Towards self management

Many progressive organisations are seeking to practice self-management, but what does it really mean to work in a boss-less organisation and is it really possible?

The honest answer is ‘I don’t know’, but together with colleagues at the Community Building Collective in Gloucester, UK we’re learning practices that help to progress our understanding and establish an efficient way of working that avoids bureaucracy and encourages ownership and responsibility.

The Community Building Collective describes itself as an independent network of Community Builders, invited into local neighbourhoods across Gloucester to work alongside residents to strengthen communities — to grow confidence, ownership and lasting local connections.

Given that the project seeks to nurture the conditions that enables the community to take action on what’s important to them. It makes sense that the same values are mirrored in the culture of this emerging team.

For those that are curious about what this means practically, I though it might be useful to document our observations, as we learn about self-management.

Observation 1:

No idea what to call this approach! Some refer to it as ‘TEAL’, taking inspiration from Frederick LaLoux’s book ‘Reinventing Organisations’, others suggest it is about next stage practice, with others describe horizonal structures or self-management. Probably, like you I’m not sure either, but I’ve settled on self-management for now, as it feels like it’s the clearest and most descriptive term.

Observation 2:

Using a Kanban Board. Kanban Boards have three categories ‘to do’, ‘in progress’ and ‘done’. The task starts on the ‘to do’ list and moves through to ‘in progress’ and finally and hopefully to ‘done’! The idea being that tasks are not delegated by a manager, but rather the team identify what needs to be done, with individuals self-selecting tasks based what they feel they can contribute to and are interested in.

So… typically as a recovering manager, I placed all the ‘to do’ items on the board!! Probably the first mistake (we’re learning!). My excuse for this, was that this was the first time we have used this tool, so it needed some form of practical explanation! Of course as the discussion unfolded the team identified more tasks (which were probably more pressing) to go on the “to do” board. Shortly after describing this tool, I realised that I was late for another meeting, so had a genuine reason to leave the room, so the team needed to crack on. On my return I looked back at the board to see about 70 per cent of the tasks had a colleague’s name allocated to them and some had already moved to the ‘in progress” section. I was struck by the immediate sense of responsibility this emerging team had taken and how sharing the tasks brought about a sense of pace and energy.

Observation 3:

This isn’t so much an observation, but really it’s the next area of experimentation — trying consent-based decision making. To find out more about this check out Sociocracy for All http://sociocracyforall.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Consent-process_ELC-1.pdf Of course before we do this I sense that we need to establish a decision making matrix (or is there something else?), then we can identify how to approach it. It’s early days, but I think the intention is to try both consent based decision making in person and using an online platform called Loomio, that enables online decision making, which could be really helpful for remote or mobile teams.

As our shared experiences and learning advances, the intention is to offer some reflections and consider what the implications might be for this project and more generally the future of work.