Self-organisation in agile teams

Self-organisation describes the working method of a team that makes decisions independently, drives results in a project or organisation and determines how these results are achieved.

Why is self-organisation so important in agile teams? The answer is their ability to react. The increasing complexity of products and unpredictable changes in a highly dynamic market create unexpected and unprecedented challenges. In this case, an empowered team can make decisions independently in order to respond to the challenge in the best possible and most immediate way.

In contrast to the ‘classic’ approach, there is no need for long escalation loops that waste valuable time. Another advantage of decisions that are made in a team is the broad basis of perspectives and experience.

This measure seems obvious, but its relevance for self-organised teams is often underestimated. The entire team must have access to all relevant information.

For agile teams with a low level of maturity, it is important that the points listed below are implemented and followed up. In this way, the value created by transparency and the sharing of information can be made tangible within the team.

1. Open strategy Where do we want to develop as a company? What do the framework conditions look like? Employees must be able to answer these questions in order to make decisions in the interests of the organisation. Regular communication of the strategy is an important step on the way to self-organisation.
2. Daily stand-up meetings or dailies Stand-up meetings are a tried-and-tested method of exchanging information about the current status of work within the team. Each member of the team briefly reports on what they have achieved since the last meeting, what is coming up next and whether there are any obstacles. Through this exchange, team members can uncover synergies or dependencies and share their individual experiences.
3. Task boards Visualisations create order and increase attention - to name just two of the benefits. A shared task board helps the team to organise their tasks, record specific information and make progress immediately visible.
4. Team communication A shared team space provides the best basis for direct dialogue. If this luxury is not available, it is advisable to define a common communication channel in times of remote working teams. Chat tools such as Slack or Microsoft Teams enable fast information and data transfer or virtual collaboration.

Agile teams must develop together. Agile coaches or Scrum Masters consciously use impulses and tools for team calibration in order to iteratively improve collaboration:

These methods can also be used by agile teams themselves to calibrate and improve their performance. However, it is also important that the team regularly checks whether the methods are still effective or whether adjustments need to be made

1. Retrospectives: Retrospectives are an important tool for calibrating self-organisation as an agile team. At regular intervals, the team reflects together in a retrospective on how cooperation within the team is working, how decisions have been made and which specific measures are jointly contributing to improving cooperation.
2. Team agreement: In the definition of a team agreement, the mutual expectations of the team members are explicitly formulated and agreements are made. In this way, the team defines its own individual rules, e.g. how they make each other aware when a discussion digresses. Or how they will precisely assess the effectiveness of a meeting.
3. Building team culture: Now comes the best part. Team days, joint lunches, coffee dates, team events. A team that knows and trusts each other well works together efficiently. There are fewer misunderstandings or personal offences. People ask for help more openly. This means that challenges or problems are addressed at an early stage and solved together.