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Meridian PointAuthor: Agile Meridian
The Meridian Point Podcast explores the intersection of disruption and innovation in today's rapidly evolving business landscape. While drawing on agile and lean principles, we focus on how leaders and organizations can harness disruption to drive positive change and create breakthrough innovations. Each episode features in-depth conversations with thought leaders, entrepreneurs, and change agents who share their real-world experiences and insights on transforming organizations, developing innovative solutions, and navigating change. From AI and emerging technologies to organizational transformation and leadership development, we explore how individuals and companies can not only adapt to disruption but use it as a catalyst for innovation. Whether you're a business leader looking to drive change, an entrepreneur seeking to disrupt your industry, or someone passionate about innovation, The Meridian Point Podcast offers practical strategies and inspiring stories to help you turn disruption into opportunity. Language: en Genres: Business, Management, Technology Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Management Myths Busted: Johanna Rothman on Real Organizational Change
Tuesday, 28 October, 2025
Episode Show Notes: Management Myths Busted with Johanna Rothman Guest: Johanna Rothman, The "Pragmatic Manager" & Author of 20+ Books Host: Kumar Dattatreyan Episode Date: October 21, 2025 Duration: ~41 minutes Watch on YouTube Why You Need to Listen Right Now Ever look around your "agile" organization and wonder why nothing's getting faster? Got all the JIRA boards, daily stand-ups, and sticky notes but teams still can't ship? Johanna Rothman calls this the "Agile Veneer." And she doesn't hold back. She drops truth bombs like "performance management is theater applied to cost of goods sold" and "stand-ups are a crutch." She's not here to make you comfortable—she's here to make you effective. The Big Aha Moments 🎯 The Agile Veneer Test You've got it when managers focus on "who's the expert" and "who's doing what" for performance reviews. That individual focus kills agility. The fix? Johanna doesn't care if you use Scrum, Kanban, or something you invented last Tuesday. What matters: Can your team release something useful every day or two? That's real agility. ⏱️ Wait Time is Your Silent Killer Wait time in organizations outweighs work time. Managers spend forever getting estimates for unstarted work. Teams stop to create ballpark numbers. Then more meetings to decide priorities. Johanna's solution? Measure how long from thinking about a decision to actually making it. Most managers have no clue. 🪨 Inch Pebbles Changed Everything Johanna got stuck at 90% done on her first job. Then 92%. Then 93%. Her manager taught her "inch pebbles"—one or two day tasks that are either done or not done. She's used them for 30 years. Today they're one or two day stories. 🤖 We're Using AI All Wrong Johanna wants AI to auto-tag 30 years of website content and reconcile multi-currency spreadsheets. Practical stuff. But vibe coding? Creates messes programmers have to clean up. Her question: Why not vibe code with a human, use test-driven development, and include AI as a partner? 💀 Two Management Myths That Need to Die Myth #1: Everyone must work at 100% utilization Wrong. You need peak effectiveness, not peak efficiency. Myth #2: If you're not typing, you're not working Programming is mostly reading code, understanding problems, designing, testing. Typing is the smallest piece. 📊 Performance Management is Theater Direct quote: "Performance management is theater applied to cost of goods sold." People need feedback, not evaluation. Not stack ranking. Want better performance? Fix the environment. Want to reduce costs? Reduce wait time between process steps. Best Quotes "The more a manager focuses on an individual, the less agile the team can be." "Managers do not have to manage with cost accounting." "A stand-up is a crutch." Why This Matters to You If your agile transformation is all show and no results, this conversation explains why—and what to do about it. This is 30 years of consulting, 20+ books, and what actually works versus what just looks good. Bottom line: Leaders who focus on feedback loops, team collaboration, and effectiveness over efficiency will have an unfair advantage. Listen & Subscribe 🎧 Find us: Search "Disruption and Innovation Podcast" on any podcast app 📺 Watch: YouTube - Meridian Point Channel Trust us: This 44-minute conversation will change how you think about agile, management, and real organizational effectiveness. P.S. If you've ever been frustrated by fake agile theater, you need to hear this episode.
