Turf Types
A Turf is an area cultivated and protected by the same people.
Turf Types: Team of Teams • House • Product Area • Business Unit
Purpose
When a Base grows larger, it is sometimes not enough to have only Crews. It is possible to create an organizing layer in between (without traditional managers) that helps the Base grow larger while the Crews remain small.
The Turf is an area cultivated and protected by the same people. It could be a product area, a machine, a house, or a town district that one group of people collectively takes care of. For a fire department, it would be their building and machines. For an airline crew, it would be the airplane. For a software team, it would be the codebase and technology stack. And for a keynote speaker, it is all his stories and earlier presentations. These are examples of product areas that must be put to good use for great customer experiences while requiring upgrades and maintenance and protection from risks and dangers.
In each of these cases, it is important that the Turfs do not get a traditional manager assigned to them. They should not become silos or management territories.
Notes
In organization design, the Turf has significant relevance because of maintenance drag. If the Turf that a group of people is responsible for gets too large, they will struggle to maintain it. They won't be able to keep up fixing all the problems caused by environmental changes, and this will slow them down.
Another issue to consider is cognitive load. When the Turf is too large, the amount of knowledge about it that people need to keep in their heads also gets too large. The result is that they start swapping knowledge in and out of their heads. They waste time relearning things they had forgotten, which also slows them down.
The Turf concept also plays a crucial role when discussing dynamic reteaming. When Crews reorganize themselves within the same territory, there will be little to no impact on their productivity because they are all supposed to be familiar with the entire area. However, when Crews reteam across different territories, they probably must consider and expect a temporary drop in velocity and throughput.
Rules / Constraints
The Turf is an area of concern with a clearly defined boundary.
There is clarity of ownership and responsibilities regarding the Turf.
The Turf is not too large; people are able to maintain and cultivate it.
The Turf is not too small; it offers enough challenge and motivation.
“Uncharted territory is a good place to be in.”
(Source: Bo Burnham)
Visual MS is a Spanish business software development group with 114 employees organizing with different Product Type Turfs and scaling up via bases, leagues, and a crowd.
Exploring the application of unFIX patterns in the structure and dynamics of Visual MS group. Visual MS highlights the importance of psychological safety and the sense of belonging, two fundamental aspects in unFIX, creating a special synergy of the model with the organization.