kind of picture would that do if an employee is lounging inside, while cat crawlers are sitting at his desk? He can’t give it away – all team leaders have been mandatory.

Together with his team, Katzenkrauler defined the Kanban board, where the tasks are recorded on colorful post-its in addition to the ticket system. Together they have determined the color of the post-its, what color what means and how the board is structured exactly. In the beginning it worked great. Everyone always came to his office, no matter how far they had to walk through the building, and wrote post-its. If they were in the home office, people have created a ticket to then write a post-it. It worked great – three weeks. Then Katzenkräller always had to remember his team that they write their Karterl. Shortly before the two-week stand-up, which is scheduled for three hours, Katzenkrauler always sent out memory emails three days, two days and one day before the appointment. That makes it a little better. At least those who are not in the home office hang on the board shortly before the stand-up. The people in the home office take part in teams, but unfortunately cannot see the board. Half as bad.

In the stand-up, everyone tells him what is going on. He already knows because he gets reports from the system every day, but you do that in Agile. For one or the other it may be boring until all 17 are through, but you can’t do anything. To do this, you can do a deep dive in the topics, then not all 17 will come. Actually, everyone never comes up.

Once every three months, Katzenkrauler and his team make a retrospective. He also learned that. Instead of the stand-up-he likes to deviate from the learned. He even bought a book: 54 methods to keep a retrospective. He has already tried 23. His team loves it, he knows. However, when it comes to the fact that people should also take over actions, it is more difficult. Most of it gets stuck with him – and it also hangs until it is forgotten. Klaus once took on something. His parents have a pastry shop and now he brings something sweet to every retrospective. Maybe that’s why his team loves the retrospective.

He once left the other team meetings that he had introduced before the changeover. Better safe than sorry. At some point they also have to work organizationally.

In training, he learned that « agile » raises employee motivation and productivity. Unfortunately, productivity has decreased, as he sees in his system reports. But that is also understandable because you are now making « agile ». That also costs time: writing Karterl, writing tickets for the Karterl letter, stand-ups, retrospectives. But that has to be.

The employee motivation has also dropped. After three years, people still haven’t recognized the added value. Only Bernd is a fire and flame. Bernd has put himself into the topic and read a lot about it. Bernd would also like to do the Scrum Master, but they don’t make Scrum. Bernd suggests the title « Kanban Master ». Cat crawl is not ready to use Bernd’s workforce for it. Unfortunately, Bernd gets the other nerves on his nerves. Pretty nerves. One almost wants to say that he sees himself as an agile enlightened person and preaches the other on every opportunity how great it is not – and could still be. Bernd mostly eats at noon alone.

The employees are still with cat crawlers and complain about the usual things like dirty toilets, too little salary, overtime, bad canteen. He does not understand why « agile » and the associated freedoms do not let them overlook them. He would have learned that in training.

Unfortunately, he and his team must continue to fill out the same performance reports weekly. That hasn’t changed. His group leader Löwenzahn cannot do anything because his department head Tiger bites still insist. But you already know that, there is a team meeting with everyone for it.

For three years, Katzenkraler has been leading agile. Three long years. Last night he was unable to sleep and pondered why neither motivation nor productivity have improved. The answer is clear: the agile stuff does not work. His two team leader colleagues Mäuselack and hamster wheel report similarly than they were on a beer last week. They both think about leading more directly. Just like before. Introduce Command & Control. It was never completely gone to be honest. The times become tough, as a team leader you have to take on more responsibility again. You can’t pass everything on the team. He will talk to dandelion, his group leader, whether he can not stamp all of this again. The dandelion was never a fan of it anyway.

Only the sweetness – Klaus can still bring that further.