No sooner have I activated this blog than I already have a practical example of where Adaptive Enterprise Management might make a difference. Denis Brégeon describes his surprise at the management trap he recently found himself in. As a team member, you can call out all the things you wish managers did differently. However when you’re asked to fill those shoes it is amazing how difficult it is to behave any differently, even if for just three weeks.

The intention to do the right thing is a necessary but I’m afraid not sufficient condition to bring about change. The order in which you make the changes is also important, which is what I think Denis was being confronted with. For his team to work as self-organizing peers, there has to be collective accountability. In order to remove (or at least minimize) the sense of personal accountability within the team, the team has to be rewarded before the individual. Changing the reward structure is an enterprise-level decision.

Despite this logical sequence, I know there are teams out there that achieve this change. Does it happen more often in settings where the work of the team is a more significant part of the company’s profit? Is it easier when the project or the company is smaller so the team has a bigger say in enterprise decisions? Is it better to try on a project “below the radar” first? I would like to read your views on this but right now I don’t think so. In future posts I will explore how one of my former teams achieved this result within a very big company and whilst delivering a very high-profile project.