Dahlia Season Consulting

Originally published November 24, 2016 on cocktailmonkey.blog

There are no managers, no team leads, no titles, no nothing. How does anything get done? Who is leading what? Please explain how stuff actually happens in this communistic, egalitarian, agile world that we’ve now entered. Does everyone lead everything? Isn’t that a cluster****?

I’ve been getting these questions more frequently over the past few months. So, here is my take on leadership in a flat, agile organization.

1. Yes, there is a leader, or perhaps two. Each effort should have one or two people leading it. Having a whole team try to lead something is likely to end up in hot mess land.
2. The person who has the most passion, the skill, and the time should step forward and volunteer to lead the thing (design process, tech talk program, budgeting committee, whatever it is).
3. That person might ask for a co-lead if the effort is large, if there is someone who wants to learn how to lead such a thing, or for many other reasons.
4. Sometimes there is a person who has the passion and the time, but not all the skill to lead the thing. They should step up and volunteer, and ask for a co-lead who can teach them the skill.
5. The leader(s) need not do all the work on the thing. They simply make sure that the thing gets done. The actual work involved may include all members of their team, people from multiple teams, or people from across the org.
6. When the thing is done, the leaders go on with life, perhaps leading nothing for a bit, perhaps volunteering to lead other things that need doing.
7. Everyone can lead something. Even the newest team member, or the most junior, can step forward and volunteer to be responsible for some small task. Owning retrospective items is a great first place to start. Learning how to lead and growing that ability over time is absolutely expected and required.

How is this different than in a hierarchical organization? Or one with team leads or other named, designated leader-type people?

1. People get to choose the efforts they want to lead.
2. No one person is required or expected to lead every single thing that needs leading.
3. More people get to flex their leadership skills and grow them.
4. Efforts still have actual leaders.
5. You don’t have to wait to get to some level before you are allowed to lead something.
6. Everyone is, at times, a leader and a not-leader, and can become great at both roles.

Removing titles and hierarchy does not mean a devolution into chaos. Rather, it means replacing fixed roles and responsibilities with structures, processes, and the ability for anyone to choose to take on a role or a set of responsibilities. Try it, you and your coworkers might just like it!