Managing a self-managed team requires: 1) Establishing checkpoints to prevent issues from spiraling out of control while avoiding rigid control that stifles creativity. 2) Building trust with the team and allowing it to evolve naturally while maintaining visibility into scope, timeline, budget and technical debt. 3) Adopting a servant leadership approach by providing vision and support, defining expectations, choosing qualified people, and continuously improving the system.

1. How to manage a self managed team
Ronen Bar-Nahor

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. But if customers force us to commit
(waterfall approach)

5. Where does that leave us

6. Control

7. Building trust

8. Team evolution

9. Natural selection

10. Maintaining visibility

11. Burndown Charts

12. Scrum Board

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

14. 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.

15. 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

16. Manage meaning
Provides organizational vision and support

17. Define expectations

18. Choose people

19. 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

20. Reconfigure the network

21. Remove impediment

22. Communicate

23. On-going improvement

24. Energize the system

25. Ask hard questions

26. Project Manager‘s role
26

27. Thank You