How the staff at MaibornWolff organize themselves

Challenge

How do you build successful self-organization? 

Distributed work, ownership and mutual respect are features of everyday life at the IT service provider MaibornWolff. Employees are expected to decide for themselves how they work best. The company promotes self-organization by instituting lean processes, guardrails instead of rules, a healthy error culture and supportive leadership.

Solution

Match potential with tasks

The company created an open communication culture. Managers know what their employees’ individual personal development goals and task preferences are. As a result, they match positions with those employees who can deliver excellent work while realizing their own self-efficacy. MaibornWolff has therefore already made the ID37 personality assessment a voluntary but fixed part of the application process.

Teams organize themselves

Consultants at MaibornWolff create their ID37 personality profiles to get a sense of where they’re at in their careers. In discussions held with internal ID37 Masters, they have the opportunity to reflect on their motivational structure. This allows MaibornWolff to determine not only the right tasks for individual employees but the right compositions for successful teams. Potential areas of conflict and blind spots are already known by the time a team is being formed. This makes it easier for team members to better assess each other, grow together through feedback, and make the most of individual strengths. Thanks to the ID37 profile’s underlying uniformity, it can be easily and quickly integrated into the organization and cooperation of project teams.

Results

Successful in several respects: Self-organization at MaibornWolff

For MaibornWolff, organizing the company so that highly motivated employees can take responsibility for their work is a win-win situation. They are valued as individuals, expand their horizons and ensure a high level of customer satisfaction.

It’s no coincidence that MaibornWolff has been declared  a “Great place to work” 12 years in a row, consistently ranking high among ICT employers and regularly attracting top talent.

High staff satisfaction levels:

• 95% like going to work 
• 94% feel that they can work independently 
• 96% feel they are treated as a full member of the team, regardless of their position
• 84% feel that managers do a good job of matching tasks with potential 
• 93% say that they can rely on their team members

At MaibornWolff, about 95% of the staff have an ID37 profile and there are 42 in-house Masters providing their support with ID37 expertise.