Delegation must be learned

AGILE ORGANISATION: DELEGATION MUST BE LEARNED

FROM HIERARCHICAL TO SELF-MANAGING

And then suddenly we are self-managing. We worked for years with management at various levels, boards and steering committees. We went from steering committee meeting to steering committee meeting. With a thick report under our arms and, of course, with a few good slides. Setting the traffic lights to red, orange or green. Quickly discussing green, sawing through orange and red.

No now we are doing things completely differently. Steering committees and management are disappearing. Are now often placed under one heading. That of stakeholders. And where before you went out on your own as an individual or team, stakeholders now come to you. Because in this new world, that of self-management and self-responsibility. There, it is not about management deciding to go left or right. There, it is about giving and receiving feedback. The multidisciplinary team receives feedback from stakeholders and is then given the space to choose what to do with it. After all, they are carefully assembled as a team (experts!), substantively engaged with the product/campaign/proposal, and can best oversee what is needed on that basis.

AGILE ORGANISATION

So then suddenly we have gone from a hierarchical organisational structure to that of Agile working. Whole layers of management disappear. New roles like those of Product Owner and SCRUM master appear. Self-management. Own responsibility!

Okay. On paper, it all sounds very logical. We are flipping the organisation because we want to be flexible and responsive to changing customer needs. We want to accelerate and successfully launch new products. But there you have it. So how does that work in practice? Is it as easy as it looks on paper? No. It isn't.

Queen Mary 2 somewhere between Grenada and Barbados

QUEEN MARY

I read a beautiful quote the other day. Very appropriate as far as I am concerned. "It is easier to build a fast and agile ship from scratch, than trying to convert the Queen Mary 2 from a cruiser to a yacht halfway between Grenada and Barbados". And let those Queen Marys in particular make the transition to self-steering.

Good therefore to realise that this really is a change process. The transition from a hierarchical way of management to teams with their own responsibility does not happen all at once. Teams, management, individuals have to get used to their new roles, new tasks & responsibilities. Management must learn to let go. Teams must learn to take up their own responsibility. You have to spend time and attention to this together.

DELEGATION POKER

Delegation poker can help you with this. Delegation stands for "the act of handing over responsibilities for something to someone else, usually while remaining accountable for that person's performance". In which delegation poker is a means to start the conversation as management and team about which responsibility belongs to whom.

This can be on very different topics. From coming up with the department's outing, agreeing to send out a campaign, to setting the salary for all team members yourself. You can divide responsibilities into: low-impact, medium-impact, and high-impact responsibilities. Who does the responsibility lie with? From making implicit to explicit.

HOW IT WORKS

In Delegation poker, you have 7 cards. From Tell where management makes the decision for the team. Management communicates it and discussion about it is not wanted. To the other extreme of delegate where management leaves the decision entirely to the team. In case of delegate, management does not even want to know what they decided or why they decided it. In between are the variants. Agree, for example, is where management and team engage in discussion and consensus is reached as a group.

Steps delegation poker (example)

1. Start with a brainstorm where everyone individually writes 2 topics on a post it where clarity is needed on who has what responsibility.
2. Paint the post it on a board and briefly explain what you mean by this.
3. Prioritise with each other.
4. Everyone gets a set of cards from 1-7.
5. Start with the topic with the highest priority.
6. Count down from 3 to 1 and at 1, everyone places the chosen card face-up on the table.
7. Ask those furthest apart to argue why they chose their card. Obviously, you want to hear opinions from both management and team.
8. Hear the arguments and then poker again.
9. See if the arguments you heard brought you closer together.

ENTHOUSIAST?

Got excited? You can immediately order the delegation poker set here and invite your team or management to join the conversation. The main principle remains: you are in a learning organisation! It is a new situation for everyone and that includes trial and error. Again, one thing is certain. You only make progress if you dare to say so together. And playing poker with each other is an interactive and innovative way to do that.

Good luck and have fun!

Sources: Adrie Dolman, Management 3.0, book: Management 3.0, Jurgen Appelo, Leading Agile Developers, Developing Agile Leaders

Wondering how we can help you become a self-directed organisation? Send us a message!