In the last installment, we looked at evolving with the times, some resources to reach for when undergoing change as well as some problems that may arise on the way to Teal.
Today we will look at the differences between traditional vs self-managed teams, communication tools that could support your organization to shift from traditional to self-managed, and factors that, although being important, haven’t made an appearance on the market yet and would help to lead us to the true nature of Teal.
Differences between traditional and self-managed teams
Traditional
- Generally, traditional teams are structured so that the manager receives various projects from senior leaders, depending on which department they are in
- The manager then splits up tasks that were assigned to them and delegates them to team members
- If the manager is an intermediary, such as the supervisor of a team within a larger department or the head of a division within a larger conglomerate, there is inevitably potential for information to bottleneck. This obviously slows things down and, more importantly, creates a distance between those doing the work and those being served, which can create a sense of alienation, a feeling of being a ‘cog in a machine’.
Self-Managed Teal
- In theory, self-managed teams have no manager and work isn’t necessarily assigned by a single person. Rather, projects or tasks are up for grabs by anyone who has the capabilities, expertise and motivation to take it on.
- Since there is no manager, there should be no intermediary, meaning that the information flow should be much more fluid and direct rather than hierarchical.
- If an organization is transitioning into a self-managed team structure, they should see an increase in transparency, efficiency and clarity.
Communication tools to support self-managed teams
Before mentioning some of the communication tools that can support self-managed teams, it’s worth noting that special effort should be made when selecting team members and forming the team. In order to work effectively on a self-managed team, each member should ideally have a strong locus of control and a high degree of trust in their counterparts. Having a strong locus of control means that you have a belief system that prompts you into thinking that you can control the outcome through your efforts, rather than believing that things just happen to you and you are not in the driver’s seat. Team members should also have a high degree of trust in cross functional teams members, and believe that they will do their work at an excellent level and deliver when asked. If these two factors are present, then the amount of communication needed for the team to function at a high level will drastically decrease.
This is important because, in self-managed teams, there are no mandatory daily check-ins or dull routine weekly meetings. Team members can communicate as frequently or infrequently as they deem necessary with the ultimate goal of simply staying on the same page and facilitating personal and professional development.
Usually, these types of dynamics are at play in startup environments or high performing virtual teams. However, Frederic Laloux has pointed to Patagonia (retail) and Buurtzorg (healthcare) as examples of companies that have managed to scale and retain the Teal management style. Anecdotal evidence suggests that Medium and GitHub are also members of the Teal crew.
Now, here are 4 examples of tools that you can use to improve communication, smooth the transition to a Teal management style, and support self-managed teams in your organization:
- Twist – Do you love the collaboration of Slack but dislike how the different pages disrupt your work flow? Why not take a look at Twist, which claims to clearly organize communications in topic-focused threads, thus making communications more mindful.
- Loomio – I haven’t tried this tool just yet but the concept is very much in line with Teal. Loomio aims to enable honest and open business decision making, allowing team members to comment and vote before a decision is made
- Holaspirit – The new and improved version of the tool that the founders of Holacracy created. Holaspirit helps implement and develop self-governance practices using Holacracy– a pathway to adopting a Teal management style
- Slido – Do you want to increase transparency, open and honest communication and encourage more introverted people to ask questions? Slido is an excellent tool to facilitate real time engagement during panel discussions, presentations as well as virtual discussions.
Hopefully, you will find these tools very useful. However, there is always room for improvement when it comes to Teal because it is still a fairly new concept.
What’s currently missing on the market is a tool that stands behind all three pillars of the Teal management philosophy. According to a Riter blogger, the ideal Teal Tool would give team members:
- Transparent and open access to all projects
- Independent choice of projects and people to collaborate with
- Transparent view of the actions taken by other teams, accessible not only to managers
If anyone knows about a tool that will allow the above to take place, or has created such a tool, I would absolutely love to learn more about it.
Conclusion
In this installment, we looked at the difference between traditional teams and self-managed teams, some of the communication tools that can support an organization’s shift towards a Teal management style, and a few suggestions for a new tool that would enable organizations to embrace the true nature of Teal.
Aneta Kosinska is a Polish – Canadian, MSc + CEMS MIM alumni. With management consulting, analytics and startup/entrepreneurial experience, she aspires to contribute to the knowledge sharing economy.
Image: Pexels
References
Laloux (2014). Reinventing Organisations – A Guide to Creating Organisations.
https://riter.co/blog/moving-toward-teal-company-s-workflow