Creating ownership and commitment to delivery in self-organized teams

Create ownership and commitment to delivery in self-organized teams through clear goal setting

A common set of goals is one of the prerequisites for becoming a team. When knowing what to strive for, it becomes more likely to gain a commitment.

When reviewing the scope of a sprint, sprint planning often looks like this: The Product Owner brings a set of stories, (in the worst case, even unrelated ones), explains each of them in a few words, asks the team to commit to them and, in the best case, spends a few minutes thinking about how to combine that set of stories into one goal and… off we go. Sprint started.

Sound familiar?

No wonder you rarely see great outcomes in the sprint review in an environment like that. 

It is crucial to establish clear and well-defined goals. Involving team members in the goal-setting process and allowing them to contribute their insights and perspectives is vital. When team members clearly understand the desired outcomes, they are more likely to take ownership and feel a sense of responsibility toward achieving them. You can also profit a lot from shared expertise and the crowd’s wisdom, and this gives teams far more flexibility to accomplish the goal in a complex environment with an unclear beginning.

How can we improve the approach to sprint planning? 

In my experience, a great approach is not bringing a single story to the planning, but using storytelling to start the discussion about what problem we want to solve for our customers. Why is that a problem? Who is our customer? All of this information will help the team to understand and develop tailor-made solutions for the customer, rather than following the criteria of a ticket. I need to quote Jeff Paton in his excellent book User-Story-Mapping in order to explain the need for stories when defining goals: “Stories aren’t a written form of requirements; telling stories through collaboration with words and pictures is a mechanism that builds shared understanding.”

Create ownership and commitment to delivery in self-organized teams through trust

Much research (e.g. the Aristoteles project from Google) has shown that trust is the foundation of ownership and commitment within self-organized teams. Researchers found that what mattered was less about who was on the team and more about how the team worked together, where psychological safety was important.

Create ownership and commitment to delivery in self-organized teams through shared accountability

Ownership and commitment are not just individual responsibilities – they extend to the entire team. Foster a collaborative environment in which team members support each other, share knowledge, and work together towards common goals.

In this regard, the team daily typically provides you with an excellent overview of how the team is doing. Is everybody sharing the information about “his/her” ticket, or is the team discussing how to take the next step to reach the goal together?

Create ownership and commitment to delivery in self-organized teams through enabling

We often talk about the need for empowering, however, enabling is sometimes forgotten, though it does not mean it is less important.

In today’s environment, we rely highly on the existence of the resources, tools, and support the team needs to be successful. Ensuring team members have access to the right technology, training, and development opportunities is key. Still, the so-called “soft skills” are a must-have nowadays to deliver great results. Therefore, it is vital to offer coaching and mentoring to help teams overcome challenges and enhance their skills. I have had mainly positive experiences, not just enabling colleagues to promote their expertise, but also in providing the support of a system coach. When team members feel supported and equipped to excel in their roles, they are more likely to take ownership and deliver high-quality outcomes.

Create ownership and commitment to delivery in self-organized teams through celebration

Recognition is a powerful motivator for ownership and commitment. It will help the team to grow and strive for common goals. Using Kudo Cards is one way to acknowledge and celebrate individual and team achievements to reinforce a culture of ownership and delivery. Remember to highlight success stories and publicly recognize the contributions of team members. 

Create ownership and commitment to delivery in self-organized teams through Continuous Learning and Improvement:

Avoid only celebrating success; celebrate learnings. To achieve the psychological safety environment it is important to celebrate learning. Taking calculated risks and learning from them is essential to innovation and great customer outcomes.

Provide opportunities for reflection and retrospection, so that team members can identify areas for improvement and implement changes. Implementing changes: this is key. There is often no outcome in retrospectives, and if there is, people rarely act upon it.

Treating these improvements as top-tier priorities and ensuring the team takes care of them in the next sprint is vital to improving the team, its interactions, and the environment. Encourage experimentation and innovation, allowing team members to take calculated risks and learn from failures. When learning and improvement are valued, team members feel empowered to take ownership and drive positive change.