Sublime

Autonomous teams should work toward assigned customer value outcomes, rather than being assigned tasks. What to work on is, generally, given to the team through the prioritization of initiatives in the LVT and the backlog. The team, which should include a product person, collaboratively prioritizes what it will work on during the next iteration to

In a first phase, they sit together and try to sort it out privately. The initiator has to make a clear request (not a judgment, not a demand), and the other person has to respond clearly to the request (with a “yes,” a “no,” or a counterproposal). If they can’t find a solution agreeable to both of them, they nominate a colleague they both trust to

Fundamentally, autonomous teams have both the authority and the accountability to deliver an outcome-oriented work product—whether that is a software feature (code) or a prioritized portfolio that implements a goal.

During the meeting, ideas identified for experiments are assigned to various team members to take charge of implementing, analyzing, or researching to garner more information about whether an idea is worth trying. The team lead stays in regular communication with each team member in between meetings, checking in on the progress of their work and he

This process is so fundamental to collaboration without hierarchy that many self-managing organizations train every new recruit in conflict resolution.

This cascading delegation, shown in Figure 4-4, with alignment to the level above, borrows heavily from the lean movement’s Hoshin Kanri.5 In particular, the concept of “catchball” emphasizes communication, accountability, and feedback between layers of responsibility in the organization.

Several other organizations in this research rely on virtually identical conflict resolution mechanisms: first a one-on-one discussion, then mediation by a trusted peer, and finally mediation by a panel.