In A Nutshell

Every right is balanced by a responsibility. If we view Team Autonomy - a type of freedom for the team - as a right, then the balancing responsibility is for the team to display the right rigour and discipline as it does its work.

 
When declaring your rights, don’t forget your responsibilities.
— H Jackson-Brown Jr. Life's Little Instruction Book

When leadership assumes the right to lead, the balancing responsibility is to respect, serve and protect the autonomy of teams. This responsibility constrains the interventions that leaders can make in teams and work. Leaders need to recognise these constraints and understand how to work within them.

 
Rights must flow from responsibilities and responsibilities from competence and capacity
— Judith Sweet

The group development model created by Tuckman demonstrates that groups need stability and time to become a team - even more to become a high performing team. An essential part of team autonomy is to protect the stability of the team.

If autonomous teams are to be fully in control of their work, then there should be no reliance on other teams to complete some aspect of the work. This means that the team has to be fully integrated - it has to embody all of the capabilities needed to deliver its work. Deliver work from the point where requirements are defined and refined to the point where the product’s services are available for use by the customer.

We observe that the only teams who can become high performing are those that are both stable and integrated. There is a strong relationship between the behaviours that support team autonomy and the principle of high performing teams.

Customer Focus

  • Focus on Customer Feedback

    • how do we receive feedback and how do we demonstrate we are acting on it

  • Focus on Commitments and Capacity

    • the team has the absolute right to decide how to balance the commitments it makes against its capacity

Team Focus

  • Focus on Useful Data

  • Focus on Technical Capability

  • Focus on Problem Handling Capability

  • Focus on Sustainable Rate of Delivery

  • Focus on Team Resilience

  • Focus on Fostering Individual Development

  • Focus on Fostering Emergent Leadership

Contextual Focus

  • Focus on Team Stability

  • Focus on Team Integration

  • Focus on Community and Practice

  • Focus on Shared Culture and Principles

Supporting Principles