AgileIndy 2016: Self-Organization in a Command and Control World

On Tuesday, Tana and I were honored to spend time with a packed house at AgileIndy 2016. We presented a topic that is near and dear to my heart: self-organization. Here’s the slide deck if you couldn’t make it to the presentation.

[slideshare id=60869845&doc=selforganizingpresfinal-160413144739]

Self-organization is a controversial topic in the agile and business communities right now. How do you allow individual contributors to figure out how the work is accomplished, and yet have some idea of what the outcome will be and when it will be complete? When challenges arise, many react as though being self-organized is the problem.  It’s unnerving to many managers who have been brought up in a traditional command and control world where you power and authority is defined by where you are in the org chart.  During the presentation, Tana and I introduced the concept of Delegation Poker from Management 3.0.  You can check out Delegation Poker  here and our Delegation Poker Board here. Delegation Poker, much like Planning Poker, is a technique which facilitates conversations within an organization with the intent of arriving at an outcome of a common understanding between interested parties.

I have been using self-organization techniques for years.  Some of them, such as using the Rule of Two Feet, have been thrust on me by my interactions with great teammates while other techniques just came naturally.  As part of our continuing journey, Tana and I have invested in learning more about not just the Agile processes, but the boundaries and impediments created by managers and organizations and how to start addressing them.  So far, the journey has been challenging, yet fascinating.

Look for more to come soon.

Thanks for coming in today.

Chris