This article was originally published on.cultbyDirk Ziegener.
you’ve got the option to read this original piecehere.
I had to learn that there are companies that take this really seriously.
Okay, maybe not the beer pong but certainly everything else!
The company I am talking about is Studitemps, a temping agency for students based in Cologne, Germany.
In February 2018 I joined Studitemps as Head of Development.
I took over the responsibility for three development teams which were working autonomously on different parts of our product.
Our main mission was to modernize the software platform that runs our entire business from the ground up.
What does a dev world (nearly) without hierarchies look like?
To be honest, we still have some sort of hierarchy.
Its very flat and has only one level.
There are team members and there is the Head of Development, with nobody in between.
I talk to more than 35 direct reports in seven teams in regular one-on-ones.
And if shit hits the fan, I am the single throat to choke.
The only way to handle this is to trust your people and hand over the responsibility to them.
This is why our teams are self-organized and take care of many of the things listed above.
When I started at Studitemps, this wasnt so obvious to me.
The department I took over was already self-organized.
So it was on me to learn how to handle this.
This starts with simple things like holiday planning.
It felt uncomfortable when this wasnt under my control anymore.
They handled this just as responsibly as I would have done it.
So, then, what exactly does self-organization mean?
What is self-organization?
In the context of an organization, self-organization means the delegation of leadership into the teams.
The team members take over the tasks and responsibilities of the manager.
you’ve got the option to compare self-organized teams with a football team.
Obviously its not possible to simply hand over all possible tasks and responsibilities of a manager to the teams.
What does self-organization look like at Studitemps?
Our teams are already quite mature regarding their level of responsibility and ownership.
Each team develops, maintains and owns one or more software services and applications from our overall product platform.
Each team decides which technology to use so that solve theirs or their users specific problem.
Whatever tool or platform is needed, the team can decide what to use.
The team makes sure that they constantly deliver software as well as support and maintain their apps.
No manager ever needs to agree to a leave request anymore.
The team organizes its work on its own.
You want to see to it that nobody forgets them or simply doesnt know about them.
So you should write them down and make them transparent.
Its quite easy to put your foot in it when you dont know about these rules.
So always write them down and make them visible, for example, by creating a Delegation Board.
So far, these responsibilities remain under control of the manager.
The biggest example here would be salaries.
We have to ask ourselves: does every team member want to have that much power and responsibility?
And could this even cause harm to the health and culture of the team?
What should teams control?
Allowing teams to make these decisions would solve so many current problems.
The results so far are very promising!
An interesting effect of teams taking over more responsibility is that they get more independent and confident over time.
The future of management
Does this mean that managers become obsolete in the near future?
But not too soon.
Maybe, one day, the manager will delegate these leadership tasks to a team itself.
And then the world will really be without hierarchies.
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