Another great Spotlight

I completely agree with what you mentioned in the first few minutes - that people work best when they work on what they want to work on and with who they want to work with. I know some large companies actually cycle their staff members to work in recruitment and training as they feel the best people to select prospective employees are those who are going to be working with them.

When it comes to people seeking advice on getting work I usually mention that essentially people hire people, so if you’re looking for a job it’s always worth asking yourself “would you want to work with you?”

Hi there,

Glad you enjoyed the video and thanks for the thoughtful questions!

1. Is self-selection only for big companies with lots of teams? What about small companies or situations with fewer people?

Great question, this comes up a lot! While self-selection is often used in larger companies (just because that’s where the “traditional” problems with team formation show up most dramatically), it absolutely works for smaller companies and teams too. In fact, some of the most satisfying results have come from smaller groups, where the entire “company” is selecting into just a few teams, or even forming their first ever teams.

The book shares a story about running a trial with only 20 people and forming three teams, it was a controlled, small-scale environment, and it worked incredibly well. What matters isn’t the size, but the willingness to trust people to make good decisions for themselves and the company. Even in tiny orgs, the benefits, ownership, clarity, better fit, still show up, just on a smaller scale.

2. Has self-selection ever “imploded” or gone wrong? What happens if someone chooses a team and it’s a bad fit?

Honestly, our biggest fear when we started was exactly this, would there be chaos, drama, or people regretting their choices? In practice, total implosions are rare. When things do go a bit sideways (e.g., someone realises they’re in the wrong team, or the fit isn’t great), it’s usually visible early. We encourage teams and individuals to talk openly, often people self-correct or swap teams as needed. Also, self-selection is not a one-time thing. Most orgs run events regularly (every 6, 12 months), so no one is “stuck” forever.

If someone truly hates their new setup, we work together to solve it, sometimes that means changing teams outside the normal cycle, sometimes it means supporting them to make it work until the next self-selection event. But overall, because people have agency, you see fewer mismatches than in top down team assignment.

3. What about the “unwanted” members, or people who can’t find a team?

This is a really common worry. The truth is, it almost never happens that someone is left out completely. People worry about the “last picked for sports” feeling, but in self-selection, everyone chooses for themselves, no one is picked by a team. If someone is struggling to find a fit, facilitators and the group support them to find a place. Sometimes it shines a light on bigger issues (like skills mismatches or interpersonal problems) that would’ve come up anyway, at least now it’s in the open and can be worked on.

And for full teams, if your dream team is full, you talk it through. Sometimes teams shuffle members to fit everyone’s needs, sometimes it takes a bit of creative problem solving. The process is deliberately open and human, with plenty of support built in. And if someone is truly, repeatedly left out, that’s usually a sign of deeper cultural or performance issues, which self-selection helps bring to the surface, so it can be addressed.

4. Have you thought about self-selection for individuals in job search or career planning?

Love this question! While the book is focused on teams within organisations, a lot of the principles, ownership, clarity on what you want, thinking about who you want to work with, absolutely apply to career planning too. It’s a fascinating idea and very much aligned with the spirit of our work.

Happy to discuss further!

Sandy

Hello everyone,

I’m a bit late to the party but I did enjoy watching the video and hearing Sandy and David’s thoughts on “Self Selection”.

I have a few questions so buckle up

1. So from the video and the book, it seems self-selection is biased towards teams and by extension large companies with many people. Have you applied this process to smaller companies with no teams and/or fewer people and what was the result?
2. Have you heard cases where self-selection has imploded? For example people choose teams but they are a wrong fit or they hate the task, what then happens?
3. How do you handle the “untouchables” or the “unwanted” members or better still, what if you want a team and the team doesn’t want you or is full, what then??
4. Non-related question: self-selection in this context is amazing, I wonder, have you considered writing a related book on self-selection for the individual in the context of the job search or just general career planning?

That’s all for now, I’m still ruminating over the contents from the video but thanks in advance for the replies!