maggio 2013 Blog Posts

Let's Self-Organise: the prerequisites for real self-organisation

It is common to see teams that are not allowed to self-organise, and few other teams that do it in total anarchy. The challenge is a self-organisation that works. And that requires also a well functioning self-regulation and useful barriers. Here follow the 3 fundamental prerequisites for teams self-organisation: 1 - Let people do it 2 - Self-Regulate 3 - Boundaries and barriers And here are the remaining prerequisites.

posted @ giovedì 2 maggio 2013 00:09 | Feedback (0)

Let's Self-Organise: 4 - The remaining prerequisites

Here are the remaining prerequisites for self-organisation: Critical mass, no emergent behavior occur from a group of people that is too small; Diversity & dissent required for engaging in collective cognition and creative thinking; Environment, the container where team members interact between them and where there are more alternative ways to interact [1]. [1] The Science of Serendipity in the Workplace

posted @ mercoledì 1 maggio 2013 22:41 | Feedback (0)

Let's Self-Organise: 3 - Boundaries and barriers

I used to play football and basket games with friends in the afternoon after school. We formed 2 teams of the same size trying to fill all the basic roles required for the game. We were free to self-organise guided and constrained by boundaries/barriers (the size and the roles here). Boundaries and barriers can be rigid or elastic, the elastic ones are more resilient. Boundaries and barriers can originate from external factors (as company strategic decisions or policies or budget) or can be set by management in order to guide the team [1]. A manager...

posted @ mercoledì 1 maggio 2013 21:55 | Feedback (0)

Let's Self-Organise: 2 - Self-Regulate

The first time I experienced an Agile lego game was playing the Leadership game facilitated by Yves Hanoulle. We have been asked to form 3 teams, we have been assigned a goal, we worked in iterations, and at the end of each iteration we were free to move to another team if we felt we could be more useful there. In other words we have been asked to Self-Regulate. Self-regulation is another required element for a well functioning self-organisation. In other words it means team members having early and frequent feedback in order to perceive...

posted @ mercoledì 1 maggio 2013 21:13 | Feedback (0)

Let's Self-Organise: 1 - Let people do it

If you have been to an Agile conference, training or similar situations that involve group activities you probably have heard something like: now self-organize in 3 groups and ... In this sentence there is the 1st prerequisite to self-organisation: let people do it. It start with a purpose, some work that needs to be done. While it seems easy to let people do it, in some organization that can be a challenge [1]. [1] Theory X management