Why autonomy is at the heart of agility

Kristian Lindwall & Cliff Hazell@ixhd@klindwall

How do you build the perfect

organisation?

The perfect organisation – a recipe for success

Consistent rapid agile process

Accountability

matrixTime tracking

Centralised working

processes

This is based on the following beliefs

People are by nature lazy

Outcomes are predictable

Mistakes and failure are waste and must be avoided at all cost

Managers always know best

?

Consistent Rapid Agile Process

People are self motivated and want to do great work

Outcomes are not predictable

A safe to fail environment is crucial for an

innovative culture

Decisions are best made close to the work in “real time”

“When we tell people what to do, we bypass their experience, creativity and Knowledge”

- Esther Derby

80+ teams in 5 sites

High functioning organisation

Autonomía

Alignment

Autonomy

Alig

nmen

t

Autonomy

Micromanaging organizationIndifferent culture

AuthoritativeorganizationConformistculture

Entrepreneurialorganization

Chaoticculture

Innovativeorganization

Collaborative culture

Autonomous teams. Cool.

So what do leaders do?

Leaders foster leadershipSupport the growth of people and teamsSupport the org to be autonomous

“Clarity, Conditions and Constraints, are the three levers for creating an environment for leadership at all levels”- Esther Derby

Attend to Clarity

Context

Stakeholders

Expectations

Purpose

Clarity vs Detail

BFS(Browse, Feed, Search)

Artist

Team XTeam Y Team Z

MUSIC PLAYER TRIBE

We help our users find what they are

looking for! We connect artists with our

users!

SPOTIFY

We help our users find, save and play

music

We give the world the right music for

every moment

CLIENT INFRASTRUCTURE

TRIBE

We enable feature teams to innovate

and iterate lightning fast

Establish Conditions

PoliciesStructures

Establishing a learning culture from

day 1

A workplace that drives collaboration and the growth of

relationships

Design appropriate Constraints

ExpectationsBoundaries

Constraints on the team level

Getting some equipment

Story Time

Doing a massive reorg

?150 people

How we completely changed the org structure

Alliance Mission

- Narrative- Feature Ownership- Bets------------------------------------------------------------------

1

Org Options

- Clusters / Groupings- Missions- Metrics

3

How to plan2-day offsite?

5Plan offsite Offsite

How should we organise? (more detail)

67

Proposed structureRFC

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!

8

!

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Staffing

9½ Day Workshop

How should we organise around our mission(s)? - High level

12

3

-Stakeholders-Mission-Metrics-Features-Systems

Planned, facilitated by coaches + Alliance leads

2

Squads

- Discuss- Feedback

Get input from squads

4

Staffing

Dealing with team conflict

Wrapping this up...

How do you build the perfect

organisation?

How do you build a great

organisation?

Here is what we believe will take you a long way

To enable autonomy

Give people and teams the freedom to do their best work

Walk the Talk

Autonomy is a journey, not a destination.

Attend to ClarityEstablish ConditionsDesign appropriate Constraints

Thank you!

Cliff Hazell@ixhd

Kristian Lindwall@klindwall