Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It_ The Results-Only Revolution - Cali Ressler [44]
I think what the skeptics realize is that they’re not losing as much control as they thought. Everything boils down to results and so managers have some control over what the results are going to be. But the employees don’t need to be controlled as much as they used to. I am much more motivated now because I have more balance. I can say no to things that don’t add value, but I can also layer on things that I’m passionate about. I can do a deeper analysis of our competition. I can do offers that are more beneficial to our group.
So the trust goes up because you see the results. If this just made people happier, if this were a perk or something that just made life better, then maybe you could argue with it. But this does make your life better and it also gets results. How can you argue with that?
CHAPTER FIVE
How Work Gets Done in a ROWE
As we said in the beginning, when we introduce the idea of a ROWE to people they fall into two camps. Some people can not only immediately see how this new way of working would be beneficial to all, but they can also see that a ROWE is relentlessly pragmatic. They understand that given enough trust and support and direction most employees will rise to the occasion and get their work done in a timely and responsible way.
Then there are those who envision the end of the world.
For the doomsayers, more employee freedom means less accomplishment. They can’t imagine anything getting done. In their minds, even if work sucks, they think that at least the status quo affords some measure of stability and control. Without that control a business descends into anarchy.
By 2006 at Best Buy corporate headquarters, there were more people working in a ROWE than in a traditional work environment. At this point even if you weren’t in a ROWE you knew someone who was, and most likely worked on a day-to-day basis with a team or department that had made the transition. And yet when we would do a ROWE migration session, there were still people who resisted. Even if they saw coworkers having personal and business success with ROWE, even if they agreed that the way we work now was less than ideal, there was always at least one person in the room who said it was a nice idea for someone else, but for their group or their team it would be a disaster. In their minds the work simply wouldn’t get done.
At this point we think it bears mentioning one of the surprising truths about a Results-Only Work Environment: It’s not that different.
What happens on a day-to-day basis at Best Buy now that almost the entire corporate headquarters is in a ROWE is largely the same as what happened before. People talk on the phone. People type things on their keyboards and that typing makes things happen on their computer screens. They have ideas. They meet. They collaborate. They execute strategies that help their customers, both internal and external. The day-to-day tasks at Best Buy haven’t changed. The company’s core values haven’t changed. The way work happens looks different, but people’s jobs are largely the same.
Still, a ROWE does require an adjustment in the way you approach work, and the next five of the 13 Guideposts help address what a lot of people want to know: Just how does the work get done? If people are no longer tied to the clock, if there are no core hours or paid time off, if they aren’t judging one another and themselves based on time, then what fills the void? If every meeting is optional, does that mean people never, ever meet? How do you handle emergencies? How, how, how?
Here’s how it happens:
• Work isn’t a place you go—it’s something you do.
• Employees have the freedom to work any way they want.
• Every meeting is optional.
• There aren’t any last-minute fire drills.
• People at all levels stop doing any activity that is a waste of their time, the customer’s