The art of self-organising teams (Part I of IV)
Create amazing teams by applying Autonomy, Mastery & Purpose
We have all heard of tales and stories about the most performant teams in the (software) world. How they work. The way they are structured. What mind-blowing feats they seem to be able to achieve.
The question that usually follows is: How can top teams be so much more performant than others? Here are a few common guesses:
- Everybody on the team is a genius and top of their class
- The manager is a genius and can write specs that are never wrong
- The company gives massive bonuses when teams meet their targets
While some of these attributes (excluding the last one) might help, they do not guarantee that a team reaches elite status. Most of the time, creating a team that is intelligent as a collective is much more important. In other words, the team needs to work well together.
When a team is set-up to be self-organising, a large part of the foundation is put in place for it to run like a well-oiled machine. Which, in turn, yields a higher volume and better quality output.
The concepts of Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose provide the structure for a self-organising team, which enables it to be highly productive.
In this four part series, we will explore hands-on techniques and guidelines, processes and ideas that can help inject Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose into a team. But before we jump in, let us have a closer look at what it means to be self-organising.
What exactly is self-organisation?
A good high level overview is What Are Self-Organising Teams? and based on those insights, teams can be called self-organising if they have the following characteristics:
- Setting their own goals
- Deciding on the team composition
- Defining and managing the process
- Executing the work
As pointed out by many others before, self-organisation does not mean a team without management or leadership:
“Self-organisation does not mean that workers instead of managers engineer an organisation design. It does not mean letting people do whatever they want to do. It means that management commits to guiding the evolution of behaviours that emerge from the interaction of independent agents instead of specifying in advance what effective behaviour is.” — Philip Anderson, The Biology of Business
It is also not a green light to shift people around on a frequent basis and expect continuously excellent performance. After all, every group of people needs time to become a performing unit.
Why Autonomy, Mastery & Purpose?
Daniel H. Pink explores Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose in the context of Motivation in his book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. It is a must-read if you want to know what it means for someone to be truly motivated and happy at work.
In my experience, the three concepts are a great way to not only talk about motivation, but also desirable team attributes in general. Autonomy, Master and Purpose are necessary to build a self-organising and therefore high-performing team.
I will be covering all three concepts in separate stories, published over the coming days and weeks:
Build the foundation for self-organising teams with Autonomy: Our desire to be self directed
Aim for perfection in self-organising teams with Mastery: The urge to learn and become better
Guide self-organising teams with Purpose: The desire to do something with meaning
If you want to make sure you are not missing a story, please follow me on Medium or connect with me on linkedin.
