Extended Education

Coaching self-organising teams

The self-organization of human beings is a tricky thing. Agile coaches, especially ScrumMasters, are constantly challenged with how to motivate/persuade/trick their teams into self-organizing and doing things, without telling them what to do, but there is very little information or training on this topic. Allowing a team to self-organize along the lines of "oh well, they're all adults, they'll figure it out" is just as irresponsible as reverting to the command-and control school of management. So, how should one go about it? This tutorial presents an approach utilizing leading-edge research and techniques from social complexity science and team dynamics to change the dynamics of a team with the aim of optimizing their work together.

Topics:

An introduction to socially complex systems and self-organization

•    Social complexity and team dynamics
•    Rank and Power issues
•    Influence and Persuasion
  

Intervention models and techniques

•    The Heat model
•    The ABIDE model
•    The Flow model
  

Relevance and applicability of patterns

Sense-making models and techniques

•    The Stacey model
•    The Cynefin butterfly model
  

Understanding cognitive bias

Social network analysis and stimulation

Case studies and real-world applications

Process/Mechanics

This tutorial will be held as a talk interspersed with exercises and discussion, allowing us to address real needs of attendees.

This course is recommended for:

•     ScrumMasters
•     XP-Coaches
•     Project leads
•     Managers who want to become leaders