The Crossroads Analogy
Self-management is not “no management”. It can seem like a complex idea but actually most of us operate as part of self-managed systems every day. It's often described as similar to our experience of driving a car. Think about driving a car and approaching a cross roads. The goal of the crossroad is to get as much traffic safely through the junction and on its way as possible.
Self-management is not “no management”. It can seem like a complex idea but actually most of us operate as part of self-managed systems every day. It's often described as similar to our experience of driving a car. Think about driving a car and approaching a cross roads. The goal of the crossroad is to get as much traffic safely through the junction and on its way as possible.
- In our first scenario we employ a traffic policeman at the crossroad to control the traffic. This person makes sense of the complex situation that is the flow of traffic and makes decisions about how the participants should respond by instructing streams of traffic to stop or go. In this case the management is consolidated in one person.
- In our second scenario traffic lights are installed on the crossroad. In this scenario the responsibility is taken on by participants in the system who work to coordinate the flow of traffic themselves by interpreting the traffic signals. This requires them to be more engaged in and aware of the system itself. In this example the traffic lights function as an external form of management. The rules sometimes create frustrations and inefficiencies as they may require vehicles to stop at a red light even when there is no other traffic at the junction. The design of the system also requires participants to be aware of the risk of potential collisions from at least 3 directions. When collisions do occur in the traffic light controlled junction they have the potential to be quite damaging.
- In our third scenario the crossroads have been redesigned as a roundabout. Participants in this system self-manage. They make their own judgment based on their knowledge and experience to approach the roundabout at an appropriate speed. The design of the roundabout makes it easier and less risky for the participants to coordinate with each other. Potential collisions can only come from one direction and at lower speeds than the crossroads making the risk easier to understand and manage and less damaging if it does occur.
What this means to organisations
Next stage organisations need to be intentionally designed to enable participants to work well within them. Self-managed ways of organising have been found to be more productive, more efficient and more engaging. They are great at enabling people to be more responsive and agile to new and changing situations and in supporting people to develop creative and innovative solutions. When we consider the complex world in which we operate, the need to respond flexibly in the most timely and efficient way possible, and the need to engage staff and enable them to use their knowledge and expertise to do what matters, we can see how these approaches offer us huge opportunities. Self-managed does not mean selfish. In the same way we would not expect the traffic to be stopped to allow us to go through a roundabout at high speed we cannot expect our work and teams to organise themselves to allow us to do as we please. Driving through a roundabout at high speed or the wrong direction would harm us and other drivers, acting in a similarly reckless way in a self-managed organisation would have a similar impact. We believe our staff working in next stage organisations want what is good for themselves, their colleagues and the people they support and care for. They will make great decisions and act in an appropriate way if we provide them with the opportunities to do that. Using the traffic analogy above we can see how previously we may have only needed to train and develop one person, our traffic policeman to control and manage our system. To be successful today we need to enable every member of our team to understand the principles of how we work and to do so in a way that is consistent across our organisation.
Next stage organisations need to be intentionally designed to enable participants to work well within them. Self-managed ways of organising have been found to be more productive, more efficient and more engaging. They are great at enabling people to be more responsive and agile to new and changing situations and in supporting people to develop creative and innovative solutions. When we consider the complex world in which we operate, the need to respond flexibly in the most timely and efficient way possible, and the need to engage staff and enable them to use their knowledge and expertise to do what matters, we can see how these approaches offer us huge opportunities. Self-managed does not mean selfish. In the same way we would not expect the traffic to be stopped to allow us to go through a roundabout at high speed we cannot expect our work and teams to organise themselves to allow us to do as we please. Driving through a roundabout at high speed or the wrong direction would harm us and other drivers, acting in a similarly reckless way in a self-managed organisation would have a similar impact. We believe our staff working in next stage organisations want what is good for themselves, their colleagues and the people they support and care for. They will make great decisions and act in an appropriate way if we provide them with the opportunities to do that. Using the traffic analogy above we can see how previously we may have only needed to train and develop one person, our traffic policeman to control and manage our system. To be successful today we need to enable every member of our team to understand the principles of how we work and to do so in a way that is consistent across our organisation.
Some of the ways we have supported organisations to move towards self management
- Finding the best place to start
- Redesigning roles, teams and the way we work together
- Implementing new decision making systems
- Developing leaders to hold space for these new ways of working
- Designing & implementing new ways of collecting, sharing and understanding information
- Creating shared narratives and public stories to explain what we are doing and why
- Exploring purpose and values and making them meaningful in our work
- Creating new ways of communicating and resolving conflicts
- Creating learning networks and communities of practice
- Developing back office and support departments to work well with self-managing teams
- Introducing news ways of collaborative development
- Finding ways to intentionally improve ourselves and our services
- Aligning the way we support and care for people with the way we support and care for our staff
- Developing recruitment and development processes that attract and retain fantastic staff
- Implementing different ways of making decisions, using resources and checking the quality of our work
- Working across traditional boundaries and for the benefit of the community