If you value autonomous teams then you must let them make most decisions about how they work together. This also applies to how often they interact F2F and what they do in person. The most visible vote for autonomy is to decentralise these decisions to the level of the team. Here are a few suggestions about how to go about this.

• Set aside a monthly sum of money for the team and give them the freedom to use it as they please. They can use it for activities including but not limited to the ones we’ve discussed here.

• Wherever possible, avoid making decisions for too many people at the same time. It’s tempting to make decisions for at a central level, but this could create major dissatisfaction amongst people who you may not even interact with regularly. So not only will the problems be invisible to you; you’re likely to have little influence in solving them.

• Unless a strong business decision mandates that people work out of a specific location, devolve decisions related to work location, to the team. The smaller the unit of decision making, the more people are likely to share their individual work preferences. This also gives you the best chance to construct an inclusive work environment for your people.