Unlike traditional teams, self-organizing teams do not wait for managers to assign any work to them. Instead, they identify all the work that needs to be done, prioritize tasks that are required, and manage the timelines on their own.
Every member of a self-organizing team sees the list of pending tasks as what is remaining for the entire team and not just for the individual.
The biggest advantage with self-organizing teams is that instead of a manager pushing’s tasks, team members get to decide what tasks they want to work on.
Why do you Need Self Organizing Teams in an Agile Environment? – Kiss Flow Project
What is a
self-organizing
team?
A self-organizing team has the autonomy to decide as a group how they will work together, who will take ownership of different processes or decisions along the way, and ultimately, how they will get the work done.
Each team and product goal is different, not every Agile team will self-organize in the same way.
Each team is empowered to operate in the way that works best for them—ideally leading to more effective and efficient processes that deliver greater value.
Agile self-organizing teams: What they are and why they work – Lucid Spark
Challenges faced by the
self-organizing teams
Team inertia
The teams are enthusiastic about the agile transformation in the beginning but when challenges surface, it’s a common tendency to fall back to old ways of working.
Different personality traits
There are loners, who are happy with the clacking sound of keywords and go on without social interaction of any kind. Extroverts, on the other hand, thrive on interactions.
Why do you Need Self Organizing Teams in an Agile Environment? – Kiss Flow Project
Challenges faced by
the self-organizing teams
Ineffective communication
The very idea of self-organizing teams depends on effective project communication. If there aren’t proper communication channels, then the whole idea collapses. This is particularly important for geographically-dispersed teams.
Absence of individual accountability
One of the most common arguments against self-organizing teams is the perceived drop in efficiency and a lack of individual accountability. Since all members of the team participate in time-consuming meetings, individual productivity can be affected.
Why do you Need Self Organizing Teams in an Agile Environment? – Kiss Flow Project
Key characteristics of a
self-organized team
Competency
Members need to have confidence in their own project management skills and the skills of their colleagues to accomplish tasks.
Respect and trust in the team
Team members need to have trust in the skills of their co-workers and believe that everyone can get the work done
Teamwork and collaboration
Self-organizing teams need to be highly collaborative and work as a close unit.
Continuous improvement and growth
Members need to seek opportunities growth and look for the different ways that they can improve their skills to increase productivity levels.
Ownership
All the members of a self-organizing team should have a strong sense of ownership and commitment towards their work
Why do you Need Self Organizing Teams in an Agile Environment? – Kiss Flow Project
Advantages to
self-organizing teams
Enhanced collaboration
Instead of waiting for a manager to assign work and then putting their heads down and getting the task done, each team member communicates and decides together how the work will be distributed and accomplished. This helps team members ensures everyone is aligned throughout the development process.
Team buy-in and ownership
When people are empowered to make decisions, they’re more likely to be invested in those decisions and motivated to do the work to reach their goals. This leads to greater engagement and productivity across the team.
Learning from peers and seniors
Increased collaboration provides greater opportunities for team members to listen to and learn from each other through the brainstorming, planning,
and problem-solving process. It can also lead to valuable
mentoring relationships.
Close team bonding
Instead of sending people off to complete their assignments independently, self-organizing teams work together closely to plan the work and meet their goals. The process is more collaborative and requires trust and respect across the board.
Agile self-organizing teams: What they are and why they work – Lucid Spark
The role of managers in a self-organizing team
Management is typically responsible for
Putting the team together
Clarifying product goals and project constraints
Facilitating effective collaboration and development
Removing obstacles and barriers to success
Ideally, managers should act as team facilitators and servant leaders, helping the team self-organize effectively while stepping back to give team members room to problem solve and make decisions themselves.
Agile self-organizing teams: What they are and why they work – Lucid Spark | Credit: Pexels
How to help a
self-organizing team succeed
Throwing a group of people together and leaving them to self-organize isn’t going to magically produce great results. That’s why you need specific structures, tools, and resources in place to set your team up for success.
Agile self-organizing teams: What they are and why they work – Lucid Spark
How to Build a self-organized team in an agile environment
The first step towards creating a successful self-organizing team is,
To pick out the right members who can actually work proactively without a manager constantly looking over their shoulders.
A cross-functional team where members have all the necessary skills to implement the required tasks, which may even lead to a larger team size than desired initially.
Why do you Need Self Organizing Teams in an Agile Environment? – Kiss Flow Project | Credit: Pexels
Before establishing a self-organizing team
,all the members should go through the following phases
Training
Team members need to be trained in order to properly understand the principles of a self-organizing team.
Coaching
The responsibility of the coach is to help team members work and communicate together in a seamless way.
Mentoring
The main goal of mentoring is to help the entire team stay motivated and grow together.
Why do you Need Self Organizing Teams in an Agile Environment? – Kiss Flow Project
Self-organized teams are crucial for agile projects
The ability of teams to self-organize around project goals has now become crucial to all agile methodologies. By using the collective wisdom of the entire team, members are able to optimally organize work in a way that a single manager just can’t.
While it can take time for teams to understand and implement the concepts of self-organization, but with the right project management software in addition to training, mentoring, and guidance it is definitely possible for self-organizing teams to perform well in an agile environment
Credit: Pexels
Agile self-organizing teams:
What they are and why they work
By LucidSpark
Challenges to self-organizing teams
You might be thinking “Self-organization sounds great on paper, but it’s not practical. People need leaders.” And you’re not wrong. Implementation can be a challenge for both teams and management.
Leaders may struggle to know how much freedom to give their developers while balancing the strategic needs of the company or department.
This can make the transition to Agile self-organizing teams bumpy. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth it. You just need the right facilitators and resources in place.
Agile self-organizing teams: What they are and why they work – Lucid Spark | Credit: Pexels
1. Provide proper training
Make sure your development team is highly skilled and trained for success within a self-organizing framework.
Provide regular training on both hard skills and soft skills to ensure competency and efficiency while enhancing communication and collaboration between team members.
Help your Scrum Masters become expert trainers and coaches through certification programs.
Agile self-organizing teams: What they are and why they work – Lucid Spark
2. Coach and mentor your Agile teams
It’s important to provide ongoing coaching and mentoring opportunities to your Agile teams. People who haven’t worked in self-organizing teams before will likely need extra guidance and support in the beginning.
Pair programming assigns two developers to work together at a workstation, switching off between the “driver” and the “observer.”
As your teams become more comfortable with self-organizing and learn to take initiative and collaborate confidently, the role of the coach will be less prominent.
Agile self-organizing teams: What they are and why they work – Lucid Spark | Credit: Pexels
3. Facilitate communication and collaboration
Create a team working agreement to mitigate conflict
Work together to draft a team agreement on how to handle conflict or communication issues that may arise throughout the project. Creating a team work pact helps set expectations for communication and team interactions, and keeps everyone on the same page should conflicts come up.
Visualize your roadmap
With so many moving pieces to juggle, it’s easy for communication to break down or assignments to get lost in the mix. Visualizing your plans makes it easier for teams to quickly see progress at-a-glance and communicate from a shared source of truth.
Agile self-organizing teams: What they are and why they work – Lucid Spark | Credit: Pexels
Three Common Misunderstandings Of Self-Organized Teams
By Steffan Surdek
What is self-organization?
A team that has a certain level of decision-making authority. This level may change and evolve over time, but there is a clear sandbox defined where teams can make decisions.
A team that is working toward meeting their emerging vision.
A team that takes ownership of how they work and continuously evolves through having a continuous improvement mindset. In other words, where they are today is not where they will be six months from now.
Three Common Misunderstandings Of Self-Organized Teams – Steffan Surdek
The team has to decide everything
Imagine for a moment you are leading your team in a change initiative. What is the container or structure that you would like the team to use? Should they do a plan-do-check-act cycle? What does that cycle look like?
The answer depends a lot on the maturity of the team and their capability.
The other key decision factor is the capacity of the team to make decisions together. There is some learning needed to become a team, and it can be useful for the leader to provide an initial structure.
Credit: Pexels
The team made this decision, I cannot change it
There is a myth a belief out there that when a team is self-organized, the manager needs to completely disappear, do nothing and say nothing.
The truth of the matter is these teams operate in the context of a business, and in this context there are some accountabilities that need to remain with managers, general managers and executives.
There needs to be clarity for the teams; there needs to be a sandbox within which self-organization is possible. When the team wants to make decisions that are outside that sandbox, it is the role of their manager to point it out to the team and bring them back into the sandbox.
Three Common Misunderstandings Of Self-Organized Teams – Steffan Surdek
We are a self-organized team, you cannot tell us what to do…
This is the stronger weaponized use of the term self-organized team. This one happens when the team is pushing back against a perceived authority figure.
During this time, they have a strong belief that they no longer need the authority figures, although whenever it seems convenient you hear them express they still do.
The challenge here is teaching the teams they can self-organize, but within a certain sandbox. There are some things they may decide and other things they cannot.
Three Common Misunderstandings Of Self-Organized Teams – Steffan Surdek | Credit: Pexels
References
Why do you Need Self Organizing Teams in an Agile Environment? – Kiss Flow Project
Agile self-organizing teams: What they are and why they work – Lucid Spark
Three Common Misunderstandings Of Self-Organized Teams – Steffan Surdek
