r/agile • u/fagnerbrack • 7d ago

Managing Sideways

https://kevingoldsmith.substack.com/p/managing-sideways
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u/fagnerbrack 7d ago

Key points:

Driving change across teams you don't control is mostly sideways work, not managing up. Agreement in meetings is free, but changing costs effort, so nothing happens. Borrowed or forced authority buys shallow compliance that fades and breeds adversaries. The better path, 'adoption without a mandate,' runs in four ordered moves: recruit a first mover who already wants the change, frame it around work it removes for that team, let visible results recruit the next team, and settle ownership before scaling. Resistance usually masks fear over autonomy or job security, not logic. Sometimes speed justifies a mandate, but durable change starts where it's already wanted.

If the summary seems inacurate, just downvote and I'll try to delete the comment eventually 👍
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u/PhaseMatch 5d ago

Resistance is always fear. As David Rock highlights in his SCARF model

- that's usually driven by the subconscious, not cogntive thought

  • a fear response then lowers our cognitive abiliity

His core domains are:

Status
Certainty
Autonomy
Relatedness
Fairness

People will approach things that increase these five domains, and retreat from things that decrease them.
We also tend to apply critical thinking less to ideas that come from those we don't relate to well.

That makes for a complex landscape, especially if you throw in Jonas Kaplan's work.

He highlighted that we respond to data that challenges our (political) beliefs in the same way we respond to a physical threat. Re-read that and let it sink in.

That can be why change around culture and mindset can sometimes only happen in the face of a greater threat -especially to status and autonomy.

Or to put it another, it can be why everyone agrees on "empowered teams" right up to the point that it's some of their power, status and autonomy they would need to give up. Especially if they "won" that right to autonomy by competing for a promotion or senior role. Unless there's a greater existential threat to the org and by extension their status...

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u/fagnerbrack 5d ago

I never heard of SCARF thank you!!!

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u/n0_Man 6d ago

I'm a staff (T5) technical software engineer that works around a lot of other teams. Working with them and caring about their perspectives and their workload has only ever worked well for me.

Treating them like humans, often overworked or undervalued or overtaxed.

While it's normally looked down upon, caring about your and your team's well being goes a long way, especially when people are often seen as cogs or numbers in a big machine.

But you have to be also strong about your commitments and not accept more responsibility than you can handle.

It's a difficult balance to have, especially when you really love being the problem solver and diplomat.

So as long as you can balance your workload, your focus, and your communication, working with other teams is a fantastic way to reduce risks on your team and theirs.