Freedom, Inc_ - Brian M. Carney [34]
Freedom in the workplace is neither hierarchy nor anarchy.
The phrase “ordered liberty,” from political philosophy, comes close to capturing the best way to think about it, even though freedom in the workplace is not political freedom. It is a highly disciplined—actually, self-disciplined—form of organization. And its main disciplining element is the company’s shared vision of world-class performance—the second key step of building a freedom-based company. What Bob Davids conveyed to his people—from the moment he interviewed them for the job—was that Sea Smoke’s vision is to produce world-class Pinot Noir. It is to achieve that vision that he has set them free to take the best actions they can.
Did these newly hired people believe that they were really free to take actions they deemed the best? We have all heard leaders of “how” companies promise freedom of initiative and autonomy of action, only to be asked to submit for approval the first idea we aired. But Davids was not building a “how” company.
Sea Smoke’s chief winemaker, Kris Curran, was dubious at the beginning, too. “I chuckled and said ‘Yeah, Bob, we’ve heard that a million times before. And then the owner puts twenty thousand dollars more into landscaping and doesn’t allow me to buy an extra two-hundred-dollar wine hose that I need.’”3 Even after she accepted the job, Curran remained skeptical until the day Davids asked her to get the project off the ground and told her to start with all the equipment she needed for an absolutely perfect winery. So Curran took him at his word and drew up “a just outrageous list of things.” When she was ready, Davids came in and went through the list item by item, discussing “every last clamp, pump, and barrel.”
It took six hours. But in the end Davids said to her, “OK, so when do you start buying all this stuff?”
Curran, still skeptical, answered, “You’re not going to knock anything off?” just to hear Davids repeat his freedom philosophy again.
“No, I believe your arguments that this is going to make better wine, and therefore I’m going to give you everything you need so you do not have an excuse to come back to me and say, ‘I could have done it better if only you had allowed me to…’” Did this convince Curran that Davids’s business philosophy and vision for Sea Smoke was not just blowing smoke?
“I was blown away,” Curran said, “because I had been in the industry for eight years at the time, and I had never seen anybody that I had worked for and anybody that I knew that really stood behind what they said.” At that moment, Curran realized that Davids would follow through with what he said in her job interview and that she would be able to take the actions she thought were best for the winery. Davids put this freedom-building block down for her—or so he thought.
But as much as people bristle at being told how to do their jobs, it can still be hard to jump right in and accept one’s own freedom and the responsibility that comes with it. Victor Gallegos accepted his freedom in certain situations, but he stumbled when a large sum of money was involved. Curran, on the other hand, wasn’t shy with her initial list of equipment for making a world-class wine; as she admits, she was testing Davids, trying to call his bluff by making a list she was sure he would balk at. But whatever psychological obstacles people may face in embracing their own freedom, this is still the easy part—freedom can be scary, but it’s nice to have. Getting people to emotionally own the company’s vision is much harder. As a matter of fact, Kris Curran found herself on the wrong side of the line between anarchy and freedom early on.
Several years into producing Pinot Noir, Davids—who says his main role in the business is brand building