Building autonomous teams in 5 steps – how to succeed
Using the power of self-determination for competitive working models
Autonomous teams are the key to practicing self-determination in the workplace. They enable employees to link their own goals with their job profile and develop practical skills. Innovative business solutions are created through agile collaboration between the operational level and top management. When companies understand the great added value that autonomous teams offer for a high level of competitiveness, they invest in collaboration and the personal responsibility of their employees.
Why shift decision-making authority from management to autonomous teams? To create a working environment in which changing perspectives and flexible changes are core competencies. Projects need clear requirements in order to specify tasks for the development of products or services. In the past, comprehensive requirements analyses for a large number of features were handed over and then implemented in a waterfall model, but this no longer works in a volatile market environment. This is because the classic requirements handover is a linear and document-based procedure that does not provide for feedback or adaptation. In a highly competitive digital ecosystem, however, the focus is on user benefits, fast time-to-market and products that can adapt to changes without much effort.
Index
1. Introduce cyclical work in iterations – collaboration
Collaborative, iterative work is a cyclical approach in which strategic or process-related requirements are tested, reviewed and improved in short loops. Instead of a hierarchical structure and delegation of tasks, self-organization and changing roles determine everyday working life in this working model – the best conditions for autonomous teams. Collaborative working can better leverage creative potential for companies because it has short learning curves and can quickly integrate new findings into everyday working life.
Customer satisfaction and product quality can be increased more quickly, as strategic orientation, business analysis and technical implementation are not separate processes: They are not created by separate departments in a downstream division of labor, but take place continuously in parallel and are jointly adapted by the corporate community as required.
Close integration between the management and operational levels promotes a company’s competitiveness and supports the business transformation towards a business model that can survive in the digital platform ecosystem. In addition, employees can be motivated and retained by the company in the long term by experiencing meaningful activities instead of “bullshit jobs” in which they are both encouraged and challenged.
2. Provide strategy and digital tools – framing
Strategic guidelines must be established so that teams can make decisions autonomously. These can be located at different levels of a company – it is important that they are consistently broken down to the operational level. Regular communication between the hierarchical levels is essential so that employees are continuously informed about the current framework conditions. This is the only way they can assess the short-term and long-term decision-making horizon to which they should align their milestones and roadmaps.
Product principles, for example, have proven effective for this purpose: Product principles provide guidelines without giving precise operational specifications on the “how”. They set the narrowest possible framework for independent decision-making by providing clear guidelines for prioritizing project units or work steps.
At a higher level, for example, company-wide “Leading Principles” can provide orientation for the entire company by focusing on certain desirable behaviors and cultural values. Instead of top-down communication, it is recommended that these principles are shared in workshops so that everyone has the same understanding.
In addition to strategic guidelines, focused interaction that is targeted is important. How can coordinated communication between highly agile teams be achieved? Team topologies are a tool for improving the organizational structure – they help to analyze the team set-up and the system architecture. Team topologies define the design of individual teams. Four archetypes of teams are assumed for this purpose: value stream-oriented teams, platform teams, sub-component teams and enabler teams. These interact with each other in certain patterns that, depending on the dependency, tend to work together in a co-creative, cooperative or supportive manner. These insights can help to streamline communication and make the team composition within the individual teams more suitable.
Digital tools are essential for collaborative teamwork. They facilitate communication between team members, even if they are physically separated. In addition, appropriate software enables the visualization and brainstorming of ideas on a virtual whiteboard. Employees can work together on visions, roadmaps and scenarios so that they always reflect the latest work status in one place as up-to-date and transparent documentation.
3. Promoting the assumption of responsibility – maturity
Collaborative work in autonomous teams favors the synergetic involvement of all employees to leverage innovative potential. An innovative mindset requires the courage to independently try out new processes and ideas that are outside the usual rules. On the one hand, this requires an awareness of a high level of self-organization and willingness to learn and, in the context of the platform economy, digital maturity in particular.
Taking responsibility only works in a culture of trust that rewards taking a step into the unknown. Only those who know that they will not be blamed if they make mistakes can make decisions that may not lead to the desired success. The company has to make an advance effort to create freedom. This includes flexible working hours that combine work and leisure or family time. This can also include giving teams as much say as possible over their own working arrangements, e.g. teams can decide for themselves how and where they work, which methods they use, etc.
Employees should also be trained in entrepreneurial thinking so that they learn to look beyond the boundaries of their specialist responsibilities or department. Thinking in terms of end-to-end processes helps to gain a generalist view of the impact of decisions in their own area on the entire company.
4. Establish critical thinking – feedback
A lively feedback culture promotes the intrinsic development of employees. It is an important element for joint learning and growth in autonomous teams. Feedback involves evaluating the past behavior of others from one’s own role. How did I perceive the collaboration and what helped or hindered the advancement of my own role objectives? This is not about right or wrong, but about making the collaboration as effective and smooth as possible. Psychologically, it is helpful if the feedback focuses on lessons learned for future work rather than criticizing mistakes made.
Such feedback rounds can take place outside of the actual operational activities in retrospectives. An important prerequisite for giving and accepting high-quality feedback is an attitude that emphasizes critical thinking instead of conformity and adaptation. Employees should be trained in changing perspectives so that they learn to look at problems from different angles. This not only helps them to gain a more comprehensive knowledge of an issue, but also promotes sensitivity and a willingness to better understand arguments or opinions that may seem unpleasant on the surface and to break bad routines.
5. Enable knowledge sharing – sharing and mentoring
A crucial component for the success of autonomous teams is the regular exchange of knowledge and experience. The creation of a knowledge database offers a structured way of collecting and sharing information. It is important to act not only within the teams, but also across specialist boundaries. Overcoming silos enables a holistic view of challenges and promotes the development of innovative solutions. In addition to training, the creation of a mentoring program for new and existing employees can improve knowledge transfer within the company. Experienced employees can pass on their expertise and make it easier for new team members to join or take on a new role.
A supportive learning culture is key. Autonomous teams should be encouraged to continuously learn and develop from each other. This can be done through regular feedback sessions, joint project reviews and sharing best practices. Teams should also be able to learn from each other across the board – this can be done through company-wide learning sessions in which teams share project successes or other valuable experiences.
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