Self-Organization and Safety

Handling Decisions and Disagreements Inside a Self-Organizing Collective

by Ron Quartel 9th Oct 2017

Conflict and differing opinions are to be expected inside any diverse group. How to quickly resolve this conflict in a way that leaves all parties feeling that they are respected and have been heard is vital to the ongoing health of the Collective. I don’t have a master recipe for emotional safety as much as some ideas for your consideration for your own journey into self-organization.

When things go wrong, as they inevitably do with something as precarious as self-organizing teams, safety devices need to be in place. - Steve Denning

Decision-Making Protocols

Some options:

Whatever decision-making protocol you choose, it must allow for all voices to be heard equally otherwise we are creating emotional pain for the quieter and often more introverted team members. The softest voice in the room should have as much sway as the loudest voice.

Conflict Resolution Protocols

Some options on how to resolve two people’s disagreements or when an individual feels mistreated e.g. bullied:

Constitution / Working Agreement

Once you have ratified the mechanics of how decisions are made and conflicts resolved, be sure to include these in your Collective's Working Agreement or Constitution document.

I also suggest considering some or all:

Broader Management Issues

Management 3.0 has a great tool called the Delegation Board that addresses the issue of which decisions should be kept by management and which can be moved down to the Collective, i.e. decentralized control. The process comes with an accompanying tool called Delegation Poker which can help you discover just what level of autonomy is the best fit for your Collective.

While autonomy and self-organization are a path to high performance, collaboration isn’t for everyone. You will need to create hiring, onboarding and offboarding strategies to help weed out non-collaborators as early as possible.

Further Reading and Resources

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us 

by Daniel H. Pink 

Link: http://a.co/bjOLf0t

 

 

Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness

by Frederic Laloux et al. 

Link: http://a.co/1wRConD

 

 

The Decision Maker: Unlock the Potential of Everyone in Your Organization, One Decision at a Time 

by Dennis Bakke 

Link: http://a.co/cha4O7Y

(A novel about the advice process)  

 

The Leader's Guide to Radical Management: Reinventing the Workplace for the 21st Century 

by Stephen Denning 

Link: http://a.co/2GrfPWQ

Beyond Empowerment: The Age of the Self-Managed Organization 

by Doug Kirkpatrick 

Link: http://a.co/hUcIgyK

 

 

Modern Agile

Make Safety a Prerequisite

http://modernagile.org