Here are three ways you can experiment with new ways of working without going all in straight away.
There are lots of reasons why people get stuck in talking about new ways of working instead of just trying them.
One main reason is that it feels risky to venture into unknown territory without a detailed plan.
Other reasons are:
- Resistance from senior leaders and managers
- Nervousness from external stakeholders
- Employees who are worried or cynical about change (“another reorg?!”)
What if it were possible to explore more decentralised, more human ways of working without blowing up the whole organisation?
Here are three options to play with.
Option 1: Start with 3 transformational team practices.
These three practices will start to shift habits at a team level very quickly:
- Co-create team agreements (how do we want to be together?)
- Decide who decides (be explicit and transparent about who has what decision-making authorities)
- Create transparency around roles (what do you need and expect from each other?)
Option 2: Start with teams working on tensions.
Many teams suffer things that don’t work instead of empowering themselves to make improvements.
Aaron Dignan suggests in Brave New Work asking the question: What gets in the way of you doing your best work? Identify the top tensions and set up a 6- to 8-week ‘sprint’ to make change.
Option 3: Start with a prototype self-managing team.
It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.
Start with a prototype self-managing team with volunteers. They’ll start the learning process and others in the organisation will become more curious to try it themselves.
This post was created with Typeshare
