Staircase
A staircase can be added to the Ownership Model (see Figure 2.2). The staircase in the good zone visualizes the growth of the team. The team gets more freedom so that team members can grow in maturity. Then they get more freedom again so they can grow further. That is why the staircase first goes up, then to the right and then back up again. The staircase walks on the edge of the chaos zone. This is really important. Teams will get more freedom than they can currently handle, but that’s crucial for them to learn as they go. For example, they can manage the stakeholders themselves, but they still have to learn how to properly do that. Or they can prioritize the improvement topics themselves, but they still have to discover how to do that in the best manner.
FIGURE 2.2 Ownership Model with staircase
To know when the manager must intervene or must let go, the degree of freedom must match the degree of maturity; however, deciding how much freedom the team is ready for means knowing how mature the team is. How a manager can determine this maturity will be explained in the next section.