How to manage a self managed team
Ronen Bar-Nahor

Never tell people how to do things.
Tell them what to do, and they will
surprise you with their ingenuity
General George S. Patton, Jr.

Although project teams are largely on their
own, they are not uncontrolled. Management
establishes enough checkpoints to prevent
instability, ambiguity, and tension from turning
into chaos. At the same time, management avoids
the kind of rigid control that impairs creativity
and spontaneity.
~Takeuchi & Nonaka
“The New New Product Development Game”,
Harvard Business Review, January 1986.

But if customers force us to commit
(waterfall approach)

Where does that leave us

Control

Building trust

Team evolution

Natural selection

Maintaining visibility

Burndown Charts

Scrum Board

*So what should we track in Agile ?
Scope
end of sprint
Timeline
Budget usage
Technical debt (quality)

Extreme managers involvement
• Helicopter Managers – who step in too soon
to rescue thereby depriving the team to think
and solve problems together.
• Absentee Managers – who would not step in
at all irrespective of whether the team has all
the necessary skills to tackle the problem.

Manage as a parent
• Clearly define the boundaries
– Be aware of the skill level of the team
– Clear approach when to step-in
• Tolerate mistakes and allow time for learning
• Keep the team challenged, yet not frustrated

Manage meaning
Provides organizational vision and support

Define expectations

Choose people

Servant leadership
The greatest leader forgets himself
And attends to the development of
others.
Good leaders support excellent
workers.
Great leaders support the bottom
ten percent.”
Lao Zi – Dao De Jing

Reconfigure the network

Remove impediment

Communicate

On-going improvement

Energize the system

Ask hard questions

Project Manager‘s role
26

Thank You