Self-Organized Teams

Not sure what that means? Self-organized teams are all around. Let's take a look at some examples.
Craftsmen
Have you ever had a band of craftsmen to do something for you? Let's say you need to build a fence around your property. You got some recommendation from friend and now the guys are here. You will probably give them a kind of user story like "I as the owner of this house want to have a fence all around so that I can keep my dogs on my garden and have better safety".  You will also have some conditions of satisfaction like "I want the fence to be green and about 60 inches high. The fence will keep my dogs inside and foreign people outside". Then you negotiate the price and date when you expect your fence to be done. And that's it. You don't want to tell them that pillars have to be straight, what is the distance between them to make it stable, what kind of concrete they need to use so that first frosts will not destroy it... You don't even know. They are experts and you trust them so even if they asked "would you prefer this or that" you would very likely say "do it as you usually do".  And you are absolutely not interested in what time they come to work or how long they work every day. They are self-organized and you only need to know if they're going to finish your fence on time because you are on holiday next week... Do they have a ScrumMaster? Of course they do. It is the guy that stops by every day and wants to know how are things going, makes sure that they have material they need and brings replacements for broken tools. 
Soldiers
Have you ever heard about famous Commandos or other special forces? They're sending teams into the enemy's rear and they have the highest possible commitment. Self-organizaion is a matter of life for them. They say that the team is as strong as the weakest team member. They have to be able to make critical decisions in seconds. They have a plan but they don't have instructions and they say that plan which cannot be changed is a bad plan. Their sergeant is their ScrumMaster. 
Bee Colony
A bee colony in an ultimate example of self-organization. The point is that the colony is not just a sum of all individuals. Particular bees are primitive creatures and the queen is nothing but eggs laying machine. Nevertheless, there is something that forms the spirit of the colony and that spirit drives all the amazing things that they do. Nobody fully explained how is it possible and some people would maybe say that their ScrumMaster is God.
12/22/2016

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