Foundations for self-organization long v5

1

Foundations for Self-Organization

@svante_lidmansvante@ivarjacobson.comselforgteam.blogspot.com

www.ivarjacobson.com http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fugle,_%C3%B8rns%C3%B8_073.jpg

svante.lidman@gmail.com

I no longer work here.

2

Licensing of this presentation

The art work in this presentation is licensed under the terms defined by each respective source as indicated on each respective slide. If no source is given, then the artwork is in the public domain.

Trademarks and books, depicted in the presentation are owned by the respective tradmark owner are only included for reference purposes and is not in any way an endorsement of the presentation contents.

If you make use of this material in whole or part, you should clearly state the source.

All original art work and the presentation as such is is licensed underCreative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

3

Why this talk?

Self-organizing Teams?

4

• Countless blog items, articles, papers...• Ph D Thesis: Self-Organizing Teams a Grounded Theory

5http://www.ericsson.com/res/thecompany/images/press/photos/mwc2012/ericsson_barcelona_janwareby.jpg

6

1. Why do we want self-organizing teams?2. Complexity Science - A possible

misconception3. Intelligent agents4. People5. Psychology6. Goals, Planning and Governance7. The Research8. My GUT of Self-Organization

7

Why do we want self-organizing teams?

8

A team is a group of people with complementary talents and skills, aligned to a common purpose.

9

It is a Powerful Management Strategy

• End-to-end ownership Motivation Higher quality results

• Local decision making Adaptability Results more fit for purpose

• No hand-overs Reduced time-to-market

10

Guidance on Self-Organization

• Don’t assign roles• Don’t assign leadership• Don’t assign tasks• Don’t say how

http://http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stop_hand_nuvola_alternate.svg

11

Complexity Science - A possible misconception

12

Complex Adaptive System (Definition from Wikipedia)

• Complex, dynamic network of interactions and relationships

• Adaptive as behavior changes as a result of experience

• Key Principles– Self-Organization– Emergence

13 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/E-ticker.jpg

14http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Essaim_37_.jpg

15

The Trap

• We want self-organizing teams• Groups of people left on their own show

emergent behavior• Hence you can understand a self-organizing

team as a complex adaptive system...or?

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Schlagfalle-Kunststoff-Maus.jpg

16

Intelligent Agents

17

Agent

What action I should do

now?

Condition-action rules

What the world is like now Sensors

Actuators

Environment

Percepts

Actions

Simple Reflex Agent Svante Lidman

18

Agent

What action I should do

now?

Condition-action rules

What the world is like now Sensors

Actuators

Environment

Percepts

Actions

Agent with State

State

How the world evolves

What my actions do

Svante Lidman

19

Agent

What action I should do

now?Goals

What the world is like now Sensors

Actuators

Environment

Percepts

Actions

Agent with Explicit Goal

State

How the world evolves

What my actions do

What it will be like if I do action A

Svante Lidman

20

Agent

What action I should do

now?

Utility

What the world is like now Sensors

Actuators

Environment

Percepts

Actions

Utility –based Agent

State

How the world evolves

What my actions do

What it will be like if I do action A

How happy will I be then?

Svante Lidman

21

Agent A

Environment

Percepts

Multi AgentSystem

Agent B

Agent C

Actions

Percepts

Actions

AgentProtocol

Percepts

Actions

Svante Lidman

22

What agents need to self-organize

1. Knowledge and Learning– About the environment– About goals and utility– About how to do the job – or how to learn

it

2. Communication– Shared ontology

3. Decision Making

23

People

24http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vertebrate-brain-regions.png

25http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:RobertFuddBewusstsein17Jh.pnghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Descartes_mind_and_body.gifhttp://www.oddee.com/item_96602.aspx

26

Psychology

Motivation Group Dynamics

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carrot_and_stick_motivation.svghttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hands_4_Holding.jpg

27

Motivation

28http:// commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carrot_and_stick_motivation.svg

29

Autonomy

Competence

Relatedness

Self-Determination

Theory

Self-Determination Theory, Deci and Ryan Svante Lidman

30

Group Dynamics

31Susan Wheelan, Integrated Model of Group Development

Inclusionand

safety

Disagreementand

conflict

Trustand structure Work Termination

Dependency Counterdependency Mutual Dependency

Focus on relations Focus on work

Svante Lidman

32

Goals, Planning, Decision Making, Governance

33

SMART is not always Smart

• Useless goals – Maximize shareholder value– Increase market share X %– Customer satisfaction to increase X %– Productivity to increase X %

• A useful goal should energize people and be a guiding star helping teams to self-organize– Commanders intent – the why– End state – the desired effect– The main effort – the most important what

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Basketball_Goal.jpg

34

Examples of useful goals

35

Planning, Decisions, Governance• More important when you scale up• Planning at the right level, with the right detail, at the right time

– Common backlog– Roadmaps – Focus areas for different teams– Clear sprint objective – main effort

• Decisions– Decisions at the right level at the right time

• Governance– Peer to peer coordination– Continuous integration is a

kind of coordination– Guardianship

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chinese_Wall.JPG

36

The Research

37

Self-Organizing Agile Teams: A Grounded TheoryRashina HodaDoctoral Thesis: Victoria University of Wellington

http://researcharchive.vuw.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10063/1617/thesis.pdf

38

Balance

• Freedom vs Responsibility• Specialization vs Generalization• Learning vs Delivery• Centralization vs Decentralization• Risk of Failure vs Urge to Succeed• Planning vs Improvisation• Analysis vs Action

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Balance_%C3%A0_tabac_1850.JPG

39

Summing it up...

40

My GUT of Self-Organization1. Knowledge and Learning

– About the environment– About goals and utility– About how to do the job – or how to learn it

2. Communication– Shared ontology

3. Actionability– Planning– Decision making– Asynchronuous governance

4. Motivation5. Group Dynamics

– Relationships– Shared memes

6. Balance

41

Thank You!@svante_lidman

svante@ivarjacobson.comselforgteam.blogspot.com

www.ivarjacobson.com

svante.lidman@gmail.com

I no longer work here.

45

46

47

48

Self-Organization(Definition from Wikipedia)

Self-organization is the process where a structure or pattern appears without a central authority or external element imposing it through planning. This appears from the local interaction of the elements that make up the system, thus the organization is achieved in a way that is parallel and distributed.

49

Emergence is the way complex systems and patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions.

Emergence(Definition from Wikipedia)

50

Complex Adaptive Systems(Definition from Wikipedia)

• The number of elements is sufficiently large that conventional descriptions are impractical

• …• Elements in the system are ignorant of the

behavior of the system as a whole, responding only to what is available to it locally

• …

51

Complication

52

53

54

55

56

Goals

57

58

59

60

61

But...There is a Catch

62