Post #3528743

2026-04-07 10:23 UTC

I managed to make a little dent with my series of posts on #SocioTechnical principles of the day, and thought it was due to do something similar, but this time in the context of modern organisations (especially #agile ones) and the modern version of #STS, known as Emery's #OpenSystemsTheory ( #OST). I'll list some systemic problems I have seen in organisations over the years and explain their causes using OST, one each day as I did back then. Probably way too ambitious, but let's see how this goes. Happy to take comments and rebuttals to each one of them, as the point of doing this is to trigger reflections and critical thinking. Warning: these will probably be a bit more opinionated. 😁 Organisational Dysfunction of the Day The daily status report Context: Your team is using Scrum and has been taught how important stand-ups are (daily coordination meeting), but it feels like a drag and a complete waste of time. Feels more like reporting to someone, be it the scrum master or the product owner. And you really do not care about what the others are working on, as it has little to no impact on what you're doing. OST explains: This team is probably not a team at all; it's more like a group of individuals working on different things. They may contribute to the same delivery but have not been able to take control of the work design and the coordination needed to deliver it. This is not a self-managing team, but rather a delivery group assigned specific tasks by a manager, in charge of splitting the work so that all team members are working as effectively as possible. This is pure DP1 and nowhere close to the self-managing teams in DP2.

Replies (1)

@trondhjort@hachyderm.io 2026-04-08 08:16

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.

Open ##3528742