Beyond autonomy: the real truth behind self-managing teams by Salman Mohd Sultan

​Many organisations aim for self-managing teams, believing that autonomy will naturally lead to better outcomes. But, self-management isn’t just about removing structure; it’s about unlearning familiar beliefs and intentionally redesigning how decisions are made and responsibilities are shared.

In this talk, I’ll share real-world lessons where teams moved beyond traditional hierarchies to take ownership of their work, their structure, and their learning. We’ll explore why teams often resist self-management, what it really takes to sustain it, and how leaders can enable it through thoughtful constraints, coaching, and system design.

This session offers practical strategies and case studies to help you move from aspiration to reality. You’ll leave with greater clarity on how to build the discipline, trust, and organisational conditions that allow self-managing teams to truly thrive.

LeSS Singapore is a community for those building products, and the human systems around them. We organise monthly meetups and yearly conferences for practitioners to share real-world experiences for others to learn about product development and organisation development within the context of LargE Scale Scrum (LeSS). Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions.