How to turn a group of managed people into a self-organizing team
Self-organizing teams are an integral part of agile software development and one of the 12 principles of agile manifesto. Even outside agile software development, self.organizing teams can bring a lot of benefits to the organization. The sole purpose of these teams is to ensure that the process of decision making is decentralized, faster, and agreeable to all members.
The self-organizing teams are autonomous, hence it becomes possible for them to determine how they want to approach a given problem. They also decide independently of any other teams, group or managers on what decision to take, implement and how to complete any tasks.
Transitioning to self-organizing teams
The major challenge for companies wanting to migrate to a self-organized environment is on choosing the best way to approach it. They have to come up with a plan on how to incorporate individuals from a managed setting to a self-organized setting.
Transition of managed people into an autonomous team must also be a smooth as possible. To put it into perspective, for managed people, the system they are used has a top down structure where instructions are passed from management to developers. However, for autonomous teams, there is no management to instruct you on how to do your work, management turns into a more supportive role that provides the environment for the team to flourish. There is freedom and independence. This may surprise a formerly managed group due to a different modus operandi in this system.
The work environment, therefore, is completely different for the two groups. This means that while transitioning to a self-organized environment, managed group needs to relearn everything. The need to learn about how teams work, their structure, their roles in a given team and how to fast adapt to their new environment.
The companies also have to ensure that the groups created can work coherently, solve problems together, work their differences and ensure that the decision-making process in this group is not the responsibility of just one or two people in the group. They also have to consider the skills, the products being developed, the balance of the team in terms of their skills and the cross-functional abilities of the team.
Turning a group of managed people into a self-organizing team
The next step for companies is now turning these individuals into a compact self-organizing team. The fact is, they are used to rules that do not apply in a self-organized team and therefore, the approach must be right for the companies to integrate these individuals. Some of these steps that should be considered when integrating managed people to self-organizing teams include:
Instilling teamwork; to instill teamwork for people who have never worked in a team and have had to be managed in most of their working life is a difficult but achievable task. Companies need to come up with guidelines for these individuals on how to conduct while in a team setting.
Coaching; this is also an important factor to invest in. Companies must ensure that these people are well trained on behavior as an individual in a team and the importance of these teams. This will ensure that there is a proper understanding of what is expected of them.
Trust and respect; this should be among the guidelines for teamwork. Managed people should be advised on how to handle a group setting, be guided on how to be respectful of other people’s opinions and trust their teamwork with work delegation.
Collaboration and commitment; in self-organized teams, collaboration is a must if the project is to be completed successfully. People coming from a managed group to a self-organized setting, therefore should be trained on collaborating with their peers and showing commitment to the group.
Ownership; managed people should be made confidence in taking ownership of their ideas and their team. They should understand that every member’s contribution is important in the long run and the bottom line matters in a self-organized team.
Cross-functional; the team selection should also be self-functional in all areas of the development process. Managers should ensure that the distribution of these individuals is also based on skills. For any self-organizing team put together, it must have all the skills required for product development from inception to completion
With proper guidance, the managed group will be able to be integrated into self-organized teams with ease. Proper considerations should, however, be put in place to ensure that important principles are adhered to when forming these self-organizing teams.
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