The document explores the concept of self-organizing teams and offers methods for facilitating their development, including experimentation and understanding environmental influences. It emphasizes the importance of servant leadership and the distinction between management and self-organization, asserting that teams function best when they are allowed to adaptively respond to their environment. Additionally, it highlights the need for leaders to create supportive conditions that enable teams to grow and reflect on their effectiveness.

1. But it’s a self-organizing team!
How do I help them?
Erika Lenz, Agile Coach

2. Agenda
• Experiment with self-organization
• Four ways to organize teams
• A model to help you think about helping teams self-organize
• Servant leadership hacks

3. But first,
I need some volunteers!

4. Let’s experiment!
• Each team member picks 2 other people (not next to or opposite)
• The manager's task is to make sure each team member stands at
equal distance from the people he or she chose.
• The manager can accomplish this task in any way they see fit.
• Time-box: 5 minutes

5. Applaud the managers!

7. Repeat
• Each team member picks 2 different people (again, not next
to or opposite). This time don't tell anyone who you chose.
• Try to stand equal distance from the two persons you chose
– but NO TALKING!
• Time-box: 5 minutes

8. Whoa. What just happened?
• Why was it hard for the manager to
get the team organized?
• What happened in the second round
that worked so quickly?
(Yes, this happens nearly every time.)
• Would it change if the order was switched?
• Who had the most accurate information
—the manager or the team?

9. What is
self-organizing?
•A response to a
challenge or a
problem
•The team
determining how to
respond to their
environment
(and you can
influence that
environment)

10. Agenda
üExperiment with self-organization
• Four ways to organize teams
• A model to help you think about helping teams self-organize
• Servant leadership hacks

11. Setting overall purpose,
direction, and composition
of team
Defining / modifying
work processes & policies
Monitoring / evaluating
the work process and
evaluating progress
Executing discrete tasks
that make up the delivery
of some product or service
Self-
managing
Self-
organizing
Self-
governing
Manager
-led
Areas of
management
responsibility
Areas of team
responsibility
J. R. Hackman

12. Setting overall purpose,
direction, and composition
of team
Defining / modifying
work processes & policies
Monitoring / evaluating
the work process and
evaluating progress
Executing discrete tasks
that make up the delivery
of some product or service
Self-
managing
Self-
organizing
Areas of team
responsibility
Where
do your
teams
fall?
At your table
Manager
-led
Areas of
management
responsibility

13. So why do we care?
Build projects around motivated individuals.
Give them the environment and support they need,
and trust them to get the job done.
The best architectures, requirements, and designs
emerge from self-organizing teams.
At regular intervals, the team reflects on how
to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts
its behavior accordingly.

14. Agenda
üExperiment with self-organization
üFour ways to organize teams
• A model to help you think about helping teams self-
organize
• Servant leadership hacks

15. “Self-organization does not mean that
workers instead of managers engineer an
organization design. It does not mean letting
people do whatever they want to do. It
means that management commits to guiding
the evolution of behaviors that emerge
from the interaction of independent agents
instead of specifying in advance what
effective behavior is.”
–Philip Anderson, The Biology of Business
“Self-organization does not mean that
workers instead of managers engineer an
organization design. It does not mean letting
people do whatever they want to do. It
means that management commits to guiding
the evolution of behaviors that emerge
from the interaction of independent agents
instead of specifying in advance what
effective behavior is.”

19. Teams = Complex adaptive systems
A dynamic network of individuals who are
• acting in parallel
• reacting to what others are doing
Control is dispersed and decentralized
Overall system behavior is a result of huge
number of decisions made constantly by many
individuals

20. “When you plant lettuce, if it
does not grow well, you don’t
blame the lettuce. You look for
reasons it is not doing well. It
may need fertilizer, or more
water, or less sun.
You never blame the lettuce.”
- Thich Nhat Hanh

21. CDE Model
Containers Differences Exchanges
Glenda Eoynag: Conditions for Self-Organizing in Human Systems
You can influence how a team self-organizes by tweaking the
environment.

22. CDE Model
Container hold the system while patterns form – a room, a charismatic
leader, organizational silos, an agenda
Differences potential for change as the team negotiates the diversities
that separate them
Exchanges any flow that generates change--feedback, sharing
information, competition, conversation, planning, budgeting

23. Agenda
üExperiment with self-organization
üFour ways to organize teams
üA model to help you think about helping teams self-organize
• Servant leadership hacks

26. Get real.
Horses love
water.

27. Containers •Does the team sit together?
•Are there dominant /
charismatic personalities
“holding” the team
•Can you cross or bridge
organizational silos?
•How formal is the team
structure?
•How thoroughly are
goals/expectations/standards
defined?
What is the
impact?

28. As a leader / Scrum Master, do you….
Tell?
Sell?
Consult?
Agree?
Advise?
Inquire?
What containers do
you create?
Do they fit the level
of team maturity?

29. Differences
• What difference exist between team
members?
• Skills? Gender? Decision-making style?
• Hard questions can bring out differences
between team members
Dampen or
amplify?

30. Exchanges
• Ideas
• Conversations
• Techniques
• People
• Tools
• Planning

31. You are an exchange
• Model learning from mistakes
• Model respect
• How much do you talk?
• How much do you do?
• What do you believe about the
team’s abilities?

32. Growth Mindset = Continuous Improvement

33. Container hold the system while patterns form – a room, a charismatic
leader, organizational silos, an agenda
Differences potential for change as the team negotiates the diversities
that separate them
Exchanges any flow that generates change--feedback, sharing
information, competition, conversation, planning, budgeting
What about your teams?

34. Team evolution
•Never done
•The team senses the changing
environment and responds
•As you observe, you can influence (but not
control) the path

35. Resources
Glenda Eoyang, Conditions for Self-organizing in Human Systems (2004):
http://www.complexityforum.com/members/Eoyang%202004%20Conditions%20for%20self-org.pdf
Marcel VanHove, The ScrumMaster – How to develop a team
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=393&v=yuHuSHoZlmk

36. Thank you and happy experimenting!
“To be sure, control is still exercised, but it is subtle, and much of it is indirect”
--Peter DeGrace & Leslie Stahl