Post #3528742

2026-04-08 08:16 UTC

Organisational Dysfunction of the Day Passing the buck Context: Have you experienced situations at work where you and your team want to decide on something of concern to you, and someone points out that you need to check with the grown-ups first? Passing the buck to someone else, for them to make the decision and, with that, take responsibility. OST explains: The team is not self-managing, which is fine if they know that and act accordingly (in DP1), but in this situation, they act as if they can, but are unable to commit. If they were truly self-managing, this would not have been relevant even, as they would gladly take the responsibility for the decision and its outcome, as it is what needs to be done to reach their goals (in DP2). Instead, they are confused and uncertain, and afraid, which is a clear signal of laissez-faire, of missing a clear organisational structure. For most, this is even worse than DP1, because at least command & control is predictable and structured.

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@trondhjort@hachyderm.io 2026-04-09 08:53

Organisational Dysfunction of the Day The powerless retrospective Context: You and your team have decided it's time to do a retrospective prescribed by the Agile methodology you are using. You all see the use of it and contribute with a lot of ideas and concerns about your work. You record them all and have a vote on the most important ones, but soon realise almost all of them are outside of your mandate to change. You note them down and hope the department lead can do something about it, but know that probably nothing will change, and the whole exercise feels like a complete waste. OST explains: The members of the team come into this believing they are self-managing, at least to a level where they are able to adjust the work to make it better. Even the Agile methodology says so by incorporating the retospective as a recommended element. An essential element in learning is both looking back and improving going forward. The issue here is that the team is not self-managing, in a DP2 structure, as they are not able to change what really matters to them. Most likely, they are in an agile setup where the teams have been given some control, but most still reside in management outside, in the existing bureaucratic DP1 organisation. The retrospective and the learning it ought to provide are mostly ineffective. #OpenSystemsTheory #SocioTechnical #agile

Open ##3528741