Self-organisation and agile working: responsibility where the work is

Self-organisation means that a team decides for itself, within a clearly defined framework, how it organises its work: sequence, distribution, approach, improvement, and in part also planning and staff deployment. The framework is set by leadership and covers goals, boundaries, key figures and escalation paths. Self-organisation is not the absence of leadership but a different form of it: leadership sets and holds the framework instead of taking individual decisions. In production, group work is the best-known form; in administration, it is teams that manage their own work with Kanban boards and regular meetings.

Agile working means planning, implementing, checking and adjusting in short cycles instead of planning far ahead and delivering at the end. The work is visible to everyone, for example on a board, teams largely organise themselves, and deviations are treated as learning opportunities. Well-known methods are Scrum, Kanban and retrospectives. Originally from software development, the mindset can be transferred to any work in which requirements change and learning matters. Agile working shares the short cycles and visible work with Lean; it goes one step further in self-organisation.

New Work is an umbrella term for ways of working that give people more self-determination, meaning and participation: flexible working hours and locations, flat hierarchies, participation in decisions, self-organisation, work on meaningful tasks. The term is often associated with office environments and working from home, which is of little help to plants. For manufacturing companies, New Work becomes relevant when it starts with the work itself: teams that manage their own area, a say in shift planning and improvement, development opportunities for skilled workers. This makes a plant more attractive without needing a table football game in the canteen.

An Agile Coach supports teams and managers in introducing agile ways of working. They teach methods such as Kanban, retrospectives or Scrum, facilitate the first cycles, help the team find its own rules and work with the managers on their new role as framework-setters. Unlike a consultant, they do not implement themselves but enable the team to do it, and they withdraw as soon as it is running. As an agile coach for manufacturing companies, I combine this with Lean tools and the reality of shift operations, takt and standards.

Lean fits where work is repeatable and standards secure the flow: manufacturing, assembly, order processing. Agile fits where requirements change and solutions only emerge along the way: development, projects, digitalisation, customer service with many special cases. Most plants need both, in different places. Manufacturing works with standards and shop floor management, the project team for the new line works with Kanban and retrospectives, and both meet in the mindset: visible work, short cycles, responsibility within the team. I recommend not choosing between the approaches but finding the right balance of standard and self-organisation for each area.

Self-organised teams decide for themselves, within an agreed framework, how to organise their work, and they carry the responsibility for the result. They have a shared goal, clear roles, their own regular meetings and key figures, and they solve problems themselves before escalating them. In production, these are groups with a group spokesperson who are responsible for daily planning, quality and improvement in their area. The prerequisites are a clear framework from leadership, sufficient knowledge and tools within the team, and a step-by-step transfer of responsibility. Teams that are handed everything overnight fail; teams that grow in stages become the strongest unit in the plant.

An agile organisation is structured so that it can respond quickly to change: decisions are taken where the information is, teams are largely self-organised, hierarchies are flat, and strategy is reviewed in short cycles. For a manufacturing company, this does not mean converting the whole plant to Scrum. It means shortening decision paths, giving teams more responsibility, running strategy execution with short reviews, for example via OKR, and understanding leadership as setting the framework. An agile organisation in a plant is usually a Lean organisation with more self-organisation, not a break with Lean.

In stages and with a clear framework. First, the managing director and plant management define which responsibilities groups should take on and which they should not, and what role foremen and group spokespersons have. Then a level model is developed that describes what a team can and may do at each level. The introduction begins with one or two pilot groups (team development, board, group meeting, training in planning and problem-solving), and in parallel the foremen are supported in their new role as coaches, because that is where most introductions fail. After the pilot, the remaining groups follow, each at its own pace, with regular maturity assessments. I have supported this across an entire plant.