The self organising collaborating team
Cross functional teams that break down silo working, enable delegated decision-making, liberating teams to collaborate
Self managed teams need to be carefully setup so they are designed around the true characteristics of customers.
They also need a new management style to allow them to thrive. This is an important step when introducing new ways of working, like the liberated method.
Since the early promises of great teamwork from Japan, like many others, I have been searching for something that allows for employees to truly contribute and create a positive work environment. Over the last few years, I have worked with teams that have been able to work in a very different way to the past. Individuals have become motivated, effective, and collaborative. People coming to work to do something they want to do, and do it well.
In the public sector, the way that 'The liberated method' is develops is a good example. This is a term coined by Mark Smith from Gateshead.
Good teams don’t not exist, they are visible in pockets of parts of organisations. You come across them now and again, seemingly by accident. ‘I wished they worked for me!’ is a thought that might pass through a managers mind, as they envisage their service filled with people like that.
From working with teams over the last 12 years, and with other colleagues, here is some learning that may be useful for others who are wanting to create a more participative work environment.
They also need a new management style to allow them to thrive. This is an important step when introducing new ways of working, like the liberated method.
Since the early promises of great teamwork from Japan, like many others, I have been searching for something that allows for employees to truly contribute and create a positive work environment. Over the last few years, I have worked with teams that have been able to work in a very different way to the past. Individuals have become motivated, effective, and collaborative. People coming to work to do something they want to do, and do it well.
In the public sector, the way that 'The liberated method' is develops is a good example. This is a term coined by Mark Smith from Gateshead.
Good teams don’t not exist, they are visible in pockets of parts of organisations. You come across them now and again, seemingly by accident. ‘I wished they worked for me!’ is a thought that might pass through a managers mind, as they envisage their service filled with people like that.
From working with teams over the last 12 years, and with other colleagues, here is some learning that may be useful for others who are wanting to create a more participative work environment.
What is a cross functional team?
Cross-functional working is a work environment, that is designed to allow anyone in that system to work with some autonomy and with others in the workflow, and make decisions to achieve a common shared business goal.
The manager working with such a team is doing less of the administration of micromanagement and firefighting, and more of making sure the team can work well, and developing employees. The managers role is also transformed in terms of their motivation and contribution; it feels like doing the job the manager should always have been doing.
What does it look like watching people in this system?
The manager working with such a team is doing less of the administration of micromanagement and firefighting, and more of making sure the team can work well, and developing employees. The managers role is also transformed in terms of their motivation and contribution; it feels like doing the job the manager should always have been doing.
What does it look like watching people in this system?
- They are able to adjust procedures to suit the situation that presents itself.
- They allow value conversations to happen across the organisation that they need to, without requiring permission.
- They freely share knowledge, and seek knowledge from others.
- Work cooperatively for a common goal.
- They support others and accept work from others.
- They give the best service possible to the customer.
- They are motivated to do a good job, and you can see that they are enjoying their work.
A good place to start to set up integrated working
The first place to start, when working with a group from different parts of the service, is to help them to start to change their culture of how they work with themselves:
Step 1 - everyone in the new team has skills and experiences to bring to the group. However, we do not recognise any formal job roles here. This avoids the team defaulting to the original positions that would traditionally do certain tasks. It allows them to experiment with who is best positioned to do that activity. You as the lead the change with the team, need to ensure that when they keep falling back to their old ways, you remind them that they are doing this, and ask others to undertake that task.
Step 2 - creating a safe space where people are free to achieve step 1 is critical to setting up and new culture. I find that this takes time, and I have to ensure that people, when they are behaving in the old ways of heirarchy and dominance, are then asked to hear what others have to say. I find the 'talking stick' a very useful tactic with some teams.
Creating a safe space is not some touchy-feely good deed. It is simply the removal of those things that create fear
in our command & control teams. It allows staff to behave from a position of authenticity. It does not mean that everyone has to have a view, or that everything is democratic. I find myself having to ensure that the team moves in a direction of a safe space quite quickly, and have one-ones with people if I find they are uncomfortable. I reassure them and the whole team what we are trying to do - this is not some hidden tactic.
Step 1 - everyone in the new team has skills and experiences to bring to the group. However, we do not recognise any formal job roles here. This avoids the team defaulting to the original positions that would traditionally do certain tasks. It allows them to experiment with who is best positioned to do that activity. You as the lead the change with the team, need to ensure that when they keep falling back to their old ways, you remind them that they are doing this, and ask others to undertake that task.
Step 2 - creating a safe space where people are free to achieve step 1 is critical to setting up and new culture. I find that this takes time, and I have to ensure that people, when they are behaving in the old ways of heirarchy and dominance, are then asked to hear what others have to say. I find the 'talking stick' a very useful tactic with some teams.
Creating a safe space is not some touchy-feely good deed. It is simply the removal of those things that create fear
in our command & control teams. It allows staff to behave from a position of authenticity. It does not mean that everyone has to have a view, or that everything is democratic. I find myself having to ensure that the team moves in a direction of a safe space quite quickly, and have one-ones with people if I find they are uncomfortable. I reassure them and the whole team what we are trying to do - this is not some hidden tactic.
What do I do to make the team and individuals develop? In short the answer is to allow them to design a new workflow and team behaviour that provides these three aspects:
- Purpose - Understanding of what the customer needs and how to deliver that.
- Autonomy - to be able to design the service and make local decisions to deliver the service.
- Mastery - to be confident in their ability to do the work, and be supported by their team and manager.
A real case study
Example of the old system:
A very irate and possibly aggressive member of the public came in, with no money, and the worker is faced with a myriad of rules that guide them to tell the person to go to another department. At that other department, the person has to queue for an hour, repeat the whole story again, fill in a form, and go to another place to eventually get some money.
The same situation in the new system:
The person was listened to by a worker. That worker made a phone call, and then dealt with the person. They then gave them funds to take them through two days of buying food. It took ten minutes and the one worker was the only one the person talked to. No violence from the person, no rules needed to be broken, and no forms needed to be filled in.
A very irate and possibly aggressive member of the public came in, with no money, and the worker is faced with a myriad of rules that guide them to tell the person to go to another department. At that other department, the person has to queue for an hour, repeat the whole story again, fill in a form, and go to another place to eventually get some money.
The same situation in the new system:
The person was listened to by a worker. That worker made a phone call, and then dealt with the person. They then gave them funds to take them through two days of buying food. It took ten minutes and the one worker was the only one the person talked to. No violence from the person, no rules needed to be broken, and no forms needed to be filled in.
What are the outcomes
- This creates a work environment, where front line workers are enthused to serve the customer.
- Functional barriers within the organisation break down.
- Participation happens between departments and people - teams form.
- Many decisions are made at a low level, with more difficult decisions being escalated.
- Employee motivation and work life becomes positive at an individual level for most people.
- Most can contribute directly and positively to future strategic development and change.
- The work flow is adjusted in such a way as to minimise the cost of doing the work to the organisation.
A self-managed team environment does not just happen, it needs to be created. Then, when it's created, it needs support to make continue. This is not easy, especially when there will be some who don’t want to participate, or who cannot work in such a system. It's the manager as a leader that must be the creator of this way of working.
What are the characteristics of such a team?
- That the team can work well together with regards to interpersonal relationships and communication.
- They can resolve any conflicts amongst themselves.
- That they as individuals can focus on creating a work environment that promotes their ability to achieve, autonomy and mastery.
- That the team is driven by a purpose that is tied to the purpose of the service as derived by the customer. And that the team are able to clearly express how they are achieving that purpose.
- That the team are aware of their performance and can adjust to suit.
- That the team are able to sense when something about them needs to change, and take steps to make that happen.
- They can demonstrate that they are learning and improving.
- That can demonstrate how they work together and how they make all the above happen.
- They they have worked out how to use the competencies and abilities of each to them, to the best.
- That they work well with others outside of the team, to ensure a seamless workflow that encompasses the end to end workflow.
In the public sector there are good examples of such methods.