What You Need To Be Autonomous

Zappos gave self-managing organisations and the whole concept of Holacracy a lousy name, but I wouldn’t throw away the baby with the bathwater. Self-managing organisations and autonomous teams aren’t all bad; they can be a recipe for success. There’s a lot to learn from this failed attempt to create a self-managing organisation.

The biggest lesson to me is that the need for autonomy doesn’t replace the need for leadership. Human leadership.

Before everything else, an employee is human, with feelings, highs, and lows. People need a strong leader who can help them achieve their goals. They don’t want to be managed, but they want to be led, with leadership replacing management.

You manage a system, you lead self-thinking people.  And they, in turn, choose to follow. Or not.

Like a beehive without a queen bee, an organisation without a leader creates chaos. It’s the autonomy that’s at fault; it’s a lack of shared vision and direction that’s to blame.

Most bees are required to be autonomous in a beehive. They leave the hive searching for nectar without anyone telling them where to fly or when to return. Then, they know their role and when they are ready to return, all while serving the queen. They are autonomous in their daily operations, yet when the queen bee dies, the first thing they do is select a new one. You can’t be autonomous without a leader or some rules.

Rules Or No Rules?

Rules are often viewed as why people are not responsible, proactive or autonomous. You don’t have the authority to use a different tool, even though it costs the organisation dearly in money and time, because it is not company policy. Additionally, you aren’t supposed to buy extra memory for your computer, even though it means wasting valuable time and being unproductive, because it’s not the year for it. You lose out on offering to the new talent. You’ve been veered because your recruitment process is too heavy, and the rules stop you from bending it. You’ll lose out on the significant gains rather than make small changes.

But rules aren’t. They make us feel safe; without feeling safe, we can’t be productive. But rules must make sense, be questioned and adapted continuously, and grow organically with the company.

Amateur or Master Chef?

Following a recipe book ensures that even an amateur can create a delicious meal. You don’t need to know cooking science to create a masterpiece. All you need to do is follow the recipe step by step.

A master chef, on the other hand, not only intimately knows the rules and science of cooking but has also mastered all the technical skills. He has also proven that he can work at high speed and in very stressful environments.

Similarly, processes and procedures enable us to be more repeatable in our actions, repeatedly producing the same high-quality results, by choice, not by chance. Processes and procedures are intended to be standardised lessons learned, preventing us from making the same mistakes.

Having the proper rules in place, therefore, enables us to be more productive. The problem lies in how rules are being enforced. Rules enforced by top management are likely to be viewed negatively by employees who do not feel they have control over their results.

Science has proven that people are happy when they feel they have control over a situation. Thus, not involving employees in creating their own rules is stressful and demotivating. The result is a peaceful rebellion, where people follow the rules and take no responsibility for any consequences that may arise.

For rules — and autonomy — to work, the people who must follow the rules must participate in creating the rules. You also need the following five critical skills to build an autonomous team:

Trust and respect

When people trust and respect each other, it is impossible to allow them to make their own decisions, knowing that if something falls outside their comfort zone, they will ask for help.

Good communication skills

When leaders fail to encourage teams to communicate effectively, it becomes challenging for them to trust each other or for others to trust them. Autonomy requires people to be able to express their needs, explain and defend their viewpoints, and give and receive feedback from colleagues.

Strong relationships

Relationships are closely tied to effective communication. Communication enables discussions, while relationships ensure that you talk to the right people to achieve the desired results.

For a team or organisation to be autonomous, it needs clearly defined relationships with defined go-to people for different issues. That means you need to know each team member’s strengths and weaknesses—technically and personally.

You need to know the go-to person and be confident in consulting them. Authority and decision-making rules also need to be defined.

Clear vision and requirements

Relationships and communication don’t help you get closer to them without a target or goal to work towards. An autonomous team needs to have a clear vision of what they are working toward. There should be no ambiguity or disagreement.

High confidence, low arrogance

Confidence is the key to autonomy. Each team member must know what to do, who to ask for help or support, and how to do their work. When you don’t know the answers, you need the confidence to ask for help and the humility to offer assistance.

In essence, when you have clarity of roles, respect, and trusting relationships, you have autonomy.

Conclusion

Autonomous teams don’t mean that everyone decides what they want to do, but it also doesn’t mean they don’t need to. Autonomy is much more complex than that, requiring shared values and strong leadership. The skills needed to be autonomous can not be learned by attending a course or reading a book. The skills required, among other things, are trust, respect, and communication.  No team can be truly autonomous without humility.

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With more than 20 years experience in the software development industry, Kate specializes in helping teams get unstuck, communicate better and ultimately be more productive. She believes in efficiency through fun implementing lean, agile and playful design as tools for process improvement and organizational change. Her goal is to create more happy, healthy and whole workplaces where each person thrives and productivity soars.

www.funficient.com