Self-organising a new organisation — the Marketplace
Let your people choose where they wish to work!
Introduction
Our organisation works with Scrum teams. These teams were established two years ago. This brought product, developers and testers together. We then decided that it would be truly in the spirit of Scrum to let the people self-organise in establishing the new organisation. More than 150 people found their spot this way.
Two years later we decided to expand the Scrum teams, adding the people with the skills and capabilities that allow the Scrum teams to bring their “Done” items to production themselves and support the product on production. This involved about 30 people that needed to move to different positions within the teams. Again we allowed self-organisation.
How did we establish this? Well, we followed a process called the Marketplace.
The concept of the Marketplace
The Marketplace is an event where people can pick their position within the organisation by putting their name on the blueprint of the organisation.
Rules
Some rules are required:
- The organisation blueprint shows all the teams.
- The organisation blueprint has spots for all the roles required within a team (roles can be Java developer, test automation engineer, etc…).
- Everyone can only place their name at one spot. You aren’t allowed to pick two choices.
Guiding principles
There are also some guiding principles that can come into play, for instance:
- There should be a healthy distribution of senior and junior people.
- There should be a healthy distribution of internal and external people.
- People should land in a team where their specific knowledge can be used effectively.
Preparation
Any organisational change comes with anxiety and unrest. Change can be scary, especially if people are left in the dark. This is why it is crucial to inform people why you are changing the organisation and what it will bring the people.
It is also is very important to inform the people about the Marketplace well in advance. This will help them understand what it is all about and they will have a chance to already inform themselves about the possibilities. It also allows them to prepare for the big day.
For most of the people involved the concept of shaping the new organisation themselves is new. You should acknowledge this and coach them about the opportunities and discuss the concerns.
We tackled this by having an information session about the Marketplace three days before the event. We explained the concept, we showed the organisation blueprint, explained the guiding principles and informed the people about time and place of the actual Marketplace.
We also had a walk-inn session one day before the event. People had the time to think about the concept and they were now able to ask questions and voice their concerns. Our experience is that about 40% of the people makes use of the opportunity of the walk-inn session.
The Marketplace event
The Marketplace event ideally takes about three hours. At the end of the event the organisation is established. Our organisation works with Scrum and this is why the following people need to be at the events:
- All the people that will be choosing their new position within the organisation. No event, activity or meeting can be as important as this one. When someone can’t attend because of calamities she or he will be represented by someone else. This isn’t ideal and therefore should be an exception.
- The Product Owners of the teams. Their role is to bring forward why their product is so awesome to be working for.
- The team leads/managers. They need to confirm that the team compositions are OK.
- The highest manager of the department to welcome everyone and bring forward the importance of the event.
- Facilitator/coaches to guide people through the process.
Preparation
You need a big room that can accommodate everyone. The printouts of the different teams must be put on the walls and you have to have have post-its or photos with everyone’s name available.
Welcome
The director of the department welcomes everyone to the Marketplace. She/he points out the importance of the event.
Explanation of the process
The facilitator of the event tells how the Marketplace is taking place. She/he explains the concept and mentions the guiding principles again.
Elevator pitches
Now is the time for the Product Owners to pitch their product. They have two minutes each to convince their audience why it is a good idea to join the team(s) that will build their product.
Round 1
Round 1 takes 30 minutes. All managers and Product Owners leave the space and only the people concerned and the facilitator/coaches stay.
Everyone has 15 minutes to choose their team without having to consider the guiding principles. In this round it is totally fine that more people choose for a team than that there are open spots. The flip-side is that some teams won’t have enough people after this first round.
Next the people leave the space and the Product Owner and managers return. They have 15 minutes to review the result and pinpoint the issues.
Now follows a break of 10 minutes.
It is our experience that 80% of the organisation is already established after round 1.
Round 2
Round 2 takes 20 minutes. Again all managers and Product Owners leave the space and only the people concerned and the facilitator/coaches stay.
Also in this round everyone has 15 minutes to choose their team. However now they have to take into account the guiding principles. Again it is totally fine that more people choose for a team than that there are open spots. However the participants should be aware that this is the last round where they can resolve the conflicts without management involvement.
Then the people again leave the space and the Product Owners and managers return. They now have 5 minutes to review the result and pinpoint the issues. Less time is needed than the first round, because you typically see that the same conflicts remain, only fewer of them.
This is again followed by a break of 10 minutes.
We saw that after round 2 only a few conflicts remained and that 90% of the organisation is established.
Round 3
Round 3 takes 30 minutes. Now everyone — including managers and Product Owners – is involved.
Again there’s 15 minutes to make the final choice using the guiding principles. At the end of the round management is enabled to make the decisions, but typically you see that all concerned try to work it out through a good discussion. It is our experience that management wishes to postpone a decision until the very last moment, when there’s really no other way to resolve it.
After round 3 the new organisation is fully established. The vast majority will leave the space with a good feeling. Some will be disappointed, but they had their chance to make their own choice and they did experience how their preferences were taken seriously.
Wrap up
The last step of the event is a wrap up. The Product Owners confirm the composition of their team(s) and it’s always a good idea to finish the event taking pictures of the newly formed teams.
Aftercare
This Marketplace is an important event and should be treated as such, also after the event. Obviously all stakeholders need to be informed about how the new organisation was created and what the composition of the new organisation is.
The newly formed Scrum teams should also be properly coached. Think about team names, seating arrangements, establishing Definition of Done, Definition of Ready, Sprint Length, timing of the Scrum events, establishing the Scrum Master. The teams need someone that helps them through the process.
We also organised a walk-in session during the weeks after the Marketplace to allow people to share their concerns and ideas. We did this because we find it so important to take the people concerned seriously and help all to have a pleasant start of the new journey.
Options
You could opt to conduct a Marketplace at regular intervals, for instance every year. It will be an incentive for the managers and Product Owners to allow working within their teams to be as pleasant and interesting as possible.
Another option is to allow everyone to choose again when things change, like adding additional roles to the teams. If you only let the people decide that are new you basically exclude the existing team members from self-organising the extension of the team. People will join the teams without consulting the existing team members. Which is odd.
Conclusion
We work with Scrum. And we believe in this framework. Self-organisation is a pivotal part of Scrum. What can be better than allowing people to self-organise the creation of their own teams? I can tell you that it worked for us. The vast majority of the people left the sessions with a smile on their face. People choose to work for a certain team with self-determined colleagues. This brings a long-lasting very positive dynamic.
Benefits:
- People felt they had the decisions in their own hands.
- People choose who to work with in a team.
- People were given the opportunity to try out something completely different/new.
- We showed that self-organisation is a topic to be taken seriously.
- We provided an example of self-organisation.
- Teams started with a positive vibe and this vibe is still there with most of the teams.
Possible drawbacks:
- Some people were not content (the people that could not choose their team of choice). However this number would be higher if management had to create the organisation.
- Some people were really anxious before the event. It is very important to take this seriously and guide these people.
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