A Scrum Team Doesn't Magically Become Self Organizing

Many Scrum experts argue that there is no role of a Line Manager in Scrum. But a Scrum team doesn't become self organizing overnight and Line Managers can play a vital role in this transition.

As Bruce Tuckman proposed in his 1965 theory of Stages of Group Development, a team goes through Forming -> Storming -> Norming -> Performing stages and Scrum teams are no different. 

When a group of professionals with cross-functional expertise come together as a Scrum team, they wouldn't magically get into a self organizing (performing) stage. The team would go through the stages of:

A a new Scrum team is formed, they would naturally go through the stages of group development, but how fast they reach the performing stage can be greatly influenced by the line manager.  Many teams are known to never go past the Storming stages, which undermines the Scrum process and renders it largely ineffective. 

People may argue that the Scrum Master should help the team get into the performing stage, but most Scrum Masters are primarily process experts and though they must have good influencing skills, they may not have the right people management expertise needed to transition a team to performing stage. On the other hand, line managers are usually the ones with people skills and are more likely to succeed in getting the team to perform as a Self Organizing team.

There are, of course, certain pitfalls of this approach. Some line managers find it hard to let go of the control and hinder the team from becoming self organizing. The Scrum Master in this case should notice this as an impediment and work with the line manager to get things right.