Freedom, Inc_ - Brian M. Carney [0]
Brian’s Luke, James, and Aletheia
and Isaac’s Elie
Contents
Introduction
1 “How” Companies and “Why” Companies: How Not to Run a Business
2 Are You Managing for the “Three Percent”? Exceptional Companies Do Not Confuse the Exception with the Rule
3 From Artisans to Automatons: The Origins of the “How” Culture
4 Freedom Is Not Anarchy: A Liberated Company Must Have a Shared Vision
5 Why They Did It: Two Triggers of the Liberation Campaign
6 What’s Your (People’s) Problem? Building an Environment That Treats People As Equals
7 Liberating an Established Company: How to Reach Out Directly to Your People
8 From Motivation to Self-Motivation, Part One: Beyond Grace and Intrinsic Equality
9 From Motivation to Self-Motivation, Part Two: Work and Management Practices That Nourish
10 In Search of Lost Boots: The Big Payoff from Letting People Self-Direct and Grow
11 The Anti-Mad Men: One Man’s Quest for Peace and Liberty in Advertising
12 The Secret of Liberating Leadership: How Paradoxes and Wisdom Help Freedom
13 The Ultimate Paradox: The Culture of Happiness as a Path to World-Class Performance
14 Butterflies in Formation: Sustaining Freedom Over Time
Acknowledgments
Notes
Introduction
FREEDOM WORKS.
In every aspect of our lives—in politics, in economics, in entertainment, and in family life—we demand the freedom to decide matters for ourselves. And yet when it comes to our work lives, far too many people are stifled, constrained, hemmed in, and tied down by bureaucracy and rules that have nothing to do with allowing them to do the best they can in their jobs. These constraints leave people feeling out of control of their work lives, which, in turn, leads to stress, fatigue, and disengagement from work.
Amazingly, all of this is already well understood and has been for decades. As far back as 1924, William L. McKnight, the legendary CEO of 3M, put the matter succinctly: “If you put fences around people, you get sheep. Give people the room they need.” With that in mind, McKnight went on to build an environment at 3M that unleashed the creativity and initiative of 3M’s people. And yet, the culture McKnight built at 3M has been more admired than imitated. Sixty years later, Japanese industrialist Konosuke Matsushita looked across the ocean at his competitors and described a corporate America still in the grips of Frederick W. Taylor’s “scientific management,” which organizes work by means of detailed procedures that specify narrow, repetitive tasks for everyone, and demands full compliance with their execution:
We are going to win and the industrial West is going to lose out … because … your firms are built on the Taylor model. Even worse so are your heads. With your bosses doing the thinking while the workers wield the screwdrivers… For you the essence of good management is getting the ideas out of the heads of the bosses and into the hands of labor. We are beyond the Taylor model. Business… is now so complex and difficult, the survival of firms so hazardous and fraught with danger, that continued existence depends upon the day-to-day mobilization of every ounce of intelligence.1
Notice that Matsushita was not arguing that liberating your employees was a nice thing to do for them, or that it would make them happier or make managers better people. “Continued existence,” he said, “depends upon the day-to-day mobilization of every ounce of intelligence.” That means every ounce of intelligence in every brain that comes through the door of your company every day. If you are not doing everything you can to take advantage of that brainpower and the knowledge those brains possess about your business, you’re not only leaving money on the table, you are putting your company’s survival at risk.
As we write these words in early 2009, the United States and the world economy are in a dire state. The U.S. economy is shrinking rapidly, corporate profits are collapsing—or in many cases simply nonexistent—and a half a million Americans a month are losing their jobs. Everyone is afraid. Bosses