Cliché breakers Guy, Kathleen and Hilde

What do you do at DNS Belgium? 

Guy: "I am responsible for the engineering team. This team is made up of about 16 people divided over four teams who work autonomously within their own domain: the data, registration, platform and DNS teams. "

Hilde: "I am part of the communication team, together with two colleagues."

Kathleen: "As an external consultant I help DNS Belgium with talent management. I also support teams who want to optimise their teamwork."

How long have you worked at DNS Belgium and how have you seen the way of working evolve? 

Guy: "About seven years. When I started at DNS Belgium, engineering was already working with two scrum teams. Each team had a team lead, who - often unconsciously - still made quite a few decisions about priorities, who would do what, etc. As team lead I already tried to ‘micro-manage’ less and let the teams plan their work more or less autonomously. They created certain routines themselves, evaluating the work done in the 'retrospective' after each sprint and adjusting operations if necessary. 

A major step towards self-management was breaking down the team into four teams. I'm no longer involved in the day-to-day operations of the different teams, making them even more autonomous."

Hilde: "I have been at DNS Belgium for more than 20 years. I used to work in a traditional team: we were given plenty of responsibility and had a say in what was decided, but in the end the manager had the last word. Three years ago we became a self-managing team. According to our GM Philip, more autonomy would boost our creativity. The transition was not easy for us: new people had started in our team and the management responsibilities were added to our to do list. I missed a framework and guidance at the time: we did what we had to but it wasn't very efficient. When we realised that we needed to grow as a team to reap the benefits of this way of working, we enlisted Kathleen's help. She helped us to take on more autonomy as a team, to coach each other and to work toward common goals."

Kathleen: "When I started here about eight years ago, I was allowed to take a course in sociocracy (S3), with Guy. Sociocracy provides a set of ground rules to give shape to self-management. I was subsequently given space and a budget to work out a customised training with the trainers for DNS Belgium. The interest was overwhelming: many DNS Belgium people followed this training. It set in motion a lot of change."

Are self-managing teams unstructured and chaotic? 

Kathleen:  "Self-organising teams also need structure. S3 provides specific tools for this. Kind of like a lego box from which you only use the blocks you need. We started using some of these blocks or techniques immediately, as did the more traditional teams. Techniques to reach good decisions much sooner, for example."

Hilde: "True, we already used a couple of techniques to optimise our meetings. We also use several tools to organise ourselves now. On Monday, for example, we see what our goals for that week are. On Friday, we look back on the week to see what has or hasn't been accomplished and why. This allows us to respond to changes quickly. We also experimented with the division of roles to see what works and what doesn't. For example, we started ofoff with one person who was responsible for all the ad hoc and recurring tasks for a few months to allow the others to focus on a project."

What is the essence of a self-managing team for you? 

Kathleen: "Making smart decisions together in a short space of time, using everyone's intelligence to reach the best decision, a constructive learning attitude where feedback is very important."

Guy: "That a team organises and carries out the work that it is expected to do itself within the laid down boundaries. Each team needs to have sufficient maturity and experience, so that everyone is able to help each other. Trust in each other, transparency, and good communication are essential. Not only within the team, but also towards me and the other teams. These values and skills are very important, at least as important as the technical knowledge of our people."

Hilde: "There is no one manager who makes the decisions. Not only are you more of an expert in your profession, you find solutions with your team members for anything that arises. You have more autonomy, which is also more satisfying. It's important to trust each other and to point out things that could be done better."

How exactly does a self-managing team work? 

Guy: "We translate the organisation's goals to team level. People take on a certain role within the team, e.g. scrum master, software developer or tester. The team decides who works on a particular task or project, according to their interests and skills. Solutions are suggested in case of a problem. In this way, the expertise of the whole group is used: the very experienced people, who have encountered many different situations, but also the younger employees who actively participate in the team and thus are able to build experience faster."

Hilde: "We set our own goals which, of course, have to fit within the company vision. We divide the projects at the beginning of the year. One person handles all incidental questions for three months. In this way we hope to help other departments faster, while the other two can focus more on a project."

What is the role of the manager then? 

Guy: "I don't know exactly who's working on what and what exactly is going on every day. And I don't need to. I would only slow down the work if I had to be kept in the loop about everything. However, it is important that I know what the general feeling is within the teams, how the collaboration is going, internally and with the other teams. It's important to me that we're all working on the right things in a good way, and that everyone is working toward the same goal."

"I chiefly focus on the collaboration between the four teams, because we occasionally experience struggles there. And people management is also very important to me: I often have one-to-one talks with engineers. In case of problems between teams or individuals I try to get them to come to a solution themselves through ‘coaching leadership’."

Hilde: "Philip provides us with a strategic framework, which means we don't have to okay every development with him. He trusts us to communicate openly. He expects us to learn from each other as a team, challenge each other and make the best decisions. Once a month we discuss the projects and he asks critical questions so that we continue to grow as a team. If there's a conflict we can't resolve, we can go to him."

Does it take longer to make decisions if you want to hear everyone's opinion? 

Guy: "On the contrary. Sociocracy 3.0 taught us principles that help us make decisions sooner without everyone having to be fully on board. We learn to voice concerns and objections to a proposal and decide when it's good and safe enough to try. This allows us to experiment more and to see what works well. As there are now four smaller teams in charge of their specific domain, they also take on more responsibility. They make the decisions, which is usually quicker than it used to be in our old structure."

Kathleen: "Artful participation is another one of those S3 principles. Everyone ensures their contribution is as good as possible. It makes for more efficiency and no more endless discussions." 

Is the quality of the work deteriorating because there's no real supervision?  

Guy: "The team takes care of this for the most part. As a team, you want to be proud of an accomplishment. This is why you give each other feedback and want to get better together. It actually improves the quality. We see it in the objective goals and KPIs we have to achieve."

Hilde: "It's the same for us. We choose challenging KPIs where we have to give our best as a team to achieve them. We give weekly feedback to each other and extensive feedback twice a year to point out each other's strengths and working points."

Can this work in every kind of team? 

Kathleen: "Yes, in principle this can work for every kind of team. Most DNS Belgium teams have some form of self-management or self-organisation. The conditions are that team members are willing to take ownership and there's enough experience in the team. When new people join, the process needs to be refreshed. The principles, expectations, tools, etc. have to be clear."

Guy: "It's also important to create an environment where everyone absolutely trusts each other and where openness and equality prevail. You need to be able to accept colleagues correcting you, and you also need to take responsibility to make changes where necessary. In principle, this can work in any industry, in any kind of team."

Would you still be able to function in a traditional team? 

Guy: "No, autonomy is important for my job satisfaction and the team's. I could no longer be happy in an organisation with strongly hierarchical teams."

Hilde: "Self-management ensures you collaborate much better with your colleagues. It provides opportunities to grow in your job, to challenge each other to do something better every time and to keep it very interesting. I don't want to go back to working in a classic team, but I do see the benefit of a coaching role like Guy's in engineering in a larger team."