1. introduction
Self-directed groups are teams that have a goal or problem to solve and they are autonomous in the way they solve it, deciding how they will face the problem. In this sense, the role of leaders is more associated with the development of team participants, so that they can solve increasingly difficult problems, rather than controlling their particular activities.
We find two necessary conditions to develop self-directed teams:
1.- Commitment of the higher levels in the development of the teams and their members. When starting work with self-directed groups, participants will need to develop new skills, which requires management to be willing to provide the resources and coaching for them to develop.
2.- Trust between the members of the organization, this is a crucial point, since in the initial phase there will be a greater probability of error in the work of the self-directed groups, for which the members of this must be clear that they will not place in risk their future within the organization, due to possible errors they may make as a result of generating new solutions.
These teams can be both permanent and temporary. We can associate the permanent groups with maintenance and continuous improvement works, while the temporary ones are related to radical improvement projects. Although, for the two types of teams, it is very important to clearly indicate what is the goal that they must meet. In the case of temporary teams, the duration of the project must be stated, dissolving it after said period; This is because failure to set a deadline goal can cause work to lose strength and stagnate over time.
2. What characteristics must the equipment have to function effectively?
1.- Clear goals. If the team does not share a clear goal to achieve, then it will lose focus. Also, if there are different goals among the team members, then it is likely that there are strong tensions within the group, preventing the team's goal from being met.
2.-The rules of the game. It is important to know that it can or cannot be done within the actions that the team will take and among its members; for example, a rule may be to not ask for help solving a problem if at least one attempt has not been made to solve it. In organizations with a strong culture, it is very likely that it is not necessary to specify all the rules, since these are rooted in the way of being of the organization; on the other hand, it is quite possible that in the first self-directed teams, the rules will emerge through the development of the project, which will probably be repeated in the following projects. However, if the organization does not have a culture to which decision-making can be delegated,then it is likely that some rules must be specified that direct the team in that direction.
3.- Identify the roles that each one will develop. Usually when talking about roles we are thinking about a written document, which clearly indicates what a person should do, if this is the case, then we are not in the presence of self-directed teams, since we are saying what they should do before that the team decided. For us, identifying roles means defining the problem space that each person within the team will take care of, opening a space for creativity.
3. In the development of self-directed teams we can find the following stages
Confusion, due to the new activities, nobody is very clear about what should be done; This is a very dangerous stage, since supervision may tend to suppress autonomy in order to control the situation. It is in these moments where people must be trusted and given great emphasis to "coaching".
Leader emergence, due to initial confusion, leaders are likely to emerge within teams, who will guide the team into these troubled waters.
Compact teams, when achieving results the team will have greater confidence in its capabilities, and it may be difficult for new components or practices to enter it.
