Autonomous teams are like unicorns; everyone talks about them, some know a bit about them, and some believe they have wings. Others are so sure they will issue unicorn certificates.

What is an autonomous team? Self-driven teams, autonomous teams, self-organised teams; the phenomenon has had many names since we began talking about it in the 1980s. Do we all mean the same thing, when this type of team is mentioned?

And what are the conditions for these teams to work? They need the right environment, the right framing, and the right leadership. Actually good leaders are not enough, you also need great managers.

In this talk Jakob and Gitte will share experiences of autonomous teams enabled by great managers, and share stories of where autonomy was damaging, and management did not live up to their task. They will talk about what to expect of a manager, and when to leave a team, when the manager does not live up to expectations.