RE: Re: Do C-Level managers, and business drivers really need to know about XP?

Hi Jason,

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jason Smith/EIG [mailto:[email protected]]
> Sent: Thursday, February 13, 2003 8:54 AM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: RE: [xpAdoption] Re: Do C-Level managers, and 
> business drivers
> really need to know about XP?
> 
> 
> 
> <ropa>
> that was what I tried. That was not the result I got.  I assigned him
> something.  He didn't like it. He asked me to assign him something
> else.......months go by following this cycle.  Every time, I start by
> asking him to pick something, we go back and forth, I 
> eventually assign him
> something.  He doesn't like it......  If this were just one 
> individual, I
> would just write him off as an anomaly, but this actually is 
> an amalgam of
> about 70% of my team.
> </ropa>
> 
> How would you feel about having a meeting of your team where 
> you outline
> your expectations in this regard?
> 
I tried that one too.  Got lots of head nods, lots of agreement, little action.  As I pointed out before, there were a few who "got it" and they are doing quite well.  And yes, they end up with the best assignments and the most fun.  The nature of our group is that we periodically have overseas work, and it isn't a coincidence that the guy who embraced everything about XP is not only doing the best work, but gets the Brazil assignments.

> <ropa>
> On another note, after a few conversations with my vp, I 
> think I know where
> this is coming from.  The vp preceded me here by about a year.  His
> attitude towards the team members is that they are pluggable 
> units that
> pretty much don't have the ability to make decisions by 
> themselves anyway.
> Those of you who have seen any of my posts in the past will 
> know that this
> is very much NOT my way of thinking.  I am thinking that he probably
> "programmed" them into believing this as well. I am 
> deprogramming them, I
> think.  My evidence is those members who seem to be emerging 
> from the haze
> and doing new and exciting things.  It probably goes without 
> saying, but
> those are also the people that my VP is having the most 
> difficulty with....
> </ropa>
> 
> Ah yes, the old "people behaving as you assume they will behave"
> phenomenon!  And what are the particular difficulties that 
> your VP seems to
> be having?  A little erosion of the traditional power, 
> perhaps?  A little
> recognition that management of knowledge workers is a little more
> complicated than control and dominance?  A little problem 
> with trust or
> perhaps some anxiety about his or her own career?

I thinnk it is more a realization that his own technical skills have gone stale.  He sees these folks being moved in a direction that he feels invalidates his own "primacy".  

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