At this moment, Super7 Operations (link) is applied within several operations departments of one of the leading Dutch retail banks. A lot has been learned since. The change from strict daily steering to small autonomous teams –and at the same time keeping all the good things from LEAN and Operational Management – has asked a lot from both the shop-floor employees and their managers. What we noticed is that teams go through several phases, or maturity levels, in their journey towards autonomy. And, team managers need to grow towards supportive leadership and output steering – this too doesn’t happen overnight. 

When we recognised this, it became clear that a maturity model would be very helpful. With this, the transition can be broken up into smaller, more manageable steps. And, for each maturity level, specific training and coaching can be developed to support both managers and Super7 teams.

The maturity model is still a work in progress, and at the moment only available in Dutch. If you’re interested nonetheless, you can request a copy by replying to this post. And, I expect to be able to post an English version of the Maturity Model for Autonomous Super7 Opertions Teams on this site shortly.

I would like to hear your experiences with the development of autonomous teams. You are invited to join the discussion on Super7 Operations on http://www.super7ops.com/