Forget About the Spotify Model
Turn Your Company into a Tribe
When I first read about how Spotify was promoting agility, collaboration, and innovation within their teams, I admit I didn’t fully understand it. Their “Squads, Tribes, Chapters, and Guilds” model seemed like a jumble of abstract concepts without much practical application. I mean, a 'Chapter' is a group of members with similar skills within a Tribe. What on earth does that mean?
In this article, I have an answer for you. I’ll break down how you can apply the Spotify model to your organization, regardless of its size. (For free and without needing to call a cryptographer.) To begin, we first need to ask ourselves: What is the essence of the Spotify model? Autonomy, collaboration, and continuous learning. So, how can you apply these principles to your organization?
The answer is:
Empower your teams with clear missions and autonomy: Give them a defined purpose and the freedom to decide how to achieve it.
Create collaborative and flexible structures: Facilitate knowledge sharing and enable teams to adapt to new challenges.
Encourage experimentation and constant learning: Foster a culture where testing, learning, and improving are part of everyday work.
By applying these principles, your company will become more agile, collaborative, and innovative. You will need a structure (a model) for these principles to work, but… you don’t have to copy Spotify. It’s better to create your own.