Assess how ready your people are to start self-organizing, or if not, then what obstacles may lie in the way and how to navigate them
Do you want to discover if people in your teams/organisation are really ready to start self-organizing?
Many people try and introduce Self-Organizing Practices into organizations without first finding out whether they would be well-received by the people/teams/organizational culture/context.
There are conditions which make it more or less likely for new Self-Organizing Practices to stick. Like whether the people are feeling enough pain with how things currently are to be prepared to make the effort to try something new. And if there's a team/organizational culture in which Self-Organizing Practices would be able to take root. And there's enough health in the relationships and emotional dynamics in the team. And how much availability people have to invest in learning new ways of working alongside getting their current work done. And the willingness of current power-holders to let go of the illusion control...
Without investing the time and resources in assessing whether these conditions exist or not, you are gambling if you try and introduce Self-Organizing Practices.
ASSESS your Team/Organization's READINESS for New Ways of Working
"I know there are better ways of working in this 'new world of work'. But there are so many people peddling their own tools or methods- they are full of jargon and all promise they are the best thing since sliced bread!
It’s confusing and I'd love to understand what the different options mean for us and how to choose the best one's for my team- and find out if we are ready."
Here's What You'll Do & Learn
The Readiness Assessment typically takes around 1 month, though can be done at your own pace, and you will:
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Introduce Self-Organizing to the relevant people in a way that works for them and your organisational context
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Find out what's in the way of people doing the best work of their lives for your organisation
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Identify any broader outcomes you'd like to work towards in addition to working better together
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Understand the worries/fears/concerns/resistance people may have about adopting new ways of working, and explore how to address them
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Assess whether adopting self-organizing practices would be likely to gain traction in your teams/organisation and help you achieve your broader Business Outcomes
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Identify the self-organizing practices and ways of introducing them that would be most likely to work for your teams/organisation
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Decide whether to go ahead with adopting self-organizing practices, and if so: which ones, which teams to start with, and the approach to take.
The Risks of Not Assessing your Readiness
The landscape of the New World of Work is full of obfuscating jargon, wild promises, broken dreams and miserable failures; which often lead people to limping back to what they know.
One of the reasons for all this is that there are a lot of people who have only seen a small piece of a much larger picture; who propagate serious misunderstandings, false assumptions and misrepresentations. So, many efforts to adopt self-organizing practices don’t stick or achieve their promises and often do more harm than good. Because they are implemented by people who don’t understand that these practices only work in certain conditions; where there’s enough ‘Readiness’ in the people and organisation. Instead, they try and introduce them wherever they can.
If you don’t assess your readiness before attempting to introduce new ways of working, you are undermining your chances of success before even starting!
Is the Readiness Assessment for Me/Us?
✓ my Team/Organisation needs to work better, but I don't know how to make it happen
✓ I've read/Watched THINGS about the new world of work & self-organization, and want to see how it would work for us
✓ I don't know if people in my team/Organisation are ready to adopt these new ways of working
✓ I don't know how to find out if we are ready or not
✓ I'm concerned that if we don't find out if people are ready, then an initiative might fail
✓ I'd like to discover which new ways of working would best fit my team/ OrganiSation
About Your Instructors
Since the mid 1990's I have been studying, researching, experimenting with, practicing and training people how to improve how they work together in teams and organisations. I've worked with thousands of people, (including as a Partner with HolacracyOne, the organization that founded Holacracy) and have distilled the lessons I've learned into a series of online programmes and expert support.
I lead on projects and work with our Associates/ Apprentices/ peers from a wide network of expertise as needed. Our purpose is to inspire, equip and support Changemakers to make changes by upgrading how well your teams are adapted to surviving and thriving in our complex and changing world.
Nick Osborne Founder, Evolving Organisation
