23/02/2018
Self-managed Teams
Self-managed Teams
How They Succeed or Fail
Those teams have:
- form of official or unofficial leadership
- considerable effort and time to refine the concept to make it work well
What is important?
- It’s important to understand the natural development cycle of groups
Self-managed Teams (SMT) often called Self-directed Work Teams (SDWT)
- they represent a switch from the boss- worker relationship to a collaborative approach
- in principle these apparently leaderless teams are simple to understand, you empower everyone from the team to take responsibility instead of a supervisor or a distracted middle manager – the teams runs itself.
Essential Techniques:
1. Be committed and practical
- self-management demands a new mindset, one where you stop thinking in terms of managing and focus on empowering and motivating
- it’s a work group of around 5 to 15 people sharing responsibility for a task
- the members posses the skills and authority to supervise themselves
2. Understand the team cycle
- the four stages of team development:
a. Forming – the team is collaboration of individuals that are just starting form into a single unit, people are introducing themselves and are generally quite polite, and are getting the measure of others in the team.
b. Storming – conflict starts to emerge as people display their attitudes and set boundaries. people get to know others in the team and find their own identity
c. Norming – norms are developed as people start to know each other’s strengths, weakness and patterns of behaviour. The group functions as a team and tasks are accomplished.
d. Performing – the team starts excelling and performing at its very best
3. Visit a self-directed team – if you like the idea visit some existing ones to gain a practical feel for the challenges you will inevitably encounter.
4. Understand and resolve problem areas
- mature teams can handle responsibilities that once kept the traditional line manager in business
- many teams resist self-management particularly when its imposed by senior management.
- problems also arise when responsibilities are unclear
5. Sustain Momentum - Newly created self-managed teams, driven by initial enthusiasm, often produce quick results.
6. Ensure that teams are empowered to make appropriate decisions
Five Myths about Self -managed Teams:
- They don’t need managers. They need managing through coaching, facilitation, and other forms of support.
- They don’t need leaders. Leadership is essential and is often shared ingeniously across the group.
- They make leaders powerless. Leaders must exercise power differently and rely more on influence than authority
- They are cheap. They cost more in short term and have high set-up costs such as training and trouble-shooting
- They are quickly established. They can take years to get right, needing constant refinement
Conclusion
- Self-managed teams have developed into the normal way of structuring organisations and undertaking tasks, yet is difficult and complex aspect of leadership and is usually developed through experience. When developing a high performing, self-management team it is valuable to have an understanding of:
a. the benefits of team building – what it can achieve and what the leader should be striving for
b. team roles and dynamics - how teams work and achieve their greatest success
c. the key stages of development – what they are and how to support the team in each stage
d. the features of a successful team and team leader
e. how to avoid potential problems and pitfalls
Note: The material above is a summary of “Business - The Ultimate resource, Self-managed Teams: How They Succeed or Fail” by Michael Moynard and Andrew Leigh, the content is presented by Bullpho Business Intelligence for information only.
BULLPHO BUSINESS INTELIGENCE - 2018
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