Companies say they want teams to self-organize. Self-organizing requires increasingly shifting decision-making from managers to teams.

Self-organization often gets stalled when a team made a decision that resulted in a failure. When this “happens, I’ve seen well-intentioned leaders jump in to save the team from their failure. The problem is, by jumping in the leader sends a message that the team can self-organize as long as nothing goes wrong.

If you want your team to self-organize, it means letting them self-organize around everything, including their failures. It starts with trusting the team is always doing their best, with what they have and know. When things go wrong, it means helping them self-organize and recover.

Rather than jumping in to save them, start with: “I trust you made the best decision possible. Now, walk me through how you made the decision.” You’ll know how to support their growth from there.

You’ve got this.