<Adapted from my article in CM Crossroads titled “Making Beautiful Music Together”> Have you ever watched a jazz combo? The performance starts with the leader counting off the rhythm, then stepping away. Then the drummer begins to lay down a beat. Even at this stage, the audience can feel a groove hit the room. Soon, the piano joins and adds both melody and harmony to the piece. Energy is flowing from the chords as the team starts to see and feel the direction of the piece. N

Ever since I got involved in the agile development community, I’ve struggled with the concept of self organizing teams. We all know that the most highly performing teams are self organizing. The question remains, “How do I, as the duly appointed leader of this team, enable self organization?” This seems like a false proposition, even from the outset. We started with a team that has been formed by some act of management. Then management assigns someone the job of leading t