In order for any organization to be successful in the long term, it needs to constantly adapt to the changing conditions of the surrounding world and develop itself.

However, if its management is dependent on only a few individuals, these become a bottleneck in the process of change. However, the greater the development and change that a firm strives for, the more it needs to engage and align the energies and talents of many different people in the organization and ensure effective collaboration between them. This is why companies are introducing Agile management methods.

However, in order for this type of management to work, the organization needs to develop the competencies of self-management and self-organization, which are the basic principles of the Agile way of working. And this is where organizations very often clash.

The cause is the culture that shapes us from childhood, school education to the work environment. It is dominated by a hierarchical model based on authority and power, where determined individuals have higher authority in decision-making and management, while others submit to and rarely challenge the decisions of the authorities.

The key question for the success of the organization, then, is how to overcome this pattern, develop self-management competencies at all levels of the organization and thus achieve all the benefits that are associated with the transition to Agility.

But first, let's talk about what self-driving is.

Team self-management (self-organising team) is the ability of a team to independently determine its goals, plan and execute its work, decide on priorities and adapt to changes without the need for external management or supervision. This is a process where teams have autonomy to make decisions and manage their work, leading to greater flexibility, quicker response to change, and often higher motivation and commitment.

Team self-management is thus a fundamental pillar of the Agile way of working.

Characteristics of self-directed teams

Autonomous

Teams have the freedom to decide how they will carry out their tasks and how they will organize their work. This means that they are not too subservient to external authorities, allowing for faster and more flexible responses to changing conditions.

They plan their work

Instead of being given tasks from above, teams decide together what they will do and in what way. As a rule, planning is implemented at regular meetings, such as a weekly planning meeting in Scrum.

They organize themselves

Teams have the power to decide which members will work on which tasks and how roles and responsibilities will be distributed. This creates a sense of collaboration and ownership of the project.

Communicate and collaborate with others

Members actively communicate and collaborate with each other and with surrounding teams. This allows knowledge sharing, fungibility and the growth of team spirit.

Respond quickly to changes

Team self-management enables rapid response to new demands, changes, and unexpected events, as teams have the power to adjust their plans and priorities.

In this way, teams become more responsible for their work and have more motivation to achieve the best possible results. At the same time, as already mentioned in the introductory paragraph, this is one of the most difficult elements of Agility. The prerequisite for such functioning is a fundamental mental change on the part of both the management and the team. It requires:

1. Trust from leadership/leader/supervisor to hand over those responsibilities and let the team do things “differently” than they would do them/and he/she would. It requires abandoning the position of authority and instead being a partner.
2. Assumption of responsibility, building the necessary competencies and context on the part of the team so that it can make effective decisions. The team must be able to be an authority on its own.

The important thing is that the leader himself is a good example of self-management. We are not saying that it is easy, but it is still something that the leader can influence himself/herself. Creating a team that can manage itself is much more complicated.

One pragmatic way to manage this is to gradually develop self-management skills in individual team members. They can then jointly take responsibility for the team as a whole and have the necessary competencies to do so.

So let's look at self-management in the individual.

Self-driving (Self-management) in an individual means actively managing and organizing your actions, emotions and behavior. It is about the skill of managing our time, resources and responsibilities in order to achieve our goals and cope with the challenges of life. Self-management includes the ability to prioritize tasks, plan, organize, delegate, solve problems, and communicate effectively with others.

The following steps can help you better organize and manage your time and tasks:

Objectives and priorities:

• Set clear long-term and short-term goals that you can evaluate on an ongoing basis. Knowing where you are going will help you navigate better.
• Prioritize — what moves me most towards my goal? Decide in this way which tasks and activities are more important and which less.

Scheduling and Backlog:

• Use scheduling tools such as calendars and to-do lists (called “to-do”). Backlog.)
• Use the “time blocking” method. Divide your day into blocks of time and assign specific tasks to each block.
• Define activities or tasks so that someone else can appreciate the result and/or be able to give you feedback.
• Break the tasks into smaller steps. This will facilitate the finishing process and prevent the feeling of helplessness (there is too much, I don't know where to start.)
• Regularly record what tasks and goals you have achieved. This will help you keep yourself motivated and see your progress.

Elimination of distractions:

• Identify the factors that disturb you and try to eliminate them. This can include turning off notifications on your phone while working or creating a calm work environment.

Delegation and rejection:

• Learn to delegate tasks that other people can do as well. Part of delegating is describing the desired outcome and motivating why we do it.
• Also, do not be afraid to say no if you do not have time for new responsibilities. Overloading potentially means worse quality or failure to promise someone something under pressure and they will be angry with you anyway.
• Work with your real capacity. Overtime is not your capacity. Long-term overtime creates an expectation in the environment that this is your real, long-term capacity.

Stress management:

• Learn stress management techniques such as deep breathing, short meditation, or practicing yoga.
• Set yourself a balanced regime between work, personal interests and leisure. Don't just indulge in work at the expense of the rest of your life.

Flexibility and customization:

• Be prepared to adapt your plan and goals to unexpected events. This starts with changing the beliefs in your head from “change is negative because it interferes with my plans”, to “change is life and it brings the right results.”
• Every day, update the list of tasks (Backlog), i.e. including the priorities you need to complete that day.
• Do not add accumulating tasks if you have full capacity. If a new, unexpected priority appears, replace it with the least priority item with the to-do list.
• Each week, update your weekly plan and goal in light of the experience of the past week. Observe your real capacity and plan with it.
• Plan your busy week to max out at 70%. If you load your computer to 100%, it will stop working. Nor will your weekly plan work because you won't be able to respond to priority, unexpected events during the week.

Retrospective:

• Regularly reflect on why you preferred something other than a priority task. Why didn't you fulfill something that was important to you. Are you tired of it? Are you afraid of failure? Do you lack motivation? Be honest with yourself. If not, you cannot find a solution and therefore a way forward.
• Ideally, ask someone else to provide you with a partner in such a retrospective — ideally an external coach.

In self-driving, there is no one else who will “kick your ass” to fulfill what you promised yourself. Therefore, an important part of mastering self-motivation techniques is:

Set yourself a clear inner why:

• Why do you want to achieve a given goal? Why do you want to do a given task? What is your intrinsic motivation for enticing you to meet as soon as possible?
• Think about how completing this task will help you achieve your long-term goals and improve your or someone else's life.

Extrinsic motivation:

• If you lack your inner why and at the same time the task is really important to you, find an external motivation — for example, someone who will appreciate your output, who will help.
• In addition, you can implement the unpleasant task in a form that pleases you. Take a business meeting at lunch. Let your favorite music create your presentation. Brainstorming problem solving with a colleague so that you are not alone in this.
• Reframing a given task — we are often betrayed by emotion, but created by our inner beliefs. For example, you need to communicate negative feedback to a person from your team, but you are afraid of negative reactions and rejection. Reframing: with feedback, I have a chance to move somewhere and avoid bigger problems (departures) in the team in the future.

Break big tasks into smaller steps:

• Sometimes we are not able to get “to work” because our task or goal is too large, complex. Breaking it down into small steps, it will help you see the progress and it will reduce the feeling of helplessness.
• Celebrate the accomplishment of every small step. Ideally, if you can directly serve someone, add value, or if someone can give you feedback.

Take the first step:

• The first step will help you get into the work “flow”, even if they are trivial. For example, pick up the phone and call someone. Book an Appointment. Etc.

dates:

• Plan when and where you will do the task. Don't just have a to-do list without a clear deadline for when you want it done.
• If you failed to meet the deadline, evaluate the reason. Again, be honest with yourself.

Use the “Pomodoro” method:

• Work for 25 minutes on a task (we call it a “pomodoro”) and then take a 5-minute break. Take a longer break after every four “pomodors”.

Create an environment for concentration:

• Provide a quiet workplace free of distractions such as phone, social media or television.

Visualization of success:

• Imagine how you will feel when you complete the task. Visualizing success can strengthen motivation.

Reward yourself:

• Give yourself a reward after completing the task. It can be something you love, like a little goodness or a brief moment of relaxation.

Self-forgiveness and patience:

• If you ever fail to fulfill your plan or feel that you have done enough, be kind to yourself. Every day is not perfect, and the important thing is to keep going.

Once I master these techniques and approaches as a leader, I not only lead by example to others, but I can begin to develop the acquisition of these competencies among the people on my team:

Path of least resistance and greatest effect

• Start with those who are best placed to master the above techniques
• At the same time, they have an impact and influence on the team, whether formally (e.g. they hold the position of Architect in the development team) or informally.

1-1 Competency Development Tool

• If you want to develop these (and not only these) competencies, use 1-1 meetings to do so, at which you discuss no agenda other than a shift in this area. A proven interval between such appointments is the period of 14 days at the beginning, one month after 3 months.
• You can learn more about 1-1 hereunder.

Snowball effect

• Once key team members have mastered these techniques, you can gradually develop other team members.
• At the same time, you can implement Agile techniques or processes (e.g. SCRUM), which require the adoption of the principle of self-management at the level of the whole team.
• As a leader, you must see to it that individuals who are capable of self-management do not just take this responsibility on themselves, but make it a team-wide competence for everyone else.
• The essential is the Retrospective, on which it should take place to identify if this is being done by the team as a whole (ideal), or if it is only being taken on by individuals (common), or if it fails completely.
• The impetus from the Retrospective can be further feedback and development within 1-1 with individual team members.

Using the described procedure, we divided the complex issue of team self-management into more manageable, smaller steps:

1. The first step is that the leader must start working on himself and master self-management techniques. This means that they must actively work on their own development, showing the team an example of their own self-management.
2. After that, the leader can use coaching, feedback, and mentoring to help key team members develop this competence. Key team members can be individuals who have a significant impact on the overall performance and dynamics of the team.
3. Ultimately, the goal is to transfer this competence to the entire team. We use a key technique known as Retrospective to track progress and gather feedback at the entire team level. These regular meetings allow the team to evaluate their progress, identify opportunities for improvement, and work together to develop team self-management skills.

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