Overcoming the Fear of the Incapable Team

Trust the team, and be amazed

The self-organizing team—the powerful force behind any great software endeavor. Agile puts people, human beings, at the core. Harnessing the force of your people and the exponential multiplier of this force that your teams create is your job as a manager or rather, a leader. Leadership is about enabling the change in your organization to let this force flourish both to deliver the product right and deliver the right product.

Traditional management doctrine treats people as interchangeable parts almost akin to a widget that you can plug and play to get a known job done. This was fine for a manufacturing plant where the process was repeatable and the product replicable. It is not fine for a complex domain such as software product development where no two products are the same. You rarely have the same team members. You never have the same scope. Technology is always evolving and changing. As such, every software effort is custom and not predictable. You need a skilled workforce that can adjust in real-time to unpredictable terrain rather than follow a map.

The problem is that traditional management thinking gets in the way of serving the self-organizing team. Most of our training and experience have taught us that employees must be managed and that they are not capable of certain skill sets. You might hear phrases like, “The team cannot do design because they don’t see the bigger picture,” “The team does not have the right communication skills to speak to our customers or users,” or “The team does not have enough experience to develop our strategic direction.” You may even hear, “The team is too conservative in their estimates. They should be able to do it in half the time,” or “Dependencies must be managed for the team.”

This post attempts to remedy this gap in mindset in accordance with the management core values mentioned in the prior post, Do We Need a Manifesto for Mangers? The remedy is simple in concept but difficult in practice. The formula is to trust the team, let them take control, and support them when they ask for help.

Arguments For and Against Self-Organizing Teams

I often get this question from managers, “What are the pros of self-organizing teams?” The biggest benefit is that they don’t have to be managed. They can adapt to changes on their own. They can think. They can problem solve. They innovate without being asked. This makes teams happy. Happiness is a force multiplier and a future predictor for higher productivity. Self-organizing teams are more productive and they are smarter than the manager. Yes, let me repeat that—they are smarter than the manager. Several minds working together towards a common goal will beat out one mind any day regardless of the capability of the single mind.

After mentioning the benefits, counterarguments are usually made that are driven by traditional management thinking and muscle memory. Self-organizing teams require that managers move from command and control to team trust and ownership. However, the traditional forces that act in opposition to this and drive managers back to command and control behavior typically arise from the following beliefs:

• If I don’t manage the teams, I don’t believe they will take control of the situation and give it the attention it deserves.
• I don’t believe the team has the skills or the experience to do this work on their own and with the right quality.
• How can the team do whatever they want without leadership direction? Chaos will ensue.
• How will the team learn new skills without relying on my experience?
• My job is at stake if they fail.

This line of thinking leads to failure for the self-organizing team concept. A manager will never reap the multiplier force of the self-organizing team if these beliefs can’t be overcome.

The Pattern for Developing Self-Organizing Teams

From personal experience transforming organizations to the Agile mindset, I have formed a pattern that you as a leader can try to achieve higher team trust and ownership.

Step 1 – Trust first

It starts with Trust. You must trust the team. Don’t make them earn your trust. You hired them. They are professionals. Trust them to get the job done and give them the support they need.

Step 2 – Ownership is taken

Next, you must understand that ownership must be taken; it cannot be given. This is entirely dependent on you trusting the team. If you don’t trust them, you won’t let them take control and they likely will not want to take it.

Step 3 – “What” and “Why”

As a leader, you will provide the “What” and the “Why” but never the “How.” Providing the “How” would be management. This will take away control and give it to you. This is not the outcome we want. You will set outcomes for the team to reach, explain why those outcomes are important, and leave them alone to figure out how to achieve the outcomes.

Step 4 – Growth through Collaborative Problem Solving

As the team takes ownership they will struggle. Only if you trust them and they do not fear being critiqued for not knowing something will they ask for your help. The way you respond is critical for trust and ownership growth.

Invariably, in the beginning, the team will feel odd moving toward the goal without direction. The team will come to you and ask for guidance on the “How.” It is critical that you do not give it. Instead of answering, ask questions to channel them to think critically about the problem they are solving and find the path themselves. This support mechanism is key to enabling the team member to grow in skills like problem-solving, flexibility, and frustration tolerance. The technique is called Collaborative Problem Solving¹. It goes as follows:

1. Ask questions to clarify the problem (have empathy and be genuinely interested)
2. Put your concerns on the table
3. Let the team solve the problem and arrive at a solution that solves the problem and your concerns. Don’t interfere with this step.

Step 5 – Provide support and safety

It is key that you don’t use your position to influence their solution direction. This will take away their control. If you see an obstacle in their solution, ask them if they considered that obstacle and let them adjust their solution how they see fit. It is also important that they feel like they have a safe place to execute their experiment. They may fail, and you must support them as they regroup and try again. Don’t correct their mistakes as they execute the “how.” Let them learn from their mistakes.

The journey toward team trust and ownership is not a straight path. With deliberate actions to support the team in this journey, as a leader, you can help the team achieve self-organizing behavior and reach a state where they are unstoppable. Try these techniques, and let me know if they are helping you on your journey to Agile.

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References

1. Ted Talk – Rethinking Challenging Kids – Where There’s a Skill There’s a Way – J. Stuart Ablon