Self-Management in Teal: Creating an Independent Team
Self-organisation and Teal teams have gained popularity all over the world recently. Nevertheless, a significant question that remains unanswered is whether to adopt a classical or an independent team management approach: which approach is more profitable when creating an IT solution? At SimbirSoft, we share our view on how to work satisfactorily with Teal teams and how to build optimal interaction among teams.
In this article, we share our experience in building teams and using agile methodologies. We will focus on criteria and possible risks while developing a Teal team. We hope that this knowledge will be beneficial to companies implementing self-management practices, as well as companies ordering or developing IT.
Teal Trends
Can you recall times when self-management was in demand? It was after Reinventing Organisations, a book by Frederic Laloux, published in 2014. The book is based on the color classification of organisations from red (authoritarian) to self-managing (teal). Teal organisations follow three fundamental rules:
- a desire to be a united team, where each worker plays a significant part;
- self-management within the selected area;
- focus on the evolutionary growth of the organisation.
These rules are universal and essential for any modern company.
What is new with the teal approach?
Self-management is closely related to the consciousness concept — another global trend. Young professionals’ demands to employers are rapidly growing. Y and Z generations representatives are committed to 100% professional self-realisation. They want to know and share the company’s values, to make decisions within the team independently. Young professionals often cannot work in companies with traditional rigid hierarchy. Due to this fact, many big companies are ready to experiment and give more freedom to their employees.
The Teal approach is based on self-management, which is adopted in different companies by an individual set of practices. Classical management is still maintained in some branches, such as operations and accounting. Meanwhile, there are some independent teams with their area of responsibility. As an example, a bank has a team in a separate branch or a team responsible for creating a new website or mobile app. A top manager can work in a Teal team and try on new roles, such as answering customer questions along with a customer service.
Teal companies fill the global business scene slowly. The largest and the most famous global Teal organisations are: Morning Star, Valve, Patagonia, Sun Hydraulics, Buurtzorg. There are also some Teal organisations in Russia, and they are satisfied with the approach. Examples of such organisations are VkusVill, Sberbank, QIWI. Interestingly, how many other organisations are considering using teal management for implementing innovations.
Strengths and Weaknesses in Teal Management
Strengths
Sometimes self-management is considered as a silver bullet that works wonders. Imagine all employees are independent and energetic, you do not need to control them and your business automatically makes profit. There are already some positive cases in Russia. VkusVill grocery stores significantly improved the self-management process, and at the same time reduced the shortage and management costs. However, the results depend on several factors.
Weaknesses
Skeptics claim that many global companies have developed by a planned economy and are not ready for a self-management approach. There are opinions that a Teal approach can cause an inevitable chaos, violation of budgets and deadlines. Let’s see if it is true.
How to Build a Team
Based on our practice, when ordering IT products development, many organisations transfer parts of their job to independent teams. Deciding on where to begin and how to build a pilot group is the most challenging stage in business.
The management of a teal team is defined by the needs and goals of the business. The two following options are applied:
- Gradual expansion of responsibility area
Self-management is often an experiment designed to improve individual team performance (satisfaction, engagement and responsibility). With this option, the team’s area of responsibility is gradually expanded, and top management’s control is limited.
- Components of classical management
Elements of self-management can be combined with classic management if a Teal team is responsible for a specific product (website, app). Classic Teal approach implies that each member of the Teal team is responsible for his or her field of work, but the goals, deadlines, and budget of the project are determined and controlled by the collaborative decisions of the team. However, we consider that at the beginning it will be better to use a more traditional approach: choose specialists who make the final decision on the release of the product, and watch the deadline to ensure a soft and convenient transition to Teal type.
How to adopt self-management practices with minimal financial risks? Low risks obviously are possible only if a company has some extra money. Like a startup that has stable funding for a year or more. A step by step switch to self-management approach requires careful planning.
Self-Management in IT
The IT systems development field has the majority of the world’s Teal organisations. IT companies have been building teams based on agile software development a long time ago, implementing separate agile practices using Scrum or Kanban frameworks. They also divide tasks into short segments to speed up releases. These processes require complete responsibility from both the specialists and entire teams.
We design IT solutions for various business areas at SimbirSoft. We found out multiple forms of self-management and their impact on the project’s results, thanks to colleagues’ and our own experience.
Some developers are wary about self-management at the client’s organisation. They fear chaotic projects, lack of responsible people, and difficulties meeting deadlines. One of our colleagues explained the following case:
We once developed an app for the Teal team. We waited for feedback on the design for an extended period, but the appointed expert kept silent. Finally, a team leader had to rush him and ask what he was doing all day. His response was: “I’ve had a meeting on the results of another meeting all day”. The team leader couldn’t even affect the work result. He could only express concern and hold another meeting! As a result, work was suspended for almost a month.
However, this example is rather an exception. In our experience, if there is a self-managed team in the client’s company, cooperation can be very productive.
Usually, such teams are proactive and careful about our suggestions. They often view outsourcing developers’ teams as part of a big family, where members are trying to improve an IT product.
At SimbirSoft, we constantly identify the self-management approach of our clients and introduce certain techniques in our work. Each of our specialists can try out new roles and projects, take part in building work processes, and offer ideas through I SOLVE and Idea Management internal platforms.
How do I know that a team is ready to become a Teal one?
The success of self-management largely depends on the quality of communication between specialists, their understanding of how to work and where the responsibilities lie. A Teal team can often include mature, experienced specialists who have already got used to working and have high personal responsibility. It is essential to know each employee well, their character traits and capabilities.
To Sum it Up
Flexibility and self-management trends are becoming more popular all over the world. Businesses are ready to partially transfer responsibility to employees, who are united in independent teams. The area is filled with a lot of strengths, and weaknesses as well.
If a Teal team is responsible for product development, it is important to think through self-organisation and decision-making mechanisms from the very beginning. This process will make teamwork more effective. If you are working with tight deadlines and need a clear and predictable result, a Teal path can be risky. You need to use some tools of classical management in this case. In our practice, for instance, it is the classical teams that provide a stable result.
Interested in team management? Read our recent article: Virus is a Test: How to Save IT Team Efficiency
Learn more about future IT trends from our special article: The Future of Quality Assurance
Follow us on Medium! Never miss an article!
