Emerging Autonomy — Agile Management Hack №2

Providing people with proper levels of autonomy is an indispensable ingredient of success for agile organizations that can react to changes with deftness, deliver value with speed, and fill their workplace with happiness.

Emerging autonomy is the second agile management hack that deserves much attention. Like the first hack — time-boxed decision making — emerging autonomy has the same three features:

· It has the potential to start a chain reaction of changes toward more agility.

· It can be set up in three weeks.

· It can produce effect within three months, be it in teams, projects, operations, or any area targeted by the hack.

To implement it, we need to keep some key points in mind.

Key points of emerging autonomy:

- Use only the person who knows the best to make decisions and take actions, which involves an organizational transfer from a hierarchy of authority to a hierarchy of competence.

- Set an appropriate frame of autonomy with clear indication of the autonomy’s range and duration, so that people can take proper initiatives and responsibilities.

- Involve the hierarchical manager ONLY when the subject is blocked or when it risks failure.