Self-Organization In Your Team: Roundabout Instead Of Traffic Cop

This is the organizational challenge for the next years: moving from hierarchical controlled entities to more self-organized teams.

This is an educational challenge. How to convince, to motivate, to explain.

I use a specific metaphor to explain this shift.

When roads cross, you can assign a traffic policeman to direct the traffic.

You can also put in a roundabout at the junction.

In most cases, the roundabout creates a very effective flow of traffic. Self regulating.

You see. There is a valid alternative to central control.

The roundabout only works when everyone uses the same rules. To determine who has priority, in which order cars will go, all drivers have to use the same traffic rules.

Accidents happen if they don’t follow the same rules.

With self-organization the rules of engagement become essential.

More about self-organization in teams.

Earlier this year I had the pleasure of talking to Esther Derby about self-organization in (agile) teams. What is it? What is it not? What’s the role of a manager in a self-organizing team?