Fostering Self-Organization – Ten Ninja Techniques for Managers and
Executives
Mahadevan P (Mahi) and Ashok Balakrishnan Technology, Sabre Holdings
If you are a Manager/ Executive, what would you do?
Let us look at a few real world scenarios
The Agile Principles – Individuals, Environment, Self-Organization
Self-Organization in Nature
Left to itself, any group of living things (humans included) will self
organize to survive and thrive
Even a mob is a form of
self- organization !
However, Self-Organization in Agile is focused towards creating VALUE !
Let’s take a closer look
Value = f (Context, Purpose, Fitness)
A great team has…
1. Clarity of Purpose 2. Context awareness for effective
Adaptation and Innovation 3. Fitness to create sustainable value
The Scrum Team – 3 roles
1. Product Owner
2. Development team
3. ScrumMaster
Scrum Master Product Owner The Development
Team
• Teaches PO and Team about their roles •Facilitates and protects the process and its practice • Shields team from external interferences • Enables co-operation and collaboration across all roles and removes barriers
• Represents the business interests •Defines requirements in a Product Backlog and owns it • Manages Product Backlog to optimize ROI • Clarifies Product Backlog • Sets priorities • Inspects increments and makes adaptations for next sprint • Communicates product progress status
• Cross functional 7+/-2 (dev, test, arch, DBA, BA, SME, etc) • Manages itself and its work – self organizes • Commits to and produces shippable increments of high quality • Collaborates with PO for optimal value
SCRUM Roles
10
Simple. Isn’t it ?
But…
The Real World …
“When we understand that slide, we will have won the war” - US General Stanley A. McChrystal (Leader of the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan)
The 3 P’s of any Business
People
Practices
Products
In any business, People create Products by executing relevant Practices Managers and leaders are vested with authority by owners of the business Managers also authorize others to get work done
Environment
Some Context – Flow of Authority in any Business
Delegation (or deputation) is the assignment of authority and responsibility to another person to carry out specific activities - Wikipedia
A B
D
E
C F
How does Management build strong, self organizing Scrum teams?
By distributing authority.
Let us look closer …
Distributing authority/ responsibility
= Distributing control
= Distributing decision making
Hey! The Real World has many shades of grey
Team
Mat
uri
ty L
evel
Organizational Impact of decision
1. (High, High) 2. (High, Low) 3. (Low, High) 4. (Low, Low)
A Team is a Complex System
Complex Systems are non-linear Complex Systems interact and behave in unpredictable ways
How does Management support Scrum teams towards true self-organization?
There are no binary answers !
However, useful models exist.
Situational Leadership for Maturity level
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situational_leadership_theory
Management 3.0
• You make decision and announce Tell
• You make decision and get commitment by selling idea Sell
• You make decision after Inviting and weighing inputs Consult
• You Invite, discuss and decide by consensus Agree
• You influence by your opinion, allow team to decide Advise
• You let team decide and convince you post decision Inquire
• You let the team decide and step aside Delegate
Source : http://www.noop.nl/2011/03/delegation-poker-game-description.html
1. Directing
2. Selling 3. Inviting and consulting
4. Facilitating
5. Advising
6. Artful Questioning/ Inquiring
7. Empowering
8. Connecting
9. Catalyzing
10. Inspiring
Upgrade your Toolbox The Ten Ninja Techniques
Building real self-organized teams is like driving!
You want to drive as fast as possible You want to be slow enough to respond to road conditions It’s a balancing art !
• Inspect Situation (your vehicle, road conditions)
• Adapt your style
• Learn
Inspect
Adapt
Learn
Wanna practice?
Let’s Play!