Managing self organizing teams an old school management dilemma

Editor's Notes

• #5: But sometimes managers just don’t get it:Waterfall/Command & Control managers can kill agile team progressI’ve seen it before – good agile development progress, then a crisis or new VP pulls the rug, back to C&CAnd, they do risk getting run over
• #6: Deal with change, embrace it rather than fight it, take advantage of opportunities, save some time and money, make our customers happy.Mechanical progress, electronic progress, software progressCustomer progress? Management progress? People progress? ChangeA given in the worldWe have learned to cope with itBut we resist it
• #7: A team can do more that a bunch of individualsLeverage each others capabilities and strengthsCreative interchange of ideasSelf-organization removes command & control, provides for autonomyAgile and Scrum recognize and build on the benefits
• #8: Scrum and Agile Teams self-organizing, cross functionalHarness knowledge, creativity of the whole teamUse their intellectual capacityGive the team the space it needs to function effectively
• #9: Scrum without self-organization and empowerment is a death march, just like waterfall, but an iterative, incremental death march without slack.Scrum builds on the core principle of people being the value in organizations.
• #10: We’re doing agile /Scrum for software development, but …The problem – If the whole organization doesn’t move to agile/Scrum, organizational gravity will pull everything back to where you started. You need to make Scrum stick.Over time the development teams modify Scrum and introduce Scrum-buts to adapt to “the way we do it around here” and processes are pulled back to what they were before (rather than continuing to push for doing Scrum right). We call this organizational gravity. Scrum isn’t sticking. What can we do about it? Management has to change!
• #12: The don’t harness people’s full capabilities.More focus on sameness than leveraging specializationCommand and control management
• #13: Using people as people, allowing/encouraging creativity, team workWorking at a sustainable pace
• #14: Continuing on leadershipFacilitate professional and personal growth
• #15: Parallel discussion to HBR articleMotivating with KITANegative Physical KITANegative Psychological KITAPositive KITAKITA is not MotivationHerzberg’s research found that the factors involved in producing job satisfaction (and motivation) are separate and distinct from the factors that lead to job dissatisfaction.
• #17: As humans, we are not content with the just the context of lower-order needs at work, for example, those associated with minimum salary levels or safe and pleasant working conditions. Rather, we look for the gratification of higher-level psychological needs having to do with achievement, recognition, responsibility, advancement, and the nature of the work itself.
• #18: Since separate factors need to be considered, it follows that these two feelings are not opposites of each other.The dual nature of humansAvoidance of painSeeking psychological growth
• #19: So how’s the work context?Has the heat been turned up to get the job done? High pressure deadlines? Working weekends with some “old iron?”Maybe a pointy-haired boss trying to micro-manage, team members struggling to work together.Lousy pay, hours long, benefits bad, will we have jobs next week?These are all job context issues. When not managed well, they detract from work getting done. People experience dissatisfaction.
• #20: Hygiene factors (e.g. status, job security, salary, fringe benefits, work conditions) that do not give positive satisfaction, though dissatisfaction results from their absence. These are extrinsic to the work itself, and include aspects such as company policies, supervisory practices, or wages/salary
• #22: Man the animal
• #24: Improper AdministrationKITACompensatory hygieneSubstitution hygieneProtestant ethic hygieneIdeological hygieneBe decent, don’t use as a KITAAddress the problem, don’t substitute as will just create a new source of dissatisfactionAgain, keep it simple to minimize more sources of dissatisfactionDon’t outdo yourself about how decent you are. It can easily backfire.Hygiene (work context) management is preventative management.
• #25: Motivators (e.g., challenging work, recognition, responsibility) that give positive satisfaction, arising from intrinsic conditions of the job itself, such as recognition, achievement, or personal growth
• #26: Psychological growthKnowing moreRelationships in knowledgeCreativityEffectiveness in ambiguityIndividuationReal growthDynamics of Motivators – Job ContentRelated to approach behaviorsDeal with job contentFinite sources from which to obtain motivator satisfactionMotivators produce “more than” feelingsMotivator effects are long-termThey are additiveMotivators have a non-escalating zero pointThere are answers to motivator needs
• #27: Man uniquely humanShort discussion of each in motivator contextFirst two – shorter term, preparatory motivatorsLast three – longer term, motivation generators
• #29: Managing the MotivatorsIs hygiene getting in the way?Technical competence OK?Are we using people’s capabilities?All attitudes are proper attitudesWhich behavior is being reinforced and how?Dynamics of Motivators – Job ContentRelated to approach behaviorsDeal with job contentFinite sources from which to obtain motivator satisfactionMotivators produce “more than” feelingsMotivator effects are long-termThey are additiveMotivators have a non-escalating zero pointThere are answers to motivator needs
• #31: The first ratio determines what a person is capable of doing. The more a person is capable of the more you can motivate him to do. This is getting the right person into the right job where his/her abilities can be manifested.The second ratio determines how much of a person’s talent or capability can come forth on the job. You can’t motivate anyone to do a good job unless he/she has a good job to do.The last variable is the nature of the feedback or reinforcement that is given for performance. It is what the person actually accomplished.
• #32: Leadership – it’s not the same as management, but related … and necessary!Provide a vision of where the ship is headed and make sure everyone understands it.Create a team cultureProvide support, not escalationRemove rules, give autonomyLead people, manage stuffTake money off the table
• #34: Winning coaches like John Wooden built on team work and fundamentals.OK, you have a collection of individual potential superstars. But that isn’t team!Self-organization rarely happens on its own. Self-organization requires a common goal, boundaries and knowledge of some simple rules. Learning the self-organized team behaviors takes time and determination. The whole team has to walk a path from rookie to an expert and needs different styles of support from directing to delegating. A good Scrum Master or decent Agile coach rarely if ever tells the team to do whatever they want from the day one of the Agile adoption. Learning the new way of working takes time and in the very beginning the amount of guidance might be even bigger, than in the world of “command andcontrol”. The Coach just has to be clear that it is temporary and is needed only because the team is new to the process.
• #35: Boundaries!Driving the autobahn requires respect for boundariesDriving in the proper lane, only pass on the left, Define limits where necessary for your teams, focus on what needs to be done and turn them looseSelf-organization does not mean that workers instead of managers engineer an organization design. It does not mean letting people do whatever they want to do. It means that management commits to guiding the evolution of behaviors that emerge from the interaction of independent agents instead of specifying in advance what effective behavior is. Teams self-organize around the achievement of a goal.Self-organizing teams are not free from management control. Management chooses for them what product to build or often chooses who will work on their project, but they are nonetheless self-organizing. Neither are they free from influence.A Scrum team’s job is to self-organize around the challenges, and within the boundaries and constraints, put in place by management. Management’s job is to come up with appropriate challenges and remove impediments to self-organization. That being said, the fewer constraints or controls put on a team, the better. If leaders overly constrain how a team solves the challenge given to it, self-organization will not occur. The team will shut down; because it has already been told so much about the challenge and how to solve it, it will wait to hear the rest. So how does an agile leader achieve the subtle balance between command and influence?
• #36: A self-organizing team is a team that is led and organized by it's members, to attain goals and objectives specified by management within the constraints of its environment:Management can shape and "nudge" the team and its members, but management doesn't try to dictate the details of "what" the solution is nor the process of how to create it. The team is responsible for not only leading and organizing itself to achieve its goals, but also to monitor and adapt its behavior to correct/improve its own performance. This means the team can change how it leads and organizes itself in order to respond to feedback and constraints from its environment, which also implies that ...There is no single central "leader" for the team over the lifetime of the team/project - the "leader" is not a static assignment, but rather a dynamic role So the person(s) leading any given moment may change, depending on the particular decision, activity, or problem being addressed in any particular context/situation.No matter the specific problem, if you see that the team has self-organized in a way that impedes it, it is your responsibility to find a way to agitate, stir up, or otherwise disturb the status quo, so that the team adjusts, hopefully reorganizing in a more productive way.There is more to leading a self-organizing team than buying pizza and getting out of the way. Leaders influence teams in subtle and indirect ways. It is impossible for a leader to accurately predict how a team will respond to a change, whether that change is a different team composition, new standards of performance, a vicarious selection system, or so on. Leaders do not have all the answers. What they do have is the ability to agitate teams (and the organization itself) toward becoming more agile. Coach to disturb the status quo when necessary“Subtle control is also consistent with the self-organizing character of project teams.”
• #37: tuckman forming storming norming performing modelThis was before the agile concept of self organizing teams but we can learn from the model.Bruce Tuckman's 1965 Forming Storming Norming Performing team-development modelHere are the features of each phase: forming - stage 1High dependence on leader for guidance and direction. Little agreement on team aims other than received from leader. Individual roles and responsibilities are unclear. Leader must be prepared to answer lots of questions about the team's purpose, objectives and external relationships. Processes are often ignored. Members test tolerance of system and leader. Leader directs (similar to Situational Leadership® 'Telling' mode).storming - stage 2Decisions don't come easily within group. Team members vie for position as they attempt to establish themselves in relation to other team members and the leader, who might receive challenges from team members. Clarity of purpose increases but plenty of uncertainties persist. Cliques and factions form and there may be power struggles. The team needs to be focused on its goals to avoid becoming distracted by relationships and emotional issues. Compromises may be required to enable progress. Leader coaches (similar to Situational Leadership® 'Selling' mode).norming - stage 3Agreement and consensus is largely forms among team, who respond well to facilitation by leader. Roles and responsibilities are clear and accepted. Big decisions are made by group agreement. Smaller decisions may be delegated to individuals or small teams within group. Commitment and unity is strong. The team may engage in fun and social activities. The team discusses and develops its processes and working style. There is general respect for the leader and some of leadership is more shared by the team. Leader facilitates and enables (similar to the Situational Leadership® 'Participating' mode).performing - stage 4The team is more strategically aware; the team knows clearly why it is doing what it is doing. The team has a shared vision and is able to stand on its own feet with no interference or participation from the leader. There is a focus on over-achieving goals, and the team makes most of the decisions against criteria agreed with the leader. The team has a high degree of autonomy. Disagreements occur but now they are resolved within the team positively and necessary changes to processes and structure are made by the team. The team is able to work towards achieving the goal, and also to attend to relationship, style and process issues along the way. team members look after each other. The team requires delegated tasks and projects from the leader. The team does not need to be instructed or assisted. Team members might ask for assistance from the leader with personal and interpersonal development. Leader delegates and oversees (similar to the Situational Leadership® 'Delegating' mode).
• #39: The BP TransOceanDeepwater Horizon blowout in the gulf – if you watched the 60-Minutes report, read the recent AP articles, or National Geographic special on this there were a series of decisions and actions where the team didn’t push back but may have avoided the disaster. Make sure the team is empowered to act toward achievement of objectives, make tough decisions when necessary.
• #40: Agile teams do not need managers directing their work. Instead, the manager’s role is to set the team up for success and then support from the outside – from the boundary of the team itself. Teams need sponsors outside their boundaries who can champion and cheer them through their challenges. An agile manager’s goal is to enable the team to solve its own problems and come up with its own amazing insights and products. Skills such as assessing team health, removing organizational impediments, making room for failure, and having the ability to coach become central. - Lyssa Adkins