Talk first delivered on october 2023 at Agile Slovenia. The key to great results in complex environments is to develop self-organizing and empowered teams. This has been described since the 1940's, and companies are still struggling to let go of the command and control paradigm or the classic silo-based, hierarchical organization. In this talk we explore some of the sources behind the idea of empowered, self-organizing teams and the main factors to grow this kind of team in your organization.

1. Agile
and the search for Kraken
s
“The Oatmeal” - https://www.facebook.com/theoatmeal

2. Hi, I’m Ángel Medinilla!
- Organizational transformation & improvement consultant.
Agility trainer, leadership coach at Improvement21.
- Pragmatist & agnostic - hands-on experience on a broad
set of industries (banking, telco, government, pharma,
aerospace, insurance, tourism, retail, mobile, gaming…).
- Author: “Agile Management” & “Agile Kaizen” (Springer),
International Speaker (duh! :P).
- Management 3.0 Licensed Trainer (amongst the most
actives worldwide).
angel.medinilla@improvement21.com / @angel_m

3. “Self Organization”

10. “Self Organizing Team”

11. Unicorns, Krakens, Self-Organizing teams…

12. 2014-2017
- “Unicorns, Krakens, Self-Organizing Teams and
other mythological beasts”
- We were promised hyper-performing teams
(Krakens), we were given… Well…
- What went wrong? How to
fi
x it?

13. Does this seem familiar?
- Black-box Agility /McAgile / Cargo-Cult Agility
.
- Management 2.0
- Same dog, different collar.

14. A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (from Agility)…

15. William L. McKnight
- CEO 3M 1929 - 1949, board until 1972
- Over a 20-year period, gross margin averaged
51%., return on assets 29%
- One of the most innovative companies in history.

16. McKnight, 1948:
“As our business grows, it becomes increasingly necessary to delegate
responsibility and to encourage men and women to exercise
their initiative. […] Mistakes will be made. But if a person is
essentially right, the mistakes he or she makes are not as serious in the
long run as the mistakes management will make if it undertakes
to tell those in authority exactly how they must do their jobs.
Management that is destructively critical when mistakes are made kills
initiative. And it's essential that we have many people with
initiative if we are to continue to grow.”

17. Matsushita - 1894/1989
- Founder of Panasonic, Technics & Matsushita
group (largest consumer electronics company in
Japan, 47th largest in the world).
- John Kotter dedicated his whole life to study
Matsushita’s leadership style.

18. Matsushita, 1989:
“We will win and you will lose. [.]… Your companies are based on
Taylor’s principles. [….] You
fi
rmly believe that sound management
means […], on one side men who think, and on the other side men
who can only work. […] We have passed the Taylor stage. We are
aware that business has become terribly complex. […]… Therefore,
a company must have the constant commitment of the minds of all
of its employees to survive. For us, management is the entire
workforce’s intellectual commitment at the service of the
company”

19. Nonaka & Takeuchi
- “The New New Product Development Game” -
Inspiration for the creation of Scrum (1986)
- Team level factors will in
fl
uence individual
performance, creativity and knowledge
creation.
- Break classic hierarchies: Crete cross-
functional, self-organizing, evolving team
s
- Clear mission, legitimate power.

20. Ricardo Semler, 1988
- One of Brazil’s larger conglomerates.
- Creates and environment which can essentially run without
him. No formal organizational chart.
- Workers hire their managers, set their own salaries, decide
on their vacation days, set their own quotas, manage their own
schedules, participate on pro
fi
t.
- Negative pressure, fear, insecurity or disrespect caused by
exploiting authority is intolerable.

21. Jim Collins - 2001
- “First Who, then What”.
- When facing chaos and uncertainty, you cannot possibly
predict: your best "strategy" is to have a busload of
people who can adapt to and perform brilliantly.
- Level 5 leadership, discipline and team players who care
to move the company forward.
- Teams are the building block of companies - not
individuals any more.

22. Patrick Lencioni, 2002
- “Teamwork is the ultimate competitive advantage,
both because is so powerful and so rare”.

23. And more!
- Demming (1900-1993): Teamwork and
collaboration are essential for better results and
high quality.
- Tuckman, 1965: Forming, Storming, Norming,
Performing
- Steve Jobs: “most proud of his team – The Apple
Team – that had created award-winning products
time and again”

24. And then, Agile! (2001)

28. Process over people
- Agile = “Doing stuff” (Scrum, dailies, sprints…).
- Agile = “Structures” (squads, tribes, trains…).
- Agile = “Roles” (ScrumMasters, PO’s, Agile
coaches, RTE’s…).
- Agile = “Tools” (Jira, Post-it notes, Trello, User
Stories, Story Points, Burn-down charts, Backlogs…).
- Agile = “Hyperperformance” (Velocity,
“commitment”, predictability).

31. “Teams”
- Teams of one?
- People in several teams at a time?
- People in a team never working on the
same stuff?
- Cooperation or coordination instead of
collaboration?
- “Your code / my code”?
- “Meetings are a waste of time, just tell me
what to do”.

33. Remember the basics!
- Deliver value early, deliver value frequently.
- Continuous Improvement - re
fl
ect and adap
t
- Self-Organizing, collaborating teams.

34. But we’re not there yet!

35. Jurgen Appelo - 2010
- Human organizations are like cities (complex), not like
machines (simple).
- Manage the system, not the people!
- Involve everyone - Management is too important to leave
it just to managers.
- Progressively delegate and empower team
s
- Aling teams with organizational goal
s
- Develop their competenc
e
- Structure growth in a way that favors value creation.

36. David Marquet - 2013
- Instead of taking control and attracting followers,
give control and create leaders
.
- Refuse to give orders - replace them with intent.
- Provide technical competence and
organizational clarity.

37. Google’s Aristotle - 2012/2014
- Creativity spurns from diverse teams who
collaborate towards the same goal.
- They will engage in constructive con
fl
ict -
norms and psychological safety are needed
- We trust these teams to deliver and create
measurable impact (outcomes over output)

38. Frederic Laloux - 2014
- Green organizations:
- Break hierarchies, organize work around
shared culture.
- Servant Leadership, democratic processes,
empowerment.
- Teal organizations
- Self-management
.
- Wholeness.
- Evolutionary purpose.

39. Stanley McChrystal - 2015
- Organizations are too large and complex for one
person to be taking all the decisions.
- Create networks of empowered teams sharing
common consciousness.
- Build genuine relationships and trust.
- Hands-off approach to leadership - create an
environment of empowered execution.
- Organizations must be robust and adaptable.

40. Conclusions

41. Diversity + Collaboration = Con
fl
ict
- But Con
fl
ict + Structure + Psychological Safety
= Results

42. With great power, comes great responsibility
- Empowerment requires technical
competence (trust) & organizational
clarity (alignment).
- Make teams as autonomous as possible.
- Search for people who will
fi
nd meaning
and purpose in the work they’ll do.
- Focus on impact and outcome.
- Expect responsibility and
accountability.

43. Your role as manager, leader, change agent:
- Psychological safety
.
- Organizational clarity: clear goals & constraints, intent
and context
.
- Diversity, participation, engagement, constructive con
fl
ict
.
- Develop competence - both technical and interpersonal
.
- Give teams means and resources to achieve their goals

44. “A leader is best when people barely know
he exists. When his work is done, his aim
ful
fi
lled, they will say: we did it ourselves.”
Lao Tzu - 6th century B.C:

45. "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up
people to collect wood and don't assign them
tasks and work, but rather teach them to long
for the endless immensity of the sea."
Antoine de Saint Exupéry - 1900-1944

46. “Talent wins games, but teamwork
and intelligence wins championships”
Michael Jordan - 1963 - ?

47. ‘There is no Agile transformation
without Leadership transformation
’
Thanks!
Elden Ring - © Bandai Namco Enterteinment / From Software

48. Questions and feedback: @angel_m
LInkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/angelm