Talk: Will we ever get “self-organizing teams” in Agile? (autonomy != self-organizing)

Talk description

Title:	Will we ever get “self-organizing teams” in Agile? (autonomy != self-organizing)
Short synopsis:	The Agile Manifesto calls for “self-organizing teams.” But that’s not what Agile delivers. Agile puts teams in boxes. That’s the opposite of business agility. “Self-organizing” means, “order for free.” In self-organizing systems, each agent acts independently, with no centralized or external control. There is order, but it happens spontaneously. It “emerges.” Self-organization is what makes “complex adaptive systems” so adaptive. This talk will introduce a fast, easy way to get this working. Max size: 500 chars
Long synopsis (optional):	The Agile Manifesto calls for “self-organizing teams.” But that’s not what Agile delivers. Agile “at scale” puts teams in boxes. That’s the opposite of business agility. “Self-organizing” means, “order for free.” Or as Valve Corporation puts it, “structure happens.” In self-organizing systems, each agent acts independently, with no centralized or external control. There is order, but it happens spontaneously. It “emerges.” Self-organization is what makes “complex adaptive systems” so adaptive. Open source projects are self-organizing. If you want to join a project, you join. If you want to leave a project, you leave. If you think there’s a better approach, but you can’t convince the others, you fork the project and go your way. If you want to start a new project, you do. This is called the “law of two feet.” The goal of Agile is business agility. For that, we need self-organizing teams. (autonomy != self-organizing) The question is, how can we get there? One approach is Gary Hamel’s, “First, let’s fire all the managers.” (Harvard Business Review, Dec 2011). That’s probably a non-starter at most companies. A more promising approach is John Kotter’s, “dual operating system.” (“Accelerate!” Harvard Business Review, Nov 2012). The idea is to keep the hierarchy and management processes the way they are (in this case Agile). Then you recruit a “volunteer army” of change agents right within the hierarchy. They still do their regular jobs. But they also voluntarily take on the extra work of exploring new frontiers, in self-organizing teams. This talk will introduce “whitespace projects” as a fast, easy way to get this working. What you’ll learn 1. What “self-organizing” actually means, based on the science of complexity theory. 2. Why “self-organizing teams” are the key to business agility. 3. Brief introduction to Kotter’s dual operating system. 4. Brief introduction to “whitespace projects.” 5. How any company can use “whitespace projects” to get Kotter’s dual operating system working, with case study. Max size: 5000 chars
Tags:
Speaker directory:

Speakers directory