‘Finally an e-book that explains self-management in a clear and unconvoluted way, proves its power and allows us to make this feasible within our organization.’ Milas Hietkamp - COO Dolphiq

Successful organizations grow. With growth in size, the need for information also grows. Intermediate layers are created to translate the strategy, plans and objectives for the workplace. People are needed to manage these intermediate layers, and the people underneath them. Gradually, there is a build-up of control mechanisms that comes at the expense of the motivation of the people who do the ‘actual’ work and create value for the customer.

Fortunately, there is a proven alternative: self-direction. In the self-managing 'matrix' organization, each team is a mini-company that carries their own weight. The teams are part of a so-called 'autonomous network organization' that, unlike the hierarchical organization, can grow without limits.

Beautiful right? And yet few organizations take steps towards self-management. Why? It's all about one word: trust. When teams become self-directed, having to let go becomes the norm. And that is quite difficult if you are used to managing and working within Command & Control principles

With full autonomy, the manager is no longer needed, the team manages itself. The manager is given a more valuable and often much more enjoyable role: that of coach, connector, inspirer and sparring partner. This is quite a big step. We often advise to start with ‘lightweight’ self-management: self-organization. This book helps teams and particularly managers to take the step towards self-management. To experience that giving trust pays off for all involved.

This e-book is a comprehensive introduction to the power of self-directed teams. Its straightforward format makes it very suitable for managers and team coaches looking for alternatives to the current way of working and managing. Even if you are already familiar with the 'power of autonomy', the book is guaranteed to provide surprising new insights.

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If you want to continuously improve, change and accelerate as a team or organization in today's complex world, you will need to apply the right approach. What you do, why you do it and how you do it. It is therefore highly recommended you also read the other parts of this Inspiration Series about Lean, Agile & Scrum, Storytelling and Design Thinking.

N.B. The four topics are united in the Lean Story Design mindset that helps to simultaneously innovate on the What, Why and How. You can read all about this at leanstorydesign.nl.

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Note: English translation and editing by Lean/Agile specialists (and Scrum.org trainers, and Kanban University trainers) Glaudia Califano and David Spinks, authors of the book ‘Adopting Agile Across Borders’.

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• Reflowable format e-book, .epub 3.0
• 128 pages
• For use on e-reader/laptop/phone/tablet
• Illustrations in color (depending on e-reader)
• With helpful endnotes and links
• Free extensive online toolkit

Including a summary of the bestseller 'Reinventing Organizations' by Frederic Laloux.

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The Inspiration Series – make work more effective and more fun