#163 – MAMIL – MiMLA

There are definitely good reasons for MiMLAs’ resistance to agile; sometimes, it’s because they haven’t bought into the purpose of the agile ways of working, but much more often, it’s because they don’t understand their role as Middle Management in an agile organization.

In our opinion, Middle Management is there to enable the empowerment of the agile roles (i.e., accountabilities) in the organization. E.g., in some places, upper-level Management expects the actual product accountability to sit with the Line Managers, or that the People Managers are the ones actually managing conflicts and having one-to-one talks with team members. Here, helping Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches move these accountabilities over to Product Owners and Scrum Masters, respectively, is what these Managers should help make possible. And, if you can’t get them to buy in on it, try complimenting their bike gear.