Reflections on Network Structures, Leadership and Accountability
2nd week of the Practical Self Management Journey
What is structure in self-managed organisation?
“Structure is defined by a set of relationships that individuals have with other individuals” as Chris Rufer, the founder of Morning Star — the largest tomato processor in the US, states here (2:13). This week we explored 2 mechanisms used as a backbone for network based structures — a Social Contract and a Colleagues Letter of Understanding. Besides these assignment, we had a chat with Doug Kirkpatrick on how self-management works.
A Social Contract is dynamic set of mutual expectations that is co-created and reviewed regularly, often in the form of a retrospective. Harvard Business Review offers a more detailed explanation, some use cases and research on the topic over here. Studies have shown that if implemented right, social contracts have many benefits such as giving the employees a feeling of control and security in relationship with their teammates and leader. And as recent research from re:Work, the division of Google on a mission to “make work better”, has found — psychological safety is the fundamental building stone of an effective team. If you want to check the social contract we made on my team check out here.
A Colleagues Letter of Understanding is a tool that each colleague usese to outline his commitments to his other colleagues. Again it’s an ideea inspired from the workings of Morning Star and the philosophy of the founder, Chris Rufer. He said that the the strength of the organization depends on the degree to which each colleague clearly defines his commitments to his colleagues — and the degree to which he lives up to those commitments. As the name states in the early days this used to be just what the name states— a paper document that each colleague filled out, at least annually, and then reviewed with his CLOU Colleagues to ensure agreement. You can have a look at my CLOU in the context of the Practical Self-Management Academy over here.
Reflections
The Network & Feedback
What’s the latest technology that it is said to replace millions of human jobs? AI. What’s at the heart of AI? A Neural Network. What’s the most complex system we know that enables us to become better each day? The Human Brain. What makes up the brain? Networks of Neurons. What do we create when we have a common goal and want to share some resources in order to achive that goal? An organisation. What is the most common structure of the organisations? The Hierarchy… Soo the best systems we know operate based on networks while organisations rely on hierarchies. Why might that be? I think it has to do with leadership and trust. As a leader I want to do something to solve a certain problem of this world. I instill my vision of a better world to some other fellows and here goes the movement. Here’s when trust comes into play — do I trust my colleagues that they will do their best in the spirit of that vision or do I need to control their every movement to make sure that they go in the right direction? The need is for a non-coercive leader. Seth Godin has a great course on how to do just that. This is not to say that the followers will never go astray from the vision.. at some point even the leader might go astray.. what’s the solution of a network? Feedback.
Leader & Follower
One great thing we found out while carrying out the assignments this week — self-management does not mean leaderless. Does this mean that in a self-managed organisation we’re not all equal?? Yes and no at the same time. It takes a certain degree of awareness and self-esteem not only to admit that someone who takes the initiative but also that the leader is the cause that sets things in motion. In that sense there is always a source. Peter Koenig did some research on the topic, Derek Sivers has a great TED Talk on how movements start and even rain droplets have a source — a tiny sized particle of dust aroud which water condenses (2nd paragraph here). On the other hand each of us has a voice and a right to air tensions on matters that affect us. Sociocray 3.0 calls this principle Equivalence. So not everybody is a leader of a vision — in that sense we’re not all equal, but once you adhere to that vision you have the right to air ideas and manage your own commitments — in that sense we’re all equal.
Freedom & Accountability
Finally there’s something that Doug said during our Monday chat that really got me thinking: “since there’s no boss in a self-managed team, people think that there’s nobody holding others accountable when commitments are not fulfilled. The fact is that peers hold each other accountable. There’s also a certain polarity to be balanced between freeedom and accountability” I would say that — too much freedom, without accountability we end up nowhere, too much accountability, without freedom it feels stiff and working like in machine not with humans. It seems that this imbalance often occurs in the first shot of implementing self-management, due to lack of deep understanding of the social mechanics behind. It is up to the individual to do what he or she says, but when they don’t follow through on commitments it’s the right of the peers to initiate conversations that prompt for action. With this in mind I can now rest assured that I’m not being bossy when I’m asking people do what they said they’ll do.
Conclusion
If we want to move into more natural ways of working each of us has some work to do on — how we organise ourselves to work together, how we lead and how we follow, how we act however we want while keeping our commitments to others. If we do these, help each other out and collaborate with AI, we can achieve whatever we dream of!
