This summer I spent a couple of days in Munich, Germany. One of the lesser-known sights is located directly within the English Garden, at the Eisbach. The Eisbach-Wave or “Ice Wave” attracts professional surfers to downtown Munich – and many tourists to watch them.
What amazed me wasn’t only the fact that surfing such a powerful wave was possible at all, not to mention all the tricks they pulled, but also the disciplined group dynamics at work here.
The queues on each river bank nicely alternated their turns without the need of any command. Nobody jumped the line or spent more time in the water than others.
How was that possible?
As you know, self-organizing teams are one of the cornerstones of Scrum. The concept found its way into software engineering through Brook’s Mythical Man Month. So whenever we coach teams (as a Scrum Master, Agile Coach, external consultant, …), the ideal is to help the team to grow, remove impediments and foster learning.
At the same time, whenever we help teams grow, worryguts tell us that self-organization isn’t in fact possible. Might be nice to have, but is an utopia.
Having been educated in the hierarchical waterfall world, we might assume that coordination is always something external. We feel that we need a clearly written ruleset (processes or “Employee handbook”) and somebody in charge to punish those who do not follow the rules.
And yet, non of this was present in the Munich Icewave.
So what did the trick?
What is the difference between this smooth and nonverbal alignment of foreigners and all the other teams that try so hard, but just can’t get it right?
External management and prioritization as an addiction
A clear vision? That’s not for us, that’s an HR thing. Goals? That’s the leader’s job.
The leaders themselves are being led by other leaders, forming a pyramid. This hierarchy is easy to understand, and if you know who is in charge you can stop thinking for yourself — others make all the decisions. However, the problem is that usually the highest-paid person is not only in charge, but their opinion counts most. Therefore, we lose commitment and invaluable insights and ideas.
So why don’t we just quit?
Somebody else being in charge allows the individual to duck behind the cover of authority, to stop voicing their opinion. This way, team members eventually become addicted to a point where they show actual withdrawal symptoms. The transition from “let me decide for you” to “please decide for yourself which approach is best” might feel like opening the window and fresh, but chilling air pours in:
You know that it’s healthy and good for you, but it feels soooo cold.
Compare this to the Icewave Surfers
They have a clear goal and common purpose, there for everybody to see: Enjoy the ride and try not to fall into the water.
They, too, have a hierarchy (believe it or not): The more experience you have, the more respect you earn. This is a meritocracy, where rank and fancy job titles have been replaced by the respect each individual has earned.
This makes clear why the surfers were so disciplined — one risks to lose respect by breaking the rules, jumping the line, being rude. Given that respect is their sole currency, every group member obviously tries to accrue more capital, not waste it. In this, each individual is actually quite selfish and possibly also a little vain.
And the moral of this story…
Next time you find yourself tempted to promote a team member to “Senior”, next time you attempt to fix cultural or coordination problems by adding more layers of management…Try stating clear goals and a purpose instead.
Just like in Mandeville’s Fable of the Bees. Private Vices, Publick Benefits.