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A distillation of Business Without Bosses by Molly Weisse-Bernstein

Businesses with a traditional organizational structure utilize an archaic system of command-and-control managerial hierarchy. This structure, a relic of the 18th century Industrial Revolution, prevents organizations from responding quickly to rapidly shifting and fluid situations.

Reading Business Without Bosses by Charles C. Manz and Henry P. Sims Jr. is like attending a great college course. The authors have compiled a series of case studies where the methodology of self managing teams is explored.

A Modern Way of Managing

Bosses are managers who use an authoritarian approach to get things done. It's "my way or the highway". They have all the right answers and everyone else has the wrong answers. Bosses insist on putting only those who agree with them in managerial positions while failing to cultivate staff potential throughout the organization.

A modern approach to organizational structure is based on self-managing teams which do much of the work of traditional managers. Software companies, dot.com entities, and newer types of businesses are frequently organized this way, whereas health care and social service organizations rarely are. A self-managing team is comprised of a cross section of staff and is able to quickly respond to pressing problems. The cross-functional staff give the team its robust set of technical skills. Team members are chosen carefully for personal skills as well—i.e., analytical, communicative, interpersonal—so each team is capable of operating fairly autonomously.

In a team-based organization, managers are facilitators, not bosses. A facilitator is someone who leads others in leading themselves. But transforming bosses into facilitators is easier said than done. Facilitating is about asking the right questions. This is the opposite of bossing. While it is satisfying to know the answers and to successfully deal with disasters, it's more useful to help others answer their own questions and solve their own problems. Good facilitators are masters at teaching others how to help themselves.

If managers were freed from bossing, they could focus on more productive uses of their talents, including facilitating self-managing teams, redesigning work processes, implementing new technology, and ensuring optimal organizational financial health.

Why Facilitate Instead of Boss?

As humans, we're all motivated by the fundamentals. We want to make enough money, be respected at our jobs, and feel like we're doing meaningful work and doing it well. Old fashioned managing, or bossing, makes it difficult for staff members to make a difference in an organization because of the inevitable feeling that they are working for the boss, not for their own aspirations, or the organization, or its mission.

Front-line staff members are close to the fundamental information of the business: The customers, and what works and does not work for them. These people are getting the organization's core work accomplished. While managers may have a better understanding of the big picture, the staff know how to paint that picture. Staff know the everyday, nitty-gritty, nuts-and-bolts stuff that keeps the business in business. Front-line staff can readily make decisions around factors that would otherwise negatively impact the quality of their work.

With the traditional hierarchical management structure, managers frequently go to the front line staff for the information they need to make decisions. So, why not let the front-liners make a lot of those decisions themselves? The benefits would be faster decision making and a shift in the manager's job from putting out the daily fires to seriously preparing the organization to thrive in the future.

If staff are freed from having to ask permission for every little thing, they can focus more on serving the customer well and productively. Instead of being frustrated with their boss, they would solve problems before they get out of hand. Instead of resenting the bossing, they would set and meet their own goals. Instead of feeling intimidated and disempowered by their boss, they would realize their own ability to effect and create change for themselves. Instead of trying to undermine or sabotage their boss they would turn to their facilitator for guidance and direction. When staff members are freed from their bosses, they give the organization a huge competitive edge: The ability to respond to problems quickly and effectively.

Obstacles to Establishing Self-Managing Teams

Many managers have a hard time letting go of the old managerial role. They have struggled to succeed in this archaic structure, they have attained status, and if the role changes they will likely experience a sense of loss and uselessness. They aren't sure how to be successful in the new facilitator role. They worry about losing their jobs in a team-based organization, or that they will suffer a drop in compensation. And, often they are very skeptical that staff can be self-motivating and self-managing.

Managers aren't the only folks who will have trouble with the transition to self-managing teams. While most staff welcome this transition with open arms, some staff will resent being asked to manage themselves and their colleagues. They'll feel like they are doing management's job. They are ill at ease in an environment where there is no place to hide, as individual performance is under scrutiny by teammates as well as management. Teams require a flexibility not every person is crazy about.

What the authors, Manz and Sims, have found is that managers and staff are usually happier in their new roles, and that staff are able to handle problems that come up. Managers usually don't manage themselves out of a job, but job descriptions do change: From boss to facilitator. From staff to self-managing-team.

Characteristics of Self-Managed Teams

A self-managed team is empowered, by upper and middle management, to make changes in the way it accomplishes work. While there are no hard and fast rules for the composition of a self-managed team, the team's purpose must be cogent and compelling. Teams must have a distinct overall goal with which the team members identify. For example, patient care teams in health care (in primary and specialty care settings) often set a mandate of completing 90% of all patient visits within 45 minutes. This goal is in complete harmony with the deepest aspirations of typical team members who truly want the patient to have a great visit experience.

Teams need members with various technical and personal skills that relate to their overall collective role in the organization. Work-process redesign teams, for example, include a cross section of staff from front desk folks to physicians to pharmacists to nurses. Teams should also have discretion over issues such as how the work is done, the scheduling of the work, and assigning tasks and roles among team members. Annual evaluations should include hefty input from team colleagues especially in evaluating the staff member on the criterion of "team player".

When staff are allowed to make decisions that affect their working lives, they feel valued by the organization, and therefore make the best decisions they can. Since they are intimately entwined with the details of the work, they have the very best information needed to make good decisions. When goals and standards are created within the self-managing team, the motivation to complete the tasks is self-initiated instead of boss-imposed. Internally motivated work gets done better and faster.

Managers find that facilitating can be much more rewarding than bossing. In their traditional role, managers often feel ineffective and always half step behind. Managers that facilitate are more effective—since they help to prevent problems from occurring rather than merely putting their fingers in the dike to prevent a greater catastrophe.

Although a system of self-managed teams can be difficult to implement, the benefits far outweigh the costs. The organization is able to respond quickly and with flexibility to complex and shifting changes. Productivity and quality improve. Staff members are happier with their new roles in the organization.

Business Without Bosses is a realistic view of what the modern world could look like. Manz and Sims are adept at weaving a tapestry of case studies and insights where bosses have no place, where self-managed-teams work with great effectiveness, and where facilitators contribute valuable support and insights to create the most innovative and exceptional organization possible.