We know that self-organizing teams can drive innovation and deliver exceptional results. But what exactly makes a team truly “self-organizing” and capable of high performance? Seven critical attributes distinguish truly exceptional teams from ordinary teams.
What Makes a Team Self-Organizing?
Before we explore the seven attributes, let’s clarify what we mean by “self-organizing.” A self-organizing team takes ownership of how work gets done, makes decisions collaboratively, adapts to changing conditions, and continuously improves without constant direction from management. These teams don’t form spontaneously—they emerge when organizations intentionally create the right conditions.
Let’s examine each of the seven essential attributes that enable teams to reach high performance through self-organization.
7 Essential Attributes of Self-Organizing
Before we explore the seven attributes, let’s clarify what we mean by “self-organizing.” A self-organizing team takes ownership of how work gets done, makes decisions collaboratively, adapts to changing conditions, and continuously improves without constant direction from management. These teams don’t form spontaneously—they emerge when organizations intentionally create the right conditions.
Let’s examine each of the seven essential attributes that enable teams to reach high performance through self-organization.
1. Supportive Context: The Foundation for Success
Self-organizing teams don’t exist in a vacuum. They require a supportive organizational context that provides some basic foundations in terms of resources and removal of barriers to performance. This supportive context includes several critical elements:
Physical and Technical Infrastructure
Teams need appropriate spaces that facilitate collaboration. This may include:
- Dedicated team rooms with visual management tools like whiteboards or empty walls
- Digital collaboration platforms for remote or distributed teams
- Technical tools and infrastructure appropriate for their work
- Environments that encourage both focused work and collaborative interaction
Today’s high-performing teams often require a blend of physical and virtual spaces that support different modes of collaboration while maintaining team cohesion.
Access to Information
Teams cannot make informed decisions without access to relevant information:
- Direct access to stakeholders and subject matter experts
- Transparent data about team performance and business metrics
- Clear and consistent communication channels
- Minimal information gatekeeping or filtering
When information flows freely to and within the team, better decisions emerge more quickly.
Continuous Learning Opportunities
The best teams never stop learning:
- Initial training in technical and team collaboration skills
- Ongoing skill development opportunities via conferences and workshops
- Access to resources for experimentation, like books, videos, and reference materials
- Time allocated for reflection and improvement
An organization’s commitment to team learning directly impacts innovation capacity and continuous improvement.
Meaningful Recognition
Teams thrive when their efforts are appropriately recognized:
- Fair and competitive compensation
- Non-monetary recognition that celebrates team achievements
- Specific feedback that reinforces positive behaviors
- Recognition systems that reward collaboration rather than individual heroics
Recognition should celebrate both achievement of outcomes and adherence to team values.
2. Compelling Shared Goal: Unifying Purpose
Without a compelling shared goal, a group remains just that—a group, not a team. High-performing teams:
- Understand the larger purpose behind their work
- Connect daily activities to meaningful outcomes
- Share commitment to common objectives
- Align individual aspirations with team goals
This shared purpose creates the motivational energy that drives teams through challenges and sustains them through difficulties. Team goals should be challenging yet achievable, specific yet flexible in approach, and deeply meaningful to team members.
3. Bounded Authority: Clear Decision Rights
Self-organizing doesn’t mean no management. The most effective teams have clearly defined decision-making authority:
- Explicit understanding of which decisions the team can make autonomously
- Clarity about which decisions require consultation or approval
- Documented decision-making frameworks that balance speed and quality
When decision boundaries are ambiguous, teams get stuck in analysis paralysis or overstep their authority, resulting in conflict and disagreements.
4. Appropriate Constraints: Defining the Playing Field
Contrary to popular belief, constraints don’t hamper creativity—they enhance it. High-performing teams understand:
- Clear boundaries within which they can innovate
- Explicit quality standards that must be maintained
- Resource limitations that drive creative solutions
- Regulatory or policy requirements that must be honored
The key is distinguishing between necessary constraints that create team focus and unnecessary constraints that slow the team down. Leaders must regularly evaluate which constraints to keep and which to eliminate.
5. Diverse Skills: Complementary Capabilities
Self-organizing teams require all the skills needed to convert an idea into a delivered product without constant external support:
- Technical skills spanning the entire tech stack required for delivery
- Domain skills relevant to the business domain
- Social skills including communication, conflict resolution, and collaboration
- Leadership skills distributed throughout the team
Self-organizing high-performing teams actively develop cross-functional capabilities through pairing, knowledge sharing, and deliberate skill development. Team members respect each other’s unique contributions while working to expand their own capabilities.
6. Team Stability: Building Deep Collaboration
Teams need time together to develop their potential. The stages of team development—forming, storming, norming, and performing—cannot be rushed. High-performing teams benefit from:
- Consistent, stable teams over extended periods
- Thoughtful onboarding of new members when changes are necessary
- Protection from random team reorganizations or reallocations
- Time to develop shared understanding and working agreements
Research consistently shows that stable teams outperform constantly changing ones, even when the changing teams consist of individually “stronger” members. The shared context, trust, and working patterns that develop over time create efficiencies that cannot be achieved through frequent reorganization.
7. Space to Evolve: Room for Continuous Improvement
Finally, self-organizing teams need space to evolve their ways of working:
- Regular retrospectives to reflect on process and outcomes
- Authority to experiment with new approaches
- Psychological safety to discuss failures and challenges
- Time allocated for improvement initiatives
- Expansion of the team’s bounded authority as the team demonstrates capability
This attribute connects closely with bounded authority and supportive context. Organizations must provide teams both the autonomy and the resources to continuously evolve their practices.
Developing Self-Organization in Your Teams
Developing these seven attributes doesn’t happen overnight. It requires intentional effort from organizational leaders, Scrum Masters, and team members.
Our Building High-Performing Teams Workshop provides practical tools and experiences that help teams assess their current state and create action plans to strengthen each attribute.
The journey toward high-performing self-organization isn’t linear—it involves cycles of experimentation, learning, and growth. By focusing on these seven attributes, leaders create environments where teams can reach their full potential, driving innovation and delivering exceptional value.
Remember, self-organization isn’t about absence of leadership—it’s about distributed leadership that emerges naturally when the right conditions are present. By cultivating these seven attributes, you create those conditions and unleash the collective intelligence and creativity of your teams.
Let’s now look at such an example.
Resource: https://www.infoq.com/articles/what-are-self-organising-teams/
Further Reading:
Also check out the complete Fostering Self-organizing Teams series:
- What is a Self-Organizing Team?
- Scrum Magic! Do Scrum – Become Hype-productive!
- 3 Models for Skills Acquisition
- The 3 Stages of Shu Ha Ri for Gaining Knowledge
- The Dreyfus Model of Skills Acquisition
- Situational Leadership
- The 5 Stages of Tuckman’s Group Model
- Drexler/Sibbet Team Performance Model
- The ScrumMaster’s Role is Fostering a High Performing Self-Organizing Team
- 7 Attributes of a Self-Organizing Team
- Delegation Board for Fostering a Self-Organizing Team
- The ScrumMaster’s Progressive Delegation Responsibility
- Fostering Self-Organizing Teams Presentation