Teams

This feature only applies to episodes with transcripts, which is a small number at this time.

Anna Elgh on self-managing teams and shifting conflicts at Svenska Retursystem

...panies, and I've seen the positive effects of it and it really creates involvement to a lot of the people. And so we started to establish improvement teams and cross-functional teams and involving more and more people. And we also started to work with the self-inside amongst people and we started to work...more
...ositive effects of it and it really creates involvement to a lot of the people. And so we started to establish improvement teams and cross-functional teams and involving more and more people. And we also started to work with the self-inside amongst people and we started to work together with The Enneagra...more
...ally what we needed. So the journey that we are going to talk about a little bit more, really not start with the ambition of creating self-organising teams and started from something really different. ...more
..., due to my personal experience. So that's how I became interested in going that part. So when we started off with Tuff we decided to start with two teams: the management team and the IT team. And I think the IT sector is more advanced in this field because the IT team had already decided to start their...more
...cause I think the idea of giving more control and more mandates to the organisation and together that we were actually creating more cross-functional teams - where the decisions were made more and more -that was something that, for some members of the team, it wasn't their cup of tea. So we had several c...more
...dn't feel that this journey was in their interest. So when they left I actually did the same as I'd done with the IT team: I sat down with their own teams - it was the Operation team, Production and Logistics and it was the Sales and Marketing team. So it was actually two teams that are really crucial f...more
...I sat down with their own teams - it was the Operation team, Production and Logistics and it was the Sales and Marketing team. So it was actually two teams that are really crucial for our deliveries in the organisation - and had a discussion with them on what they wanted to do and if they wanted to try o...more
...o CEOs or senior leaders who are frustrated there are pockets of the organisation that are really on board and moving really fast. But then there are teams and parts of the organisation that are really struggling or resisting or slow. And it's so easy I think at that point to give up and think well, mayb...more
...Lisa Gill: How do you see your role now, now that the management team has dissolved? And I'm assuming those three teams you mentioned (IT and the other two teams) that they're still self-managed, that they haven't reinstalled the manager. How do you see your role as CE...more
...ill: How do you see your role now, now that the management team has dissolved? And I'm assuming those three teams you mentioned (IT and the other two teams) that they're still self-managed, that they haven't reinstalled the manager. How do you see your role as CEO now and I guess, what does leadership lo...more
...we have several positions that used to be in the old management team and I'm no longer their manager, they don't have a manager as the self-organised teams don't have a manager - so work more in groups where we need to work. So I think, more and more, that the organisation is using me more as a support a...more
... They found a different way to contribute to the organisation? Anna Elgh: Yes, but we are still in the phase where some of the company is some of the teams have managers. So some of the managers from the management teams, they are still manager for their team and that's working fine. But of course, I thi...more
...na Elgh: Yes, but we are still in the phase where some of the company is some of the teams have managers. So some of the managers from the management teams, they are still manager for their team and that's working fine. But of course, I think there is this question in the air: where are we going and are ...more
... a manager? But we've never taken that decision. It has to evolve and it has to be driven from the organisation - what the next step is for different teams....more
...Lisa Gill: Yeah, it sounds like you've started with teams where there's the most or natural energy towards experimenting with this way of working, like the IT team, the Management team and then those other t...more
...s where there's the most or natural energy towards experimenting with this way of working, like the IT team, the Management team and then those other teams, and the managers left. So I think that's a good approach to not enforce this or to rush it, but to allow it to evolve in the organisation and as you...more
...problem or an obstacle in how should we do now - I can take an example. But how are we supposed to take decisions in the new organisation? One of the teams got this task to look through - well, how can we do? How are we supposed to think when we take decisions? And also to clarify, we have some different...more
.... They ended up in a process that is 100 times better than the way we used to do things and they managed to set up a process that could work both for teams with a manager and teams without a manager....more
...ess that is 100 times better than the way we used to do things and they managed to set up a process that could work both for teams with a manager and teams without a manager....more
... has to take on responsibility of their journey and decide when it's time for them to take the next step, and what is the next step for the different teams. And what what is clear is that many of the self-organised teams that we have in the organisation, they don't want to go back to the old way of work...more
...'s time for them to take the next step, and what is the next step for the different teams. And what what is clear is that many of the self-organised teams that we have in the organisation, they don't want to go back to the old way of working. So you're very clear about that. And then we have other teams...more
...teams that we have in the organisation, they don't want to go back to the old way of working. So you're very clear about that. And then we have other teams that are not really, but also are self-organised, that feel that it's not really efficient right now - we need to do some changes. And the hard thing...more
...hing now is not to fall back and start taking top down decisions, to really continue to be in this even though we see such positive effects that some teams, other teams must find their way. I can just go to myself, I'm no longer the same to your managers that I used to be. So if the organisation should ...more
...ot to fall back and start taking top down decisions, to really continue to be in this even though we see such positive effects that some teams, other teams must find their way. I can just go to myself, I'm no longer the same to your managers that I used to be. So if the organisation should take a decisi...more
...eople that you've spoken to - other CEOs or leaders have asked you this, but for people listening who are on their own journey towards self-organised teams or towards more Lean or Agile ways of working, having gone through this journey yourself and, of course, it's ongoing, but what advice would you give...more

Amy Edmondson on psychological safety and the future of work

...w you from your book “Teaming” (2012) and your research on psychological safety. It’s been a number of years since you’ve been working with different teams and organisations around this subject so I’m curious to know, what has your journey been with this topic and why is it important to you personally? ...more
...ould be an important phenomenon for organisations as well. So I came in to study… [and] I realised intuitively that where the learning happens is in teams because teams are doing the work. There’s some work, of course, that’s still done very much by individuals working alone, but an awful lot of it is d...more
...ortant phenomenon for organisations as well. So I came in to study… [and] I realised intuitively that where the learning happens is in teams because teams are doing the work. There’s some work, of course, that’s still done very much by individuals working alone, but an awful lot of it is done by people ...more
...it is done by people coordinating and collaborating and communicating with each other in very important, rich ways. So, I thought: “OK I’ll study how teams learn from mistakes” and what happened was I got data on mistakes, or at least experts in the medical setting had collected these data over a six-mon...more
...sing a survey instrument. And the relationship between these two data sources was kind of odd because it fundamentally was suggesting that the better teams were making more mistakes, not fewer. And I had fervently believed it would be the other way around. I then, after my surprise, started thinking abou...more
...e mistakes that do get made can be covered up — unless they lead to something awful, they can be covered up. So I started thinking, maybe the better teams aren’t making more mistakes, maybe the better teams are those where people are more willing and able to talk about mistakes. And so I didn’t have a n...more
...ss they lead to something awful, they can be covered up. So I started thinking, maybe the better teams aren’t making more mistakes, maybe the better teams are those where people are more willing and able to talk about mistakes. And so I didn’t have a name for it at that point, but I thought this was at ...more
... you’re really with the next generation of leaders, what are you finding is increasingly important in terms of building leadership capacities for the teams and organisations of the future? AE: You know I think it’s this — I don’t know what the right word is, but the kind of emotional muscle to deal with...more
... and motivation and accountability — it’s both those things, not one or the other, that really creates an environment of learning and high performing teams. And that starts with thinking about more than just myself and seeing myself as being responsible for what shows up around me. So some people listen...more
...either. AE: Exactly. We underestimate the degree to which the old model doesn’t work. And then we think: “Let’s try something new like self-managing teams, let’s try Agile — oh it didn’t work, so we go back to the old way.” But the old way wasn’t working, we just didn’t know it wasn’t working. ...more

Michael Y. Lee on lessons from researching self-managing organisations

...ganisations, I would say, studies, surveys that were done in the last two decades have shown, I think, 80% of organisations have adopted self-managed teams somewhere in their organisations. And so those are examples where within a subset of the organisation, they've essentially given radically decentrali...more
...h, I want to dig more deeply into that particular self-management system"? Michael Y. Lee: I came into my dissertation - I had worked in self-managed teams before and had really positive experiences from those work experiences, and yet I was feeling puzzled by how organisations could do this, not just wi...more
...mindset and the fear of anything new or alternative. I wanted to talk about as well - because I saw that you do this research about global dispersed teams, and how they can develop less hierarchical, more productive dynamics, and that's something that I know a lot of listeners are in that context; where...more
...ess hierarchical, more productive dynamics, and that's something that I know a lot of listeners are in that context; where they're in these dispersed teams, and they're wanting to work in a decentralised way, and in some ways, they're setup to do that, but in other ways, it's really, really difficult whe...more
...eally, really difficult when you're not face to face. And so what are some of your findings in that field? Michael Y. Lee: I think globally dispersed teams face a kind of extreme case of the challenge that every team faces, which is: how do you avoid these negative, dysfunctional, hierarchical dynamics f...more
...eractions together in a way they wouldn't on their own. And so, the combination or I think, spaces and scripts can be an interesting set of tools for teams to use to facilitate these more positive dynamics. And I think specifically for globally dispersed teams, what we found was that they didn't have to ...more
...ripts can be an interesting set of tools for teams to use to facilitate these more positive dynamics. And I think specifically for globally dispersed teams, what we found was that they didn't have to be face to face - these interactions could happen over long distances and in relatively short periods of ...more
...l feels kind of weird to be doing this. And so that's such an interesting edge - that we know it's good, we know it actually leads to good things for teams and for individuals but yet, it's not something we would really do on our own, because it's not comfortable....more
... humans have because of our hard wiring, and actually steer them into more positive behaviors that we know are going to be better for individuals and teams and organisations?...more
...u're working in a self-managing organisation, or working in a hierarchical structure, we know that these are the types of qualities that are good for teams, that are part of effective leadership. And we know also, I think, from many of the wisdom traditions, that this is also probably just good for indiv...more

Buurtzorg and the power of self-managed teams of nurses
...ystem had become and turning patients into numbers and dehumanising them. So he started Buurtzorg, because he wanted to create a business model where teams of highly skilled nurses could control everything from their budget to their schedules, to what services they offered, all in service of helping pati...more
...elping patients lead more autonomous and fulfilling lives. So today, there are some 15,000 nurses, and they're split into around 1,000, self managing teams supported by coaches. It's a business model that's inspired people all over the world, because it's achieved incredible cost savings. And patients an...more
...ts and deciding how they were going to do things. And now the Houten team has been running for more than ten years (they've since split into multiple teams). So it's really interesting to hear all of the insights and all of what they've learned over the years about communicating, giving each other feedba...more
...join us. I think we were five? Jolanda: At first we started with four, but after a month Sheila joined. And then we were six. And now there are three teams in in Houten. Marian: And what we had to do was look for a location. I spent the money for a location. We found it together and made our home, I thin...more
... will be okay. That's what he does. And that's true. Marian: And you speak a lot with each other... Chila: Yeah, there is a good communication in the teams. Marian: We give each other feedback. Chila: That's also a problem sometimes in the self-leadership thing. Because if you cannot do that in a team, i...more
... sooner or later. So we do that. Sometimes it's difficult, but most of time we manage. And it's been ten years, so... Jolanda: But there are a lot of teams that have a lot of problems. Chila: Yes, of course, it is difficult. Marian: It's not possible that you have any one leader, everyone is the same. An...more
...Lisa Gill: Tell me about that. How does that support you, the IT system? Because I understand it's quite key to having self-managing teams at Buurtzorg. Chila: Because it makes everything very simple. You can find everything. So for one client, you can order stuff for the client or mate...more
... to buy flowers, because we lost our colleague. And we had a hard time. So she came by and she brought us that. But she also has many difficulties in teams to solve. And sometimes they are not to be solved because there are people who don't see that they don't belong there. They want to be a leader and i...more
...stant pressure to make cuts in the public sector, perhaps we'll see many more Buurtzorg-inspired examples popping up like Helen Sanderson's Wellbeing Teams in England, or Cornerstone, the social care company in Scotland. If you haven't heard those Leadermorphosis episodes, I really recommend them. I've p...more
...we associate with managers anyway. In any case, I think my interpretation, or maybe my belief in general is that there is leadership in self-managing teams, but it's a chosen kind of leadership. It's a leadership where we all step into our own authority in different ways and it's dynamic. Its leaderful, ...more

Beetroot’s founders on purpose, self-management, and shocking people with trust

... And then during this experimental first half a year, we started to work with various outsourcing projects from the beginning with different partner teams. So yes, travelling around we were meeting partner teams and finding good technical specialists and connecting them to clients in mainly at the time,...more
... started to work with various outsourcing projects from the beginning with different partner teams. So yes, travelling around we were meeting partner teams and finding good technical specialists and connecting them to clients in mainly at the time, Sweden, who needed software skills. So we learned a lot ...more
...iness - we came up with this model called a 'dedicated team' where you integrate a team based in Ukraine with the team at a client's location. So the teams are based in Ukraine, we run the office, we help them set up the remote cooperation process and so on, but essentially, the team works in very close ...more
...wants to change the future for themselves and for the country, and so on, and we are also then working in this interesting world of like self-managed teams and experimenting with this new paradigm of how to run an organisation. And these three things, they play along quite well, because we are in the ind...more
...le plan; we are 380 people now in total, and we plan to be more than 1000 people in around four years from now, while still being this decentralised, teams decision-making and so on, which I actually think on the other end, that approach gives that opportunity as well because growing in this way means th...more
...one; making sure that we are actually doing the right things and so on. And now since we have grown up and have this coordination or functions in the teams and so on, this is something that more and more lands on the whole organisation, so that the organisation is more and more involved in these sort of ...more

Frederic Laloux with an invitation to reclaim integrity and aliveness

...of you were giving: there was a team of nurses that was obviously overstaffed and their activity had come down, so they had too many nurses and other teams were crying out for support, they needed more nurses. And when this leader asked the team that was overstaffed and said to them: “You’re obviously o...more
...at problem. For them, you are still having a role in this. But let’s actually look: the tension wasn’t with you, the CEO, the tension was between the teams that are overstaffed and understaffed. So a possible intervention is to get representatives from these teams to talk with each other. Because, yeah, ...more
...ou, the CEO, the tension was between the teams that are overstaffed and understaffed. So a possible intervention is to get representatives from these teams to talk with each other. Because, yeah, the overstaffed team can bullshit you as a leader, but they can’t bullshit the other teams, right? Like the o...more
...tatives from these teams to talk with each other. Because, yeah, the overstaffed team can bullshit you as a leader, but they can’t bullshit the other teams, right? Like the other teams will say: “You are understaffed, and we’re in pain. We need help!” And so in this case, that was all that was needed. I...more
...alk with each other. Because, yeah, the overstaffed team can bullshit you as a leader, but they can’t bullshit the other teams, right? Like the other teams will say: “You are understaffed, and we’re in pain. We need help!” And so in this case, that was all that was needed. It’s a it’s a big shift for le...more

Aaron Dignan on being complexity conscious and people positive

...ll talk about autonomy or distributed authority or empowerment or agency or they'll have a word for it. They'll have an idea of like, how do you give teams at the edge more power? How do you share power? And so that becomes the authority space, right? And it's not to say that there's a right answer or a ...more
...ority or an opinion about how we make decisions, how does that influence the way you share information? How does that influence the way you structure teams? How does that influence the way you think about mastery and growth? So the goal of the OS Canvas was basically to identify these spaces and now - a...more
...he top of the house or the edge, the answers will tell us where to go. And so then we just follow the curiosity, we follow the tension. And we invite teams to start to address that stuff. And what's so surprising is they've so rarely been consulted, much less invited, to drive the change, that when they ...more
...us, we'll find out. But it has been somewhat proven that we can pair with those tensions. And that's the basis of your first experiment. So a lot of teams that we'll work with - here's a tension, here's a few practices we're willing to consider - now you have everything you need to go do an experiment. ...more

Bill Fischer and Simone Cicero on Haier and the entrepreneurial organisation

...s that we share, the books that we read… than your personal contribution. And I think you can recognise this because at the same time, you have these teams that are so engaged with their leaders. Most of most of all, of course, Zhang Ruimin — everybody respects him. But at the same time when you see an i...more
... because entrepreneurs will be able to do enterprise outside of the organisation — everybody knows that. **Now the potential of individuals and small teams is skyrocketing [compared to] to the past. And now the question is really about as an organisation and as a brand, how do we make the case for these ...more
... when you spoke about The Source, but to some extent sometimes I feel like I am one person that sometimes uses violent communication when I work with teams. And sometimes I feel like when I am forced to comply with a bureaucratic process or lots of pointless cycles of communication, I feel like a survivo...more

Margaret Wheatley on leadership and Warriors for the Human Spirit

...Lisa Gill: Margaret, I'm wondering what you make of, because I mean, you mentioned at the start of our conversation, this quote about self organising teams and the productivity benefits of that, and that was in the 80s. And yet here we are in 2019. And self organising teams or self organising organisatio...more
...is quote about self organising teams and the productivity benefits of that, and that was in the 80s. And yet here we are in 2019. And self organising teams or self organising organisations are nothing new, but it seems like there's, they're sort of trendy at the moment. And there are books like reinventi...more
...g islands of sanity, and they're relating to each other in a totally different way, in a much more human way, tend to be small organisations or small teams. And it's much harder to find large examples, or large organisations. Margaret Wheatley: Yeah, that's a very important point. Yes, it doesn't happen ...more

Gary Hamel on busting bureaucracy for good
...ising quickly rose to the surface. Then we built experiments around those at very low cost, let's go through, you have a new way of setting goals for teams - let's try that in one team of volunteers for 30 days, and see the before and after measure what happens. So, I think in the same way, a company li...more
... domestic appliance maker, or WL Gore is another famous material science company that makes cortex and a thousand other things - these companies give teams the right to choose an unchoose their own leaders. Because the thinking is that the only way you really know whether there's a leader in this job is ...more
... example - this Chinese company, Haier - where they take an organisation of 70,000 people, and they divided it into 4,000, micro-enterprises - little teams, every one of which has its own P&L. And a lot of your compensation depends on how you do - the profit of that little micro-enterprise. You have enor...more

Margaret Heffernan on how to act our way out of the status quo trap

...y hierarchical bureaucratic healthcare organisations. And he created Buurtzorg from scratch and started recruiting nurses in those small self managed teams. What about organisations that are really wanting to move in this direction towards self management who are traditionally structured - and I know you...more
... is going to make people more likely to take that risk to speak up. Can you share any examples of practices or things that that you've come across in teams that really make a difference? Margaret Heffernan: First of all, I think one has to be quite careful with the phrase psychological safety. I know thi...more

Pasteur Byabeza on transitioning to self-management at Davis College

...Lisa Gill: So it sounds like you had some pilot teams initially. And it sounds like those went well. And then you took some bigger steps, like disbanding the Global Council and removing formal hierarchic...more
... this is the most important part. I should have started with it. It's crucial for all team members to develop skills that are needed for self managed teams to really be effective and efficient. These skills are mostly general communication skills, active listening skills, critical thinking, you - these s...more

Lisa Gill and Mark Eddleston celebrate 50 episodes of Leadermorphosis

...g about the way that she showed up in our conversation. It was a very moving episode and she shared her very personal reason for setting up wellbeing teams and really wanting to transform health and social care. And I really got, I think, the wholeness piece first of all. And wellbeing teams for me I go ...more
...up wellbeing teams and really wanting to transform health and social care. And I really got, I think, the wholeness piece first of all. And wellbeing teams for me I go back to time and time again as a brilliant example of how to live that wholeness principle. But also, yeah, I think it was a reminder to ...more

Peter Koenig on source, money and consciousness
...ge for people exploring new ways of working to really interrogate our relationship to money. So I guess, on that front, in terms of the potential for teams, to reinvent how they do salaries, for example, or how they distribute money, I'm wondering if you could share, what are some of the lessons or insig...more
...isa Gill: Yeah, that's really interesting. And it's good what you say because I think I can get a bit excited about the money work and like, "oh, all teams should do this". But I think what you're saying, it needs to start with self and it's very personal inner work, and then we can invite people if they...more

Edwin Jansen on how people adopt self-management at Fitzii
...k other people might feel the same way?" And the 'R' stands for 'Record': so we've actually gamified feedback. So you've got to go into our Microsoft Teams, or if you had a Slack channel, then you've got to do a "#TIR" and you have to thank the person who gave you the feedback. And at Fitzii we have a 'F...more
...of the senior leader of the group". And so we just we need more Heart-based leaders out there, and we need them spread out amongst all of the smaller teams and once that's the case, then all the rest of it will take care of itself....more

Miki Kashtan on the three shifts needed for self-managing organisations to thrive

...tems, information flow is vital and critical because if you want people to make good decisions everywhere within the organisation, if you really want teams to be able to self manage, they need to have all the information. You cannot decide for them which information they have access to or not, they need ...more