Providing people with proper levels of autonomy is an indispensable ingredient of success for agile organizations that can react to changes with deftness, deliver value with speed, and fill their workplace with happiness.
Emerging autonomy is the second agile management hack that deserves much attention. Like the first hack — time-boxed decision making — emerging autonomy has the same three features:
· It has the potential to start a chain reaction of changes toward more agility.
· It can be set up in three weeks.
· It can produce effect within three months, be it in teams, projects, operations, or any area targeted by the hack.
To implement it, we need to keep some key points in mind.
Key points of emerging autonomy:
– Use only the person who knows the best to make decisions and take actions, which involves an organizational transfer from a hierarchy of authority to a hierarchy of competence.
– Set an appropriate frame of autonomy with clear indication of the autonomy’s range and duration, so that people can take proper initiatives and responsibilities.
– Involve the hierarchical manager ONLY when the subject is blocked or when it risks failure.
– Offer people the right to make mistakes as long as lessons are drawn, which is an important learning process for all organizations to grow and innovate.
– Receive agreement from all relevant stakeholders to play the game, so that the person in charge will be able to make real decisions and take effective actions.
An example to demonstrate how emerging autonomy works:
Here is a role play conversation between an employee in charge of a certain task and her manager (see linked video for clarity):
Manager: “We don’t need to meet twice a day on this subject. It’s you who are the expert in it.”
Employee: “When should I involve you?”
Manager: “Involve me only when something is blocked or there’s the risk of failure.”
Employee: “If I do something wrong, what will happen to me?”
Manager: “When I trust you with something, I still take the responsibility for possible mistakes. What matters is that we learn together.”
Employee: “Everyone asks whether you have approved all these.”
Manager: “I will indicate to all stakeholders that you are the decision maker on this subject.”
When the hack of emerging autonomy is well applied, a beneficial chain of reaction can be expected and lead to reduced micro-management, increased trust, empowered people, and self-organized teams.
I you like this article, you might like other free and original content from Agile Leader Academy, which is specialized in agile transformation.
Sources:
Collet, B. (2019, Sep. 26). Agile Management Hack #2 — Emerging autonomy [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcrKsTsfA84&t=39s
Collet, B. (2017, Nov. 24). Four Management Hacks Toward Agility. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/four-management-hacks-toward-agility-bruno-collet-mba/
Discover more from Welcome to the World of Creativity and Leadership
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Welcome to the World of Creativity and Leadership 