The Four Steps Towards Giving Up Control

 

In one of my previous short notes, I’ve mentioned the importance of autonomy and Agile 5^th principle “Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done”

Giving Up control is the first step towards building autonomy. It is wise to extend freedom to your team, but it's not easy. The urge to control your people and team’s is irresistible and it echoes continuously to managers and leaders which effects the team morale continuously.  

Empathy and building autonomous team is not something which can be achieved overnight, especially when you have grown up in command and control, carrot and stick or an opaque environment. It is in-deed a journey and a conscious effort has to be made every day to build autonomous teams.

I am listing down few techniques, which I’ve used and has given me success in building autonomous team and give away the control.

Collaborative goal setting

An imposed goal, target or decision is unlikely to be believed and team merely executes that out of fear and most of the time they are not successful. These targets may be a quarterly sales target or a deadline of delivering a product/feature.

A considerable body of researches have shown that individuals are far more engaged and passionate when they are pursuing goals, they had a hand in creating.

So, get your employees and partners together on goal settings and get surprised, often people have higher aims or better alternatives.

Personally, I highly recommend the use of PI-planning in SAFe ( for collaborating goal settings and alignment of teams and management. Use noncontrolling language and pressure words.

Use noncontrolling language and pressure words

In my experience, uncountable times, I’ve heard and read emails at school or work which directed me to finish an activity by certain time or ASAP. You might have similar experience as well. Think about your true feeling at that point of time. Next time you are using pressure or controlling language (should, must, have to) consider using collaborative words with right intent. Anxiety and Anger are the common outcomes of a controlled team.

Some of the common pressure words used at workplaces are listed below:

·      I need this ASAP
·      We have to do this…
·      I need this by 11 am tomorrow morning
·      We’re counting on you to do this

Every time we have used similar sentences, we made our people stand on the edge, teams or individual feel more constricted irrespective of your intent and thus resulting in low morale of individuals.

Be approachable

I remember my school days when my teachers announce in the class that students are free to visit them in staff room at a specific hour of the day or week to clear any doubts we may have.

I’ve always enjoyed the out of classroom interaction with teachers/professors. We got an opportunity to learn both ways and shared a common understanding on subject.

Similarly, take a cue and have a fixed time slot reserved for employees, so they can walk-in and talk to you. You will be surprised to learn from your team.

Blame a process not person

When something goes wrong, people are punished. We often hear and read in news that a bureaucrat was transferred, or a politician has to resign because of a certain issue. Resulting in shame and low morale.
However, little efforts are made to improvise the process. This whole culture of blaming person restricts the culture of reporting gaps due to fear of being singled out.

Know where you stand

It is remarkable sometimes to conduct an autonomy audit in your team on Task, Time, Team and Technique, refer details on danpink.com and run an autonomy audit in your team, teams or organization.