Self-Organization - A Myth?

The entire Agile community (and not just Agile) loudly discusses organization. I have the impression that for some time, we’ve been trying to find the holy grail that will allow us to answer the question: “How to manage without managing?”. This time, I’ll play the devil’s advocate.

Examining the Programmer’s Profile

Let’s take a look at the typical profile of a programmer (which also influences leaders who emerge from this base): introverted, inward-focused, with dominant analytical thinking. Although these are stereotypical traits, they capture the essence of our kind. With such default settings, areas that are not our strong suits include: working with people, communication, negotiation, mediation, and relationship building. So, what do we do? We seek the holy grail. How to manage to avoid managing. How to communicate well without direct communication. We search for magical “design patterns” that will do the work for us with the least interest on our part, hoping everything will sort itself out automatically. Meanwhile, there are no magic tricks.

The Allure of Self-Organization

On the other hand, self-organization is an attractive option for management, which also seeks the holy grail and an answer to “how to manage in an ultra-effective, preferably cost-free way.” Everybody likes it.

Personally, I would like to challenge the concept of self-organization itself. Everyday we encounter many of its examples:

a) You can see it in a video of an Indian intersection.

b) Our life is an example of self-organization: we live in an environment defined by law, social rules, expectations, and we make decisions based on our own judgments. Some pursue careers, others dedicate themselves to family, and others may spiral down for various reasons.

c) If we rely on the theory of evolution, the development of life on Earth is a process of self-organization.

The Reality of Self-Organization

In the above cases, does self-organization guarantee us success? It certainly leads to the generation of certain solutions. Are they good? Are they the best? Surely they are something, but we can’t fully know what.

Some might argue: “By building an environment, you can influence the direction of self-organization.” Building an environment is a deliberate action, so can we talk about self-organization? Someone must oversee, monitor, and react. Someone who introduces changes to the environment must have a plan and, in business realities, strive for changes that will positively influence the business value delivered.

For me, self-organization (partially through environment building) is a distraction from the problem—I don’t really know how to organize work well with people, so I look elsewhere. “I’m working on the environment, and this will magically make people work as I want.”

The Importance of Working with People

I will insist that while the environment is important and an unfavorable environment can eliminate even the best individuals, the environment alone is not enough. Working with people is paramount… And that’s difficult… It’s a fuzzy domain… which we don’t like in IT… That’s why we search for the holy grail.

(Text translated and moved from original old blog automatically by AI. May contain inaccuracies.)