Freedom, Inc_ - Brian M. Carney [75]
We will change the concept of a job to better match the talents of each individual. Everyone will have to do more than one job, including something he is not formally qualified to do (multijob).
We will discontinue the current hierarchical departmental structure and replace it with projects. There will be project leaders to run projects, gurus to ensure a proper professional standard in everything we do, and mentors to help support every employee to do his best. All current job titles will have to go.
Ninety-five percent of all paper should go as well. We will install a state-of-the-art computer network that will allow every one of us to freely choose where to work every day. We will stimulate oral dialog and avoid writing e-memos to each other. Talking is more fun.
We will create an open and inspiring work place with no walls or partitions. There will be plants and trees on wheels, perhaps 500 or 1,000 of them, to move around when we move from one project to another. We will create the most exciting and creative work place in the country. It will be nothing like an ordinary office.
We will all need to understand not only what we do, but also how this fits into the overall picture. If everyone knows that, we will need less conventional management and control. This allows us to spend more time on tasks that benefit the customers.
To sum up: we will all do more of the things we like to do and we are good at. We will get rid of all barriers, and will work as one big team. That will make us more valuable and in turn justify a higher salary.28
Then, late in the afternoon on April 18, 1990, he convened a voluntary, unpaid meeting to discuss the note—and 143 out of the 150 employees showed up. After a brief explanation, Kolind asked for questions. A long silence ensued. Finally, one secretary stood up and suggested that they hold a vote on the transformation. Kolind, who probably held his breath at the time, would later write: “Some 80%…raised their hands. Senior management just sat there. Paralyzed.” Over beer and sandwiches, the ambience was euphoric. People wanted to make the change happen. It wasn’t easy.
Many in senior management were not happy. As Kolind later explained, “The only reply I could give was to invite those that were against the project to work full-time on running the existing business…and to leave the change project to the rest of us.”29 Former middle managers weren’t happy, either: “They continued to manage, plan, control, and direct their former employees; but the employees did what they wanted to.”30 Faced with all this resistance, Kolind decided to spend some time establishing a common set of company values and management norms. After several days of meetings, the senior management team agreed on eight values. By now, the first three will sound familiar to readers. They were:
Employees want to be treated as independent individuals who are willing to take responsibility;
Employees want to develop within their jobs and gain new experience within the company; exciting and challenging tasks are more important than formal status and titles; and
Employees desire as much freedom as possible, yet accept the necessity of a clear and structured framework.31
Senior managers also agreed on specific practices through which they would live by these values. Even so, many did not adhere to them, still believing that the whole thing would just blow over and Oticon would return to being a “normal” company. So Kolind summoned them to his office one at a time and issued an ultimatum: “Choose whether you want to be part of the game or quit.” Naturally, the senior managers all agreed—nominally—to play their boss’s game.
The next challenge was finding a new head office in which Kolind’s vision could be realized. His initial dream was to construct a world-class building