Successful leaders

For centuries, companies have been led by a hierarchical, distrustful and controlling governance model at its core. This management style is based on the principles of Roman military command, but is still widely taught today.

In recent years, many companies have started looking for alternatives to the traditional way of managing. Self-organizing control models are more in line with the controlled chaos in the natural world. The starting point is that people naturally have certain behavioral patterns and that it is better to make use of these patterns than to try to mold them so that they fit better into the traditional hierarchical models.

Agile frameworks such as Scrum are good examples of this. These frameworks reverse the hierarchy. They transform executives into stewards of a self-organizing behavioral architecture. Team roles and responsibilities are interwoven in the organization in such a way that enables people to become self-organized and improve performance.

In an Agile environment, team members are mandated to make important decisions without asking permission from managers.

But don't expect all managers to just go along with this. This change requires a transformation that they have taught themselves over a lifetime in order to be successful in a hierarchical world.

Reasons for change

There are good reasons for leaders to transform from a hierarchical to a self-organizing governance model.

Agile frameworks reduce the cost of failure

In the IT industry, avoiding project failures is practically impossible. It is wise to take into account failing projects and not just successes. All agile frameworks, with their incremental and iterative development model, support the idea of 'failing quickly'. It simply offers the best approach to minimize costs in these situations.

Failure is not an option, but a requirement

A fundamental premise of agile is to recognize that failure is normal and that we should plan to fail quickly and learn as much as possible. Teams can redirect their efforts to a more successful approach by experimenting and learning in short, time boxed iterations. Professionals will recognize this as an implementation of the Plan Do Check Act (PDCA) iterative method. Working in short iterations quickly yields results.

Agile methods deliver value to end users faster

Value is delivered faster with an iterative and incremental delivery approach by capturing higher-valued features earlier than lower-valued features. This allows teams to focus on the customer needs that really matter.

Changes in culture

The leaders of tomorrow are architects and entrepreneurs who give teams space in a self-organizing management model. That requires a change in the culture of an organization.

There are models in the industry that can help leaders improve their skills. For example by applying Holacracy.

Holacracy is a complete and ready-to-use set of rules that can be used to shape the practice of self-organization. The rules of the game apply to everyone in the same way. No one in the organization is “above” or “outside” these rules.

Focus on a common goal

When the self-organization focuses on a common goal, or objective. The self-organization thus recognizes that it is part of a larger whole and is more aware of the responsibilities that go with it.

Power and decisions

The conventional hierarchy is being replaced by a more distributed authority in self-organization. Where previously the hierarchical structure follows the "function", the organizational structure precisely follows the goal that the organization wants to achieve.

In addition, the organizational units are autonomous and are given a mandate based on their responsibilities to achieve the goal. It is no longer necessary to ask for permission. Everything is allowed as long as it is not explicitly prohibited. until new agreements are made.

Agile organizational development

The organization is dynamic, changes continuously and develops agile. Top-down control gives way to involvement and experimentation. Step by step, the organization achieves more 'fit for purpose' in a world full of change and disruption.

Transparency

Transparency required to be self-organizing. Information and feedback is freely available as much as possible, so that the organization can learn and continue to develop.

Closing words

Any agile transformation that is limited to hiring agile coaches and adopting the basic techniques and ceremonies is doomed to fail. Agile is not just a process or framework like Scrum, Extreme Programming, or SAFe. It is a set of values and principles that encourage an organization to work better together. It requires a transparent and self-organizing culture that strives for quality and faster value creation. For agile to be successful on a large scale, leaders will have to change. Agile in Focus wants to help your company or team with this. Contact us, we are here for you!