1. Fostering Self-Organization – Ten
Ninja Techniques for Managers and
Executives
Mahadevan P (Mahi) and Ashok Balakrishnan
Technology, Sabre Holdings

2. If you are a Manager/ Executive,
what would you do?
Let us look at a few real world
scenarios

3. The Agile Principles – Individuals,
Environment, Self-Organization

4. Self-Organization in Nature
Left to itself, any group of living
things (humans included) will self
organize to survive and thrive

5. Even a mob is a form of
self- organization !

6. However, Self-Organization in Agile is focused
towards creating VALUE !

7. Let’s take a closer look
Value = f (Context, Purpose, Fitness)

8. A great team has…
1. Clarity of Purpose
2. Context awareness for effective
Adaptation and Innovation
3. Fitness to create sustainable value

9. The Scrum Team – 3 roles
1. Product Owner
2. Development team
3. ScrumMaster

10. Scrum Master Product Owner
The Development
Team
• Teaches PO and Team about
their roles
•Facilitates and protects the
process and its practice
• Shields team from external
interferences
• Enables co-operation and
collaboration across all roles
and removes barriers
• Represents the business
interests
•Defines requirements in a
Product Backlog and owns it
• Manages Product Backlog to
optimize ROI
• Clarifies Product Backlog
• Sets priorities
• Inspects increments and
makes adaptations for next
sprint
• Communicates product
progress status
• Cross functional 7+/-2 (dev,
test, arch, DBA, BA, SME, etc)
• Manages itself and its work –
self organizes
• Commits to and produces
shippable increments of high
quality
• Collaborates with PO for
optimal value
SCRUM Roles
10

11. Simple. Isn’t it ?
But…

12. The Real World …
“When we understand that slide, we will have won the war”
- US General Stanley A. McChrystal
(Leader of the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan)

13. The 3 P’s of any Business
People
Practices
Products
In any business,
People create Products by executing relevant Practices
Managers and leaders are vested with authority by owners of the business
Managers also authorize others to get work done
Environment

14. Some Context – Flow of Authority in any Business
Delegation (or deputation) is the assignment of authority and responsibility to
another person to carry out specific activities - Wikipedia
A
B
D
E
C F

15. How does Management build strong,
self organizing Scrum teams?
By distributing authority.

16. Let us look closer …
Distributing authority/ responsibility
= Distributing control
= Distributing decision making

17. Hey!
The Real World has many shades of greyTeamMaturityLevel
Organizational Impact of decision
1. (High, High)
2. (High, Low)
3. (Low, High)
4. (Low, Low)

18. A Team is a Complex System
Complex Systems are non-linear
Complex Systems interact and behave in unpredictable ways

19. How does Management support Scrum
teams towards true self-organization?

20. There are no binary answers !
However, useful models exist.

21. Situational Leadership for Maturity
level
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situational_leadership_theory

22. Management 3.0
• You make decision and announceTell
• You make decision and get commitment by selling ideaSell
• You make decision after Inviting and weighing inputsConsult
• You Invite, discuss and decide by consensusAgree
• You influence by your opinion, allow team to decideAdvise
• You let team decide and convince you post decisionInquire
• You let the team decide and step asideDelegate
Source : http://www.noop.nl/2011/03/delegation-poker-game-
description.html

23. 1. Directing
2. Selling 3. Inviting and
consulting
4. Facilitating
5. Advising
6. Artful Questioning/
Inquiring
7. Empowering
8. Connecting
9. Catalyzing
10. Inspiring
Upgrade your Toolbox
The Ten Ninja Techniques

24. Building real self-organized teams is like driving!
You want to drive as fast as possible
You want to be slow enough to respond to road conditions
It’s a balancing art !

25. • Inspect Situation (your vehicle, road conditions)
• Adapt your style
• Learn
Inspect
Adapt
Learn

26. Wanna practice?
Let’s Play!