“Self-Organized”, “Self-Managed”, “Self-Directed”, and “Self-Driven” teams, these are some of the key topics of discussion in these days.

Ok. Why is it a hot topic?

Many of us would have realized that these topics are ‘need of the hour’, as it would benefit the ways in improving working style, leads to better efficiency and productivity in the team.

When we are mature to be self-organized by being the boss of our own work and know how to remove our own impediments, believe it or not – self-managed and self-directed can be achieved in it's own way.

In this article, Let’s focus on ‘Self-Organization’ and let me try explaining it in a simpler way.

There is a saying, “If you spot something, your hand should be tuned automatically to work on it” which means, “You no need to be given directions every time, try to do the things on your own as much as possible”.

When you deeply look at it, this is nothing but, one of the key principles of Scrum, i.e ‘Self-Organization’. It has set strong in my mind, and I started realizing its value as I grew.

Let’s relate this to our day-to-day life.

When we approach a roundabout junction, automatically we are tuned to look around both sides if any vehicle is approaching, or any pedestrians crossing the road, decides early which turns to take before reaching the junction point, reducing our vehicle speed, and try to cross the junction cautiously. Why are we doing this? ‘coz, usually in a roundabout junction there won’t be any signals or traffic police to direct us, and so, we knowingly or unknowingly our mind is tuned to be ‘Self-Organized’ to manage, decide and cross the junction safely. Maximum trying to avoid collisions being a self-organized driver.

If we understand this concept clearly, it is easy to apply it at our workplace too on various activities, where we don’t require someone to give specific directions to accomplish certain activities.

For example, We can,

• Efficiently manage our time, tasks, and priorities.
• Evaluate our skills and be self-motivated to learn new things.
• Effectively communicate our work progress updates in a timely fashion.
• Empowered to appreciate and recognize the true efforts of others.
• Enable our self-objectives and aggressively work towards meeting the expectations.
• Ensure to track the project milestones with a sense of ownership.
• Establish a great rapport and take regular feedback from others to address our improvement areas.
• Extend our help and support to fellow team members whenever there is a need.
• And so on.

The list can keep growing, but these are some of the simple things we can start practicing at our work. If we develop this within us, it will enhance our productivity by most efficient way to complete the work which will make us feel satisfied and more engaged; It exhibits decision-making skills too.

So, Being “Self-Organized” is a disciplined culture within us and It is a 'Lifestyle'!

Let’s give it a try of practicing self-organization wherever possible; Sure, this will lead to making a big difference to achieve results!

About Author:

Vijayan Selvaraj, CSM® is Delivery Manager at Chimera Technologies. who is passionate about building a strong and successful self-organized team.