Alexandre CostaScrum Master| Integer Consulting - Pictet technologiesLoures, Portugal
Jan 25, 2020 6:01 AM
Replying to Thomas Walenta
...
Alexandre, shared Leadership sounds like an Oxomoron to me. Either someone leads or not. It is in the human nature (and that of some animals too) to have tribal leaders. We are not bees or ants yet.
Even in the most effective teams there is someone to whom the others look in case of insecurity.
There might be management without leadership, as can be observed in many places. Leadership is not necessary if there are no humans. Think about factory of the future, IoT, even self driving cars do not need a conductor.
Thomas,
I understand you opinion, but I cannot exclude shared leadership because there are practical cases of their existence. I know that the stereotype of leader sees him as in a solitary role. The reality more often means a leader shares that role, whether collaborating on a time-limited project or in an ongoing position. Examples of these shared leadership projects include a task force composed of members from different divisions of an organization, a collaborative project between two or more organizations, and a public-private partnership to meet a community goal. Whatever the specifics, leaders work collaboratively and share power with other leaders who bring their own perspectives and skill sets.
Alexandre Saving Changes...
Luis BrancoCEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, LdªCarcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
Jan 25, 2020 5:56 AM
Replying to Alexandre Costa
...
Dear Luis,
Thank you for share your knowledge with us.
It's clear that we cannot lead things only persons, but do you think is possible to apply the concept of shared management removing pressure from one person only ( project manager) ?
Alexandre
Dear Alexandre Interesting your question Thanks for sharing
Right now I am reading (studying) Frederic Laloux - Reinventing Organizations. It lists the different paradigms of the human organizations through the ages and proposals a new one: Teal organization.
Teal organization is built on three pillars related to wholeness, self-management and evolutionary purpose.
In addition to Frederic Laloux, I am also studying Brian Robertson on Holacracy : The New Management System for a Rapidly Changing World
Holacracy is a method of decentralized management and organizational governance, in which authority and decision-making are distributed throughout a holarchy of self-organizing teams rather than being vested in a management hierarchy. Holacracy has been adopted by for-profit and non-profit organizations in several countries
In other words, I still have no opinion on your question.
...
1 reply by Alexandre Costa
Jan 25, 2020 6:03 PM
Alexandre Costa
...
Dear Luis,
In a next opportunity I have certain that your opinion will be formed.
Alexandre
Saving Changes...
Luis BrancoCEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, LdªCarcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
Dear Alexandre´
I found here, on ProjectManagement.com, a link related to this topic.
It seemed to have an interesting clue
Alexandre CostaScrum Master| Integer Consulting - Pictet technologiesLoures, Portugal
Jan 25, 2020 6:41 AM
Replying to Luis Branco
...
Dear Alexandre Interesting your question Thanks for sharing
Right now I am reading (studying) Frederic Laloux - Reinventing Organizations. It lists the different paradigms of the human organizations through the ages and proposals a new one: Teal organization.
Teal organization is built on three pillars related to wholeness, self-management and evolutionary purpose.
In addition to Frederic Laloux, I am also studying Brian Robertson on Holacracy : The New Management System for a Rapidly Changing World
Holacracy is a method of decentralized management and organizational governance, in which authority and decision-making are distributed throughout a holarchy of self-organizing teams rather than being vested in a management hierarchy. Holacracy has been adopted by for-profit and non-profit organizations in several countries
In other words, I still have no opinion on your question.
Dear Luis,
In a next opportunity I have certain that your opinion will be formed.
Alexandre Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
Jan 25, 2020 6:01 AM
Replying to Thomas Walenta
...
Alexandre, shared Leadership sounds like an Oxomoron to me. Either someone leads or not. It is in the human nature (and that of some animals too) to have tribal leaders. We are not bees or ants yet.
Even in the most effective teams there is someone to whom the others look in case of insecurity.
There might be management without leadership, as can be observed in many places. Leadership is not necessary if there are no humans. Think about factory of the future, IoT, even self driving cars do not need a conductor.
Hi Alexandre
a leader does not have to have the authority and mission to lead from the beginning (remember Tuckman's ladder: storming phase will result in everybody finding their role on the task). I am saying some people will stick out, and will be seen as leaders by the others. Sometimes they will accept it only reluctantly.
For me shared leadership is a term that describes servant leadership, group decision making, trust and other good habits for building a team. It conveys the value of fairness/equality, which is often contradicted by the value of autonomy/freedom (and I see that currently the latter dominates).
The term is potentially divisive, alienating great leaders we have and need by being disrespectful to their role.
I have been in teams as you describe, and I could easily identify the most influential person, the leader. If there were 2 or more of them, the team was fighting. Sometimes I stepped in to lead, sometimes I lean back and try not to be involved in leading, but I may support others. Saving Changes...
Anton OosthuizenSenior Business Analyst / Project Manager| Self EmployedPretoria, Gauteng, South Africa
Jan 25, 2020 3:16 AM
Replying to Alexandre Costa
...
I can clarify the context, the thought is not mine but I was curious to see what you think about it.
As strange as it may sound, a growing number of companies are eschewing traditional management hierarchies and adopting a flat management structure. But if decision-making is left to everyone equally, how are projects handled?
According to this theory companies like Treehouse may not have managers in the traditional sense however, they still benefit from (and use) project management software that helps increase communication and collaboration. These tools empower employees to self-organize projects from start to finish and turn their own innovative ideas into reality.
Complex projects require close planning, tracking, and collaboration in order to be successful. Project management tools can provide the necessary functions to make these endeavors a success – without risking innovation.
So this is the context I am not choosing sides, the purpose is only to know what of think about it, nevertheless some companies are adopting this style, if they are having success or not I don't have data about that part.
Alexandre
This almost sounds like the self-organizing team principle applied to project management teams. My personal opinion is that I just cannot see it working except if there is some underlying structure to guide the process i.e. like a scrum master in Scrum. Saving Changes...
Touching on topics discussed on previous threads, its about empowering your project team to take and make decisions about aspects of the project based on the principles that you use to make decisions. If project team members have the experience, knowledge, access to required people and the process for decisions making then they should be allowed to get on with their job and make decisions as they arise in the project. Allowing team members to actively making decisions is not the same as delegation of roles and responsibilities as you see making a decision as part of their job and not any additional roles and responsibilities of their job.
As a project manager you should always have a hierarchy system in place that allows people to step in into another project team role at short notice who have the necessary skills to perform that role. This allows cross skills and the ability to skill up. Each team member should have aspirations to becoming their own project manager, let it be known and actively seek out the necessary experience, skills and responsibilities to becoming a project manager.
