Advisor

Empowerment and Leadership: Keys to Self-Organization

Posted December 12, 2006 | Leadership |

There seems to be a bit of confusion within the agile community about the concept of self-organization. To some it seems to be a euphemism for anarchy and an excuse to rail against management in general and project management in particular. I think this "anti-management" faction helps critics relegate agile to a "small-project, fringe" movement, which is unfortunate. Self-organizing isn't about anarchy or lack of leadership, it's about empowerment (or in the old school, delegation) and style of leadership.

About The Author
Jim Highsmith
Jim Highsmith is a Cutter Fellow Emeritus. He was the founding Director of Cutter’s Agile Product & Project Management practice and received the 2005 Stevens Award in recognition of his work in adaptive software development and Agile processes. Mr. Highsmith has 30-plus years’ experience as an IT manager, product manager, project manager, consultant, and software developer. He has consulted with IT and product development organizations and… Read More
Don’t have a login? Make one! It’s free and gives you access to all Cutter research.