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Want to Grow Your Self-Organizing Team? Just BEGIN!

Shawn Button Chris Farrell

•Introduction•Exercise #1•What is self-organization?•How do you enable self-

organization?•Exercise #2•Questions

Agenda

Exercise #1

Drawing Exercise

Get together with others and produce a drawing that shows the benefits of a self-organizing team.

•Form into groups of 3 or 4 people•You have 10 minutes•Everyone at the table should draw

at least part of the drawing

Begin!

Drawing Exercise - Debrief

Volunteers to explain their drawing.

Self-Organization

"Self-organization is the process where a structure or pattern appears in a system without a central authority or external element imposing it through planning"

- Wikipedia

Self-Organizing Systems

•Spontaneous emergence of order and behaviour

•Sum is greater than the parts•Robust, adapting, self-healing•Not planned or directed •Influenced by initial conditions•Influenced by feedback or changing

conditions

"Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done."

- Agile Manifesto Principles

Agile and Self-Organization

But, are there problems?

•Company Levelo Team runs into conflicts with company

cultureo “That’s not how we do things here”

•Manager Levelo Some managers will not trust the team

to deliver. They fear losing control

•People Levelo Teams may feel leaderless, abandoned

and directionlesso People might want more certainty

Problems Trying Self-Organization

How to enable self-organization

•Not through planning•Setup the initial conditions•Continually tune

•Boundarieso What the team must do, or must not do

•Empowermento What authority is granted to the team

•Goalso The reasons the team exists

•Ingredientso The raw materials for success

•Nurtureo Ongoing feedback and evolution

BEGIN

Boundaries

BEGIN - Boundaries

•Depending on the maturity of the team and the organization, you may not be able to completely empower a team

•Explicitly list the things that a team must do, and must not do

•You should try to keep the conditions as unrestrictive as possible to increase the level of self-organization

Beware of

Electric Fences

Boundaries and Empowerment

Two Side of the Same Coin

•Boundarieso What the team must do, or must not do

•Empowermento What authority is granted to the team

•Goalso The reasons the team exists

•Ingredientso The raw materials for success

•Nurtureo Ongoing feedback and evolution

BEGIN

Empowerment

BEGIN - Empowerment

•What authority is granted?•Be explicit about what they are allowed

to do•examples, the team may:

o choose own toolso make own day-to-day scheduleo manage own vacationso decide on architecture

•Err on the side of trust and respect

•Boundarieso What the team must do, or must not do

•Empowermento What authority is granted to the team

•Goalso The reasons the team exists

•Ingredientso The raw materials for success

•Nurtureo Ongoing feedback and evolution

BEGIN

Goals

•Why does the team exist?•Don't control - tell them what

the goal is, but not how to achieve it

•Side effect - motivationo Increased sense of purpose and

commitment

BEGIN - Goals

Boundaries, Empowerments and Goals

A Contract Between Management and the Team

•Boundarieso What the team must do, or must not do

•Empowermento What authority is granted to the team

•Goalso The reasons the team exists

•Ingredientso The raw materials for success

•Nurtureo Ongoing feedback and evolution

BEGIN

Ingredients

Does the team have what they need to thrive?

•People, e.g.:o technical skills required by the worko interpersonal skills to work as a teamo If these are not there need to add or work

on them

•Resourceso required toolso access to informationo education

BEGIN - Ingredients

•Boundarieso What the team must do, or must not do

•Empowermento What authority is granted to the team

•Goalso The reasons the team exists

•Ingredientso The raw materials for success

•Nurtureo Ongoing feedback and evolution

BEGIN

Nurture

•On an ongoing basis you need to provide feedback to amplify the behaviour you want and dampen the behaviour you don't want

•Use feedback rather than imposing control

BEGIN - Nurture through Feedback

Evolution of Self Organization

Once teams have grown and earned trust change conditions to reduce control and encourage further self-organizationo Boundaries should move to

Empowerment, enabling self-organizationo Goal - should from from specific work to a

Vision, allowing the team to innovateo This is how you unleash the teams

potential!

BEGIN - Nurture through Evolution

"Agile managers work the system, not the people" - Jurgen Appelo, author of Management 3.0

Drawing - Debrief

How does the drawing exercise fit the BEGIN model?Boundaries• Groups of 3 or 4• 10 minutes• Everyone at the table should drawEmpowerment• You choose the teams• You decide what and how to drawGoal• Produce drawing showing benefits of self-organizationIngredients• paper, pens, table, youNurture• Shawn walking around, giving feedback

Drawing Exercise - Debrief

Exercise #2

Either:1.Pick someone at the table who has a

situation where they want to encourage self-organization

Or:2.Canned Situation: You have hired a

completely new team. Apply the BEGIN model in the context of someone at table's company.

15 minutes - Begin!

Exercise - BEGIN Solving a Problem

•Boundarieso What the team must do, or must not do

•Empowermento What authority is granted to the team

•Goalso The reasons the team exists

•Ingredientso The raw materials for success

•Nurtureo Ongoing feedback and evolution

BEGIN

Exercise DebriefVolunteers to present to group

Further Reading

Further Reading

Further Reading