Six Impossible Things

Recently we’ve been seeing a lot of things that just don’t happen in real life. A managing director at Bank of America abandons decades of organizational “best practices” and recreates his organization by letting people organize their own teams. And, if that weren’t unusual enough, the teams even choose their own coach. Impossible. A group of former managers reinvent their role as servants rather than masters. Also impossible.

Then other managers who have been working at the bank for more than twenty years abandon their lofty titles and move out of their corner offices to join software delivery teams. Clearly impossible. The final straw is seeing a Java developer happily learning COBOL from a mainframe programmer. If not impossible, rather improbable. So what’s going on? Join Dan North and Kyle Thomson as they discuss these impossible things and what else has been happening before breakfast. It's all mad as a hatter.

Transcript

1. “There is no use in trying” said Alice “One can’t believe impossible things” “I dare say that you haven’t had much practice” said the queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed in as many as six impossible things before breakfast”
2. ...six impossible things... An executive abandons years of organisational “best practice” People choose their own teams – and team leads! Managers reinvent themselves as servant­leaders Line managers join software delivery teams Java developer pairs on COBOL code Teams sharing code via internal open source
3. ...six impossible things... “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning” ­ Winston Churchill “Curiouser and curiouser,” said Alice
4. Dan North Dan North & Associates dan@dannorth.net ...six impossible things... Kyle Thomson Bank of America Merrill Lynch kyle.thomson@baml.com