Self-organising teams — Part 2
In Part 1, I touched on the basic structure of highly collaborative and self-organising squads.
In this post, I will cover the softer aspects — team-focused, systems thinking and learning culture — of building highly collaborative and self-organising squads.
Focus on team, not individuals
Provide strategic direction to the team and let the team figure out the tactical directions.
As a team lead, avoid directly intervening on problem X because
- Engineers seek gratification from owning and solving X. Don’t diminish their joy of ownership. Trust them to do their work.
- Every problem solved, brings the team closer. Closure is part of the mechanism by which the team builds momentum.
- Understand the observer’s effect you have on the team. Resist temptation and get out of their way.
Instead, analyse problem X with the 11 laws of systems thinking. Work on the system, not directly on X.
Systems thinking
Systems thinking [is] a way of thinking about, and a language for describing and understanding, the forces and interrelationships that shape the behaviour of systems. This discipline helps us to see how to change systems more effectively, and to act more in tune with the natural processes of the natural and economic world
In systems thinking, we create systems that harness the forces and interrelationships around X, to self-correct, along the edge of chaos. An easy to relate example is the use of natural consequences over logical consequences.
A mother chiding her kid for playing in the rain is a logical consequence. A natural consequence is for the kid to learn from falling sick. Especially when he can’t have his favourite ice-cream or can’t go out to play.
Then reflect and share the learning with siblings. In agile, this is called retrospective. Make retrospective fun so that people enjoy the sharing and closure.
Systems thinking uses feedback for learning and solving problems. It often involves tightening feedback loops — e.g. shorter sprint duration — and amplifying the feedback — e.g. information radiators.
Systems thinking is also about setting up safety perimeters — in the form of principles — for the team to figure out the practices, within a safe environment.
Self-organising teams
Believing that workers will automatically accept organisational goals is the sign of naive managerial optimism. The mechanism by which individuals involve themselves is more complex than that — Peopleware by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister
Recently, I facilitated a session for ACE tribe to self-select into three squads, each with different project’s preference.
- New Type — Experimental, tech-heavy, short
- Reach — Public facing and wide reaching
- Meteor — Socially meaningful, impactful and thoughtful
Within each squad, team members self-select into their primary and secondary roles.
Self-organising squads emerge when people embrace autonomy and partake in voluntary self-selection.
This exercise was followed by strengths and weaknesses analysis within each squad, to increase team awareness.
We believe that team members are the reason why people stick together, give their all and overcome obstacles.
People are happiest and most productive when they choose what they work on and who they work with.
Learning organization
Education is what people do to you, and learning is what you do to yourself — Joi Ito
Other than squads, we have Chapters. Chapters are like special interest groups that span across squads. Specialists in each chapter meet regularly to share knowledge and learn from each other. We have Quality Engineering chapter, Security chapter, Agile chapter, Dev Hiring chapter, UX chapter, DevOps chapter and many other chapters.
We also have one-to-one learning arrangement. People get to choose their shifu to be their supervisor, subjected to shifu’s availability. Master Shifu has the mandate to teach, mentor and coach his/her disciples. E.g. Pair-programming, one-on-one coaching, etc …
Our reporting structure is optimised for people doing the work — not for the managers.
Unlike traditional organisations, we celebrate expert and referent power more than others. :)
Summary
The most effective approach to build highly collaborative teams is to allow people to self-organise and pursue what interests them within the context of a squad’s mission and organisational goals.
Sharing is caring. Please give a ❤ if you find this useful.
Let’s make our software industry more awesome, one step at a time.
Cheers! :)
Updates
- May 2016 — If you enjoyed this piece, you might like to read the final instalment of this three-part series — autonomy, performance appraisal and hiring.
- Jul 2016 — We are looking for great team players with solid technical chops. Join us build awesome digital services for our fellow citizens and businesses. :)
