Self-Management in Practice
When Buurtzorg, the Dutch home-care organisation, pioneered self-managed teams, the management world paid attention. In just a few years, the company grew from a small experiment into a nationwide movement employing thousands of nurses. The model was deceptively simple: instead of layers of supervisors and administrators, small groups of nurses were entrusted to organise themselves. They decided who would visit which patients, how to divide shifts, and how to respond to the challenges of their work. There were no managers in the traditional sense.
At first glance, this might sound like chaos waiting to happen. How can an organisation of that size operate without someone in charge? Yet Buurtzorg’s outcomes told a different story. Patients reported higher satisfaction because they were treated consistently by the same small team of carers, rather than a rotating cast of strangers. Costs were lower because less energy was spent on bureaucracy. And staff stayed longer, because they felt trusted and respected.
“Self-management isn’t the absence of leadership — it’s leadership shared by the team.”
The lesson of Buurtzorg — and other pioneering organisations like it — is that removing the boss does not mean removing order. What replaces it is something deeper: clarity of purpose, simple structures, and mutual accountability.
Beyond the Myth of the Boss
Most workplaces are built on the assumption that employees need constant supervision. The manager is seen as the one who directs, approves, and corrects. But what happens when the boss doesn’t come back?
In one story from the manufacturing sector, a team whose manager left suddenly discovered that they already knew how to run the operation. They divided the tasks, handled scheduling, and solved problems collectively. Work didn’t grind to a halt — it moved forward more smoothly than before. The absence of the boss didn’t create a vacuum. It revealed that the team had been capable all along, but the hierarchy had been obscuring it.
This points to a deeper truth: people don’t need a boss to know what to do. They need shared understanding of the goal, and the trust to carry it out.
The Ingredients of Self-Management
The success of self-managed teams does not come from magic, nor from simply removing managers and hoping for the best. It comes from carefully designing the conditions in which autonomy can thrive.
First, there is purpose. A team cannot direct itself if it doesn’t know where it is heading. Buurtzorg’s nurses shared a clear mission: to provide the best possible care to patients in their communities. With that purpose front of mind, decision-making became easier. The question was never “what would my boss want?” but “what serves our patients best?”
Second, there are structures. Even the most autonomous team needs some way of coordinating. At Buurtzorg, teams used simple digital tools to schedule visits and balance workloads. Nothing elaborate, nothing bureaucratic — just enough scaffolding to keep everyone aligned.
Finally, there is peer accountability. In traditional organisations, accountability flows upward — employees answer to their manager. In self-managed organisations, accountability flows sideways. Colleagues hold each other to commitments, review performance together, and share the responsibility for improvement. This shift changes the dynamic of work: instead of compliance, you get ownership.
“It’s not the absence of control that makes self-management work. It’s replacing hierarchy with clarity and trust.”
What Leaders Can Learn
Self-management isn’t about abolishing every manager tomorrow. Most organisations aren’t ready for that kind of leap. But there are lessons leaders can apply today.
One is the power of stepping back. Leaders often believe their job is to be present in every decision, but the reality is that constant oversight can slow teams down. When leaders instead focus on clarity — making the mission, roles, and principles unmistakably clear — they create the space for teams to act with confidence.
Another is to shift from a culture of permission to a culture of trust. In many workplaces, employees spend as much time seeking approval as they do doing the work. By changing the default from “wait until you’re told” to “go until you hear otherwise,” organisations unlock hidden energy and speed.
And finally, leaders can invest in systems that support peer accountability rather than undermine it. Too many HR and performance tools are built for monitoring from above. A better approach is to give teams the tools to track commitments, share progress, and learn together — because accountability among peers is often stronger than accountability to a boss.
The Future Without Bosses?
Will every workplace become self-managed? Probably not. There will always be roles for coordination, coaching, and leadership. But the idea that management must mean hierarchy is already outdated. The experiments of organisations like Buurtzorg show us that when people are trusted, they are capable of far more than we assume.
The bigger risk isn’t trying self-management and failing. The bigger risk is clinging to outdated structures of control and missing the chance to unleash the potential of teams.
“The best managers know when not to manage.”
The morning when the boss didn’t come back wasn’t the day the work stopped. It was the day the team discovered it had been capable all along.
