This presentation talks of Self Management, the characteristics of Self Managed teams and the structures and processes of Self Managed teams.

1. Building Self Managed teams
Twitter Feed : @rsrinath
Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/srinathramakrishnan/

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About me
• Over 20 years of IT experience
• Enterprise Agile Coach

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Agenda
• What is Self Management?
• Characteristics of Self Managed teams
• Structures and Processes
• Challenges in Self Management

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What is Self Management?
• A self-managed team is a group of people working together in their own
ways towards a common goal, which is defined outside the team.
• “Self management is a system of principles which guide the development
of organizational structure, effectively and efficiently, in a way which
liberates and encourages human creativity, initiatives and actions, with
the objective of resulting in improve human happiness.” – Chris Rufer
http://upmentors.com/pressroom/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/gp2.jpg

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Philosophy of Self Management
• People are happiest doing work they are passionate about, and skilled at
• People work best when they have autonomy; when they know what they
are accountable for.
• People will decide for themselves how much energy and time they want
to put into their work – they are empowered
• It doesn't make a lot of sense to give the decision-making authority to
the person that furthest away from the actual work being done
http://www.self-managementinstitute.org/about/what-is-self-management

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Characteristics of Self Managed Teams

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Self Organized vs Self Managed teams
The “How” and the “Who”
Team Level Activities
Pursue goals and objectives
specified by management
within the constraints of its
environment
The ”What”, the “How”
and “Who”
Team Level Activities plus
Planning
Organizing
Staffing
Directing
Controlling
Operate within the same
constraints - but they get
to make decisions
https://www.businessprocessincubator.com/content/the-difference-between-self-management-and-self-organization/

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Self Management Structures

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Self Management - Structures
“Clouds form and then go away because
atmospheric conditions, temperatures, and
humidity cause molecules of water to either
condense or vaporize. Organizations should
be the same; structures need to appear and
disappear based on the forces that are
acting in the organization. ”
Chris Rufer – Morning Star
https://atlassociety.org/objectivism/atlas-summit

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Self Management Structures
• Suitable when work can be broken down where teams have a high degree
of autonomy, without much for coordination across teams – so teams can
work in parallel.
• Every team is fully autonomous in bringing the purpose to life and
performing all tasks from start to finish
• E.g. Favi, Buurtzorg
Parallel Teams
• Pioneered by Morning Star
• Each Business Unit is linked to a particular step in food processing e.g.
tomato preparation, dicing, canning, packaging
• Roles and commitments formalized in a written document called
Colleague Letter of Understanding (CLOU)
Web of Individual Contracting
• Relies on a structure of nested teams
• Teams called circles are fully autonomous to discuss and decide how roles
will be allocated within the team and what commitment members make to
each other
• Circle and sub-circle are bound together by a double link, not by a
• boss-subordinate relationship
• E.g. Holocracy, Zappos
Nested Teams

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Self Management Structures
Small Teams (10-12 members)
in charge of intake, planning,
vacation etc.
No org chart, no job titles, no
job description -
Roles picked up based on
interests, talents and needs
No leader within the team –
collective decision making ->
Fewer Meetings
No middle management – only
coaches who ask insightful
questions
“Solution Driven Methods of
Interaction” – Training on Skills
and Techniques for Decision
making
Bare Minimum Staff Functions
– (HR, Finance, Admin, Quality,
Training)

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Self Management – Processes and Practices

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Self Management
• “Self-management will not succeed when you don’t believe in two crucial
principles. First, people should not use force against others; all
interactions should be voluntary. And second, people should honor the
commitments they make to others. Self-management without these
principles is doomed to fail”
https://corporate-rebels.com/morning-star/
http://www.self-managementinstitute.org/assets/images/sized/1d8ca9de2d4151b3/avatar_3_178_178_92_s_c1.jpeg
Doug Kirkpatrick
Organizational Change Consultant

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Self Management - Processes
• Decision Making
• Any person in the organization can make a decision.
• Before doing so, he must seek advice from
• Everyone who will be meaningfully affected
• People with expertise in the matter.
• The person is not obligated to take in every piece of advice.
• The bigger the decision – the more the number of stakeholders to be
involved - including CEO / CFO if required
• Creates a sense of community, humility, learning, better decisions and fun
• It is not consensus (give everyone an equal voice) – in practice, it often
degenerates into a collective tyranny of the ego.
Advice Process

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Advice Process
http://agilitrix.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Advice-Process.png

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Self Management - Processes
• Conflict resolution
• Conflict resolution is a foundational piece in the puzzle of interlocking self
management practices.
• It is the mechanism through which peers hold each other accountable for their
mutual commitments.
• The conflict resolution process is called “Direct Communication and Gaining
Agreement” applies to any type of disagreement.
• The process starts with one person asking another to gain agreement
• In the first phase, they sit together and try to sort it out privately with the
initiator making a clear request.
• If they cant find a solution, they nominate a colleague they both trust as a
mediator
• If mediation fails, a panel of topic relevant colleagues is convened.
• Only if the matter is still not resolved, does it go to the CEO

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Self Management - Processes
• Compensation
• Everyone decides their own pay level
• valued by usefulness of perspectives and willingness and skill in sharing
• hybrid package of salary and incentives
• Advice process feedback and recommendations from peers
• Everyone knows everyone’s package
• transparency removes salary as a stressor
• Purchasing and investment
• Most organizations have authorization limits in place
• In self managing organizations, there are no authorization limits and no
procurement departments.

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Self Management - Processes
• Internal communications
• No secret approach – every body expects to have access to all information at the
same time, including the most sensitive
• Any information that is not public will cause suspicion
• All hands meetings – held when there is new and important information to share
– quarterly results, annual values survey etc.
• Performance Management
• Self Managing organizations measure indicators like team results, productivity and
profit – at a team level not at an individual level
• Self managing organizations are high on trust and low on fears. Feedback in such
environments feels less threatening
• People receive feedback at the end of every year from each of the persons they
have committed to, in their Colleague Letter Of Understanding (CLOU)

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Self Management - Processes
• Colleague Letter of Understanding
• The CLOUs create structure.
• Every year, each Morning Star employee creates his/her own CLOU and
negotiated it with the colleagues who would be most affected by the proposed
work.
• CLOUs are used to identify each employee’s responsibilities, activities, time
commitment, required resources, and CLOU colleagues.
• CLOUs served as operating plans that would allow employees to fulfill their
mission

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Organizations practicing Self Management

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Organizations practicing Self Management
Organization Employees Industry Founder / CEO Country
Morning Star 400-2400 Food Processing Chris Rufer US
Buurtzorg 8000 Health care Jos De Block The Netherlands
Zappos 1500 Online Shoe and Clothing Tony Hsieh US
Semco 3000 Industrial Machinery Ricardo Semler Brazil
Patagonia 1000 Outdoor Clothing Yvon Chouinard US
Favi 600 Automotive components Jean Francois Zobrist France
AES 19000 Power generation Roger Sant and Dennis Bakke US
WL Gore 10000 Waterproof fabrics Bill and Vieve Gore US
Heiligenfeld 950 Mental Health Hospitals Joachim Galuska Germany

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Challenges in Self Management
• Long on-boarding process
• It can take over a year before someone fully understands the self-managing way
of working.
• Unlearning is hard
• Managers with prior experience have a hard time to adapt - They are used to
telling others what to do or asking subordinates to execute some of their ideas
and tasks
• Self-management is tough
• Dialogues are tougher and conflicts have to be resolved by nobody but those
involved.
• You can’t just throw it over the fence; you have to fix your problems yourself.
https://corporate-rebels.com/morning-star/

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Finally …
“Self-management is not doing whatever you want, it’s about being part of
determining what to do”
-Doug Kirkpatrick

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Additional Reading

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Credits
• https://d2q79iu7y748jz.cloudfront.net/s/_logo/13fac4a4434abda1f8018bee164e22ab
• https://corporate-rebels.com/Blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Buurtzorg.png
• https://img.grouponcdn.com/coupons/khpqdWPKdsfxqk1AoEZXQv/zappos_com-500x500
• https://mms.businesswire.com/media/20130820005962/en/379614/5/Semco_Partners.jpg
• https://blog.patagonia.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/logo_featured_1-1404x778-c-default.jpg
• http://www.favi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Logo-FAVI-copie.jpg
• https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/de/thumb/2/2e/AES_Logo.svg/1200px-AES_Logo.svg.png
• https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/55/WL-Gore-logo.PNG
• http://www.wiap.de//files/logo_heiligenfeld_slogan.jpg
• http://www.dpsmindia.com/images/Portfolio06.png
• https://previews.123rf.com/images/iqoncept/iqoncept1706/iqoncept170600033/80281820-common-purpose-shared-goal-mission-road-words-3d-
illustration.jpg
• https://weeradicals.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/interdependence-2.jpg?w=620
• http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yi6g9CqF2lg/T-Y2c_244gI/AAAAAAAABCI/ri7hbRu8Ia0/s1600/autonomy.jpg
• https://whoisadampayne.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/How-to-improve-YouTube-Channel-authority.jpg
• https://www.swissbusinessacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Decision-Making-Strategies-590x400-560x379.jpg
• https://s3.amazonaws.com/media.eremedia.com/uploads/2016/01/19163539/shutterstock_363192542-700x467.jpg
• http://mumbiproperties.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/double-trust-structure.jpg

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• https://medium.com/@mackfogelson/how-to-build-high-performing-self-managed-teams-ec139961f41f
• http://www.digitalistmag.com/future-of-work/2017/10/04/self-managed-organizations-self-delusional-or-future-of-business-
05401162
• https://www.mtdtraining.com/blog/self-managed-teams-the-myths-and-the-reality.htm
• https://corporate-rebels.com/misunderstandings-self-management/
• https://open.buffer.com/self-management-hierarchy/
• https://www.strategy-business.com/article/05408?gko=3291c
• https://semcostyle.org/articles/2017/11/four-things-that-every-self-managed-team-needs-to-be-successful
References

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Thank you
Twitter : @rsrinath
Email : ramakrishnan.srinath@gmail.com
Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/srinathramakrishnan