In the 1970’s the feminist movement had successfully avoided the excessive hierarchy and bureaucracy of large organisations but still struggled with the same inability to achieve it’s goals. Jo Freeman, a feminist political scientist wrote the paper “The Tyranny of Structurelessness” on this topic and suggested that instead of avoiding structure entirely the movement should invent new structures and adapt existing ones to create ones consistent with its values. Simply put: for any team, a lack of structure is every bit as debilitating as too much. Therefore, when it comes to building teams, leaders should only specify the basic structures that will foster team effectiveness and reduce the organisation creating obstacles, while not specifying too much. So the key becomes understanding which features are critical and which aren’t. This is a presentation delivered by John McFadyen at Agile Northants, June 2016

1. The Tyranny of Structurelessness
based on the work by J. Richard Hackman
Image: The Tyranny of Structurelessness #4 by Bobbie Burgers

2. John McFadyen
Partner with Agile Centre LLP
john.mcfadyen@agilecentre.com

3. “The idea of‘structurelessness’[…] has
moved from a healthy counter to those
tendencies to becoming a goddess in
its own right.”
– Jo Freeman, The Tyranny of Structurelessness

4. QWhat does an architect do
when designing a building?

5. QWhat are the three key structural
features for team effectiveness?

6. 1 DESIGN OF WORK
FOR TEAMS

7. Good work for teams follows
from properties that motivate
individuals

8. Bigger is better...
... but free riding is a worry

9. Autonomy gives teams room
to excel...
... but gone bad, they are very bad indeed

10. Feedback makes team
learning possible...
... but poor team design can foster anti-learning

11. 2 NORMS OF
CONDUCT

12. "Group norms specify what behaviors
are acceptable - and unacceptable - in
a group."
– J. Richard Hackman

13. QHow can norms enter a team?

14. Members should take an active, rather
than a reactive, stance toward the
environment in which the team operates,
continuously scanning the environment
and inventing or adjusting their
performance strategies accordingly.

15. The behavioural boundaries
within which the team operates
should be demarcated, identifying
the small handful of things the
members must always do and
those they must never do.

16. QWhy don’t we see these
norms in teams?

17. Secondary norms help the
team function...
... as do those who challenge the team norms

18. 3 COMPOSITION OF
THE TEAM

19. QWhat are the three most common
assumptions in building teams?

20. “Adding manpower to a late software
project makes it later.”
– Brooks's Law

21. Productivity
Number of people in team
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Potential productivity
Process loss
Productivity - loss
Source: Ivan Steiner (1972)

22. QWhat is the best team size?

23. “A well-composed team strikes a
balance between having members
who are too similar to one another on
the one hand and too different on the
other.”
– J. Richard Hackman

24. QWhat ways are there to deal with
those lacking inter-personal skills?

25. What if they don't lack the
skills?
What if the mix is wrong?What about the structure?

26. QWhat can a leader do if the
shell is flawed?

27. QVirtual teams: is this the end
of structure?

28. “People would try to use the
"structureless" group and the informal
conference for purposes for which they
were unsuitable out of a blind belief
that no other means could possibly be
anything but oppressive.”
– Jo Freeman, The Tyranny of Structurelessness

29. Thank you
www.agilecentre.com