Throwing the Boss Out…

Jurgen Appelo has a post: Optimize Communication, Throw the Boss Out. It is great that Jurgen is writing about this topic, as I have been trying to tackle this for some time now. Here is what Jurgen asks

How do you align many teams to work towards a common goal?

My take is that you just have to tell them what the goal is and ask them what they can do to help.

Your employees are clever enough to figure this out themselves. We don’t need managers to point us in proper direction, we need managers to show us how to grow, that can show us that we can do more then we even thought that we can do.

Here are my requirements for an ideal organization:

1. Everyone is 200% responsible for what they have to do on their own, but they have to commit and have integrity to the team.
2. Teams are formed around goals (not expertise)
3. The manager must have full understanding of the type of work being done. (I talked about this in the past)
4. The hierarchy size is less important then the flow of information. All dilemmas (not problems), must reach management.   

This way will lead to an organization where the managers are servicing (helping solve dilemmas and helping each individual grow) the employees and not the other way round.

There is no need to have functional managers, if the team need technical help, they will have to find a way to get the guru to commit.

We need managers to help us reach our own goals not Bosses.