Getting ready to start an Agile transformation? Time for an organizational reset? Existing team structures getting in the way of scaling agility? Sounds like you might be getting ready to restructure teams. The usual approach to restructuring goes like this… A select group managers goes into a room to decide who will be on which teams and what they will work on. A few days later they come out and announce who will be on which teams. After the big reveal, team members are pissed off. Happiness, engagement, and sense of responsibility take a dive. Sound familiar? An alternative to the ‘usual approach’ for team structuring teams is “self-selection”, and it's proven to have tremendous benefits, especially at scale. In this talk Jeff Steinberg will share his experience leading self-selection to form 25 new agile teams in a single day, the value it had, and the practical knowledge about when and how to lead self-selection at your organization.

1. SELF SELECTING TEAMS AT

2. THE TROUBLE WITH COMPONENT TEAMS AND
SCALED RELEASE PLANNING

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AT FIRST, OUR RELEASE PLANNING EVENTS LOOKED LIKE THIS…

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Team
Plans
Program
Plans
…. AND OUR RELEASE PLANNING OUTPUTS LOOK LIKE THIS

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WE KEPT ‘FEEDING THE BEAST’ AND OTHER CHALLENGES GREW FROM THERE…

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we had been
listening to
teams
we heard a
desire for
less
command
& control
more
autonomy
more
networked and
organic structure
less
dependencies
more
purpose
more
adaptation
to plans
SIMULTANEOUSLY….

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Problem statement
Description
KPIs
Value Proposition
WE DECIDED TO SET TEAMS UP FOR SUCCESS
helping teams own a business problem, not a singular feature
Stakeholders
Use cases
User Pains and Gains
Relevant workflows
Acceptance criteria
more
purpose
more
context
Personas
less command
& control
more
autonomy

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market feature
teams
platform service
teams
tool & infrastructure
teams
market driven
features &
enhancements
Respond to the Market
re-use driven
frameworks &
services
Build the Platform
velocity driven
tools &
infrastructure
Enable our Teams
WE DECIDED TO STOP MANAGING DEPENDENCIES, AND START BREAKING THEM
Moving from component to feature teams

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Team n
On Deck(1) Developing (2)
Discovery WIP “Done”
Program Backlog
Grooming Groomed
Production
Live Review
Doing “Done”
Team A
On Deck(1)
Selected Discovery
Developing (1) “Done”
Flow
Product Packages
Trifecta Teams
Development
Teams
adapting our
plans continuously
T R
J H
S
P
U
R
O
N
M
L
KT needs to be
split into MMF
A
B
E
D
C
Let’s crush
it with G!
We’re
going live!
WE DECIDED TO STOP CREATING BIG RELEASES, START CREATING CONTINUOUS FLOW

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SELF SELECTING TEAMS
Jon moves
to Team A
Like most organizations, we usually formed and
rearranged teams like this...
We saw an opportunity to better fullfil desires for
more autonomy in who people work with and what
they work on
less
command
& control
more
networked
structure
more
autonomy

11. TEAMIFICATION DAY

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10:00am
and 2:00pm
Zone B
10:30am
and 2:30pm
Zone C
11:00am
and 3:00pm
Zone A
10:00am
and 2:00pm
Zone C
10:00am
and 2:00pm
Zone A
10:00am
and 2:00pm
Zone B
10:00am
and 2:00pm
Zone H
10:00am
and 2:00pm
Zone G
10:00am
and 2:00pm
Zone F
10:00am
and 2:00pm
Zone K
11:00am
and 3:00pm
Zone I
10:30am
and 2:30pm
Zone E
10:00am
and 2:00pm
Zone L
11:00am
and 3:00pm
Zone J
10:00am
and 2:00pm
Zone D
11:00am
and 3:00pm
Zone E
10:00am
and 2:00pm
Zone A
10:30am
and 2:30pm
Zone B
11:00am
and 3:00pm
Zone C
10:00am
and 2:00pm
Zone D
x 6
law of two feet
go to where you’ll be engaged
and learning the most
be curious
engage in the market
and with each other
20 min
choose team
autonomy in what you
work on
choose work
find a few Product Packages
you’re interested in working on
TEAMIFICATION DAY PART I - CURIOSITY MARKET
product pitches

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CURIOSITY MARKET

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x 4
30-60 min
more
autonomy in who
you work with
more
networked and
organic structure
empowered
to do what’s right for Uptake
empowered
to do what’s right for you
TEAMIFICATION DAY PART II – OPEN ENROLLEMNT
self selecting teams form

15. FACILITATING SELF SELECTION

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SETUP (10 MIN)
OPEN ENROLLMENT – FACILITATORS GUIDE
• Central Facilitator walks through plan and instructions
• “Developers” pick up own picture from “Not yet on a team" section
• Set big visible timer with audible alarm set for first 10 min

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Step 1 - Team Members go to a station to join a team. (10 min time-box)
Step 2 - Teams Members fill out “Team Profile Sheet” (10 min time-box)
■ Product Owner and Anchor indicate if "constraints" met
■ Team Members fill out their “Team Adjustments Log”
Note: Anyone who has not yet selected after ‘Step 1’, goes to back to the ‘Not Yet in a Team’ area
SELF SELECTION PROCESS - ROUND 1 (30MIN)

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SELF SELECTION PROCESS – ROUND 1 (30MIN)
Step 3 - Central Facilitator leads “team readouts” making visible skill and size imbalances
across teams (10 min)
Note: Team Members stay in selected team area till readout is complete

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SELF SELECTION PROCESS – ROUND 2 & 3 (30MIN)
Repeat steps 1, 2 and 3 from Round 1 to address any remaining team
adjustments and achieve new formations

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BREAK & HUDDLE (20MIN)
OPEN ENROLLMENT – FACILITATORS GUIDE
Break - All Participating Team Members should take a break
Huddle - Facilitators and managers huddle to choose to take one or more of the following
actions:
1. Run another selection round with everyone (steps 1, 2 and 3)
2. Send away any “completely formed teams”, i.e. agile teams where there has been no
movement for 2 rounds and do another selection round with people who are left in the
room.
3. Choose to be satisfied with all the success on getting most team to a “Done” state and
decide to deal with the rest tomorrow…

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SELF SELECTION PROCESS - ROUND 4 (20MIN)
Last - What happens here is based on decisions made during “huddle”.
This is also the time where anyone who has expressed “I don’t want to choose, please tell me
where to go” that Managers would place them.
Note – There are no other circumstances under which we want someone other than the
individual to direct a decision.

22. PREPARATION TIPS

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SOCIALIZE IT, FAR IN ADVANCE
Socialize it!
Town Hall Meetings
Q and A Sessions
FAQs and Wikis

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PLAN YOUR PHYSICAL SPACE

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ALIGN ON FACILITATION PLANS
OPEN ENROLLMENT – FACILITATORS GUIDE
Mindset - As a facilitator, your primary role is to highlight areas
where adjustments are needed and make it easier for team members
to make the “right” decisions.
At no point is it you job to “tell” anyone what to do, only to create
transparency into available options, bring people together, and help
move the event along.
Remember all of this is under the mind-set of two overarching
principles:
1. Do what best for Uptake, first
2. Then do what best for yourself

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Scenario
• In Round 2 at station one 10 developers showed up who can offer FE skills
• At station seven only 1 person with FE skills showed up and 2 are “desired”
As a facilitator what would you do? What options do you have?
1. Bring people from station seven over to station one to ask for help, face-to-face
2. Bring the PO from station seven over to station one to make their pitch again in case anyone
missed it earlier or needs to be reminded of it
3. Ask (or encourage the Anchor or PO to ask) who feels really strongly they want/need to be on
this team?
4. Remind everyone “you are not signing your life away” team transfers and new work types are
certain
ALIGN ON FACILITATION PLANS

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Would we do this again?
Will We do this again?
What Next?

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seeking change team openings
For Individuals
An invitation for Team Members to enter
the transfer market, and for New Hire
graduates to join their first team
For teams
Opportunity to recruit people from the
job market to existing or new teams
from the available seeking change pool
NEXT: BIG VISIBLE JOB BOARD
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