"ROWE (results only work environment) is a fantastic framework that needs to be adopted in places employing knowledge workers. You should be measuring the output of your workers, not the amount of time you can see them sitting in your office. [...] If you really think your employees will not be working if you cannot look over their shoulder to check, you have the wrong way of looking at the relationship with your employees... You should be hiring people who are engaged by their work and believe in the company’s mission. If people slack off when you aren’t watching them, your company has a disease, and you have discovered a symptom. You cannot treat this symptom and expect the disease to be cured."
"In the case of working from home/remote work, some employees do not do their best work from home, or simply don’t like it. That is fine—but you should trust your employees and treat them like adults. Let them make the call for themselves. Remove the training wheels and let them fail. If they cannot succeed in a hands off environment, do you really think babysitting them is going to work?"
"In 'Introduce Process Only As A Last Resort,' we look at how process often times helps the bad and hurts the good. Bad actors in an organization will figure out what the rules and the process are and follow them to a letter. Then they’ll find a way to slack off within these boundaries."
"Before introducing new process, ask yourself and those in your organization, what is the problem we’re trying to solve? Is there any way we can solve this problem without creating a new system? Even something as simple as a basic rule can subvert a team member’s intrinsic motivation. Think of it this way: if you hand fed someone everyday of their life, this individual would be reliant on you feeding them to survive. They would not have discovered that they need to find a food source 3+ times a day in order to survive. They might eventually figure it out, but it would be a challenging transition. It would require a much more conscious effort to stay satiated and able to focus on other goals."
"Without process everywhere, it makes the lives of management harder. This is one of the reasons middle managers love process. However, the goal of an organization should not to be to provide cushy jobs for middle managers. This job should be hard, and it is not for everyone. It requires people skills, leadership, and an almost super human ability to stay in tune with a team. It is very hard to find good leaders who can do this job well. [...] Bad middle managers can utilize the burdensome process to their advantage just as easily as bad actors on the front lines. Great leaders do not need rules or process. Those who follow them do so willingly, and do amazing things with their autonomy. They relay the right information back from the front lines, good or bad, and make key suggestions which often make or break the outcome of battles."
"Fight the introduction of process at all costs. Empower your employees and your fellow team members by avoiding it. Believe in the people around you, and if they fail, keep the safety net just harsh enough that a lesson will be learned. Counter intuitively, less process will help your organization run smoother, and ensure it is filled with the right kind of people."
"In the case of working from home/remote work, some employees do not do their best work from home, or simply don’t like it. That is fine—but you should trust your employees and treat them like adults. Let them make the call for themselves. Remove the training wheels and let them fail. If they cannot succeed in a hands off environment, do you really think babysitting them is going to work?"
"In 'Introduce Process Only As A Last Resort,' we look at how process often times helps the bad and hurts the good. Bad actors in an organization will figure out what the rules and the process are and follow them to a letter. Then they’ll find a way to slack off within these boundaries."
"Before introducing new process, ask yourself and those in your organization, what is the problem we’re trying to solve? Is there any way we can solve this problem without creating a new system? Even something as simple as a basic rule can subvert a team member’s intrinsic motivation. Think of it this way: if you hand fed someone everyday of their life, this individual would be reliant on you feeding them to survive. They would not have discovered that they need to find a food source 3+ times a day in order to survive. They might eventually figure it out, but it would be a challenging transition. It would require a much more conscious effort to stay satiated and able to focus on other goals."
"Without process everywhere, it makes the lives of management harder. This is one of the reasons middle managers love process. However, the goal of an organization should not to be to provide cushy jobs for middle managers. This job should be hard, and it is not for everyone. It requires people skills, leadership, and an almost super human ability to stay in tune with a team. It is very hard to find good leaders who can do this job well. [...] Bad middle managers can utilize the burdensome process to their advantage just as easily as bad actors on the front lines. Great leaders do not need rules or process. Those who follow them do so willingly, and do amazing things with their autonomy. They relay the right information back from the front lines, good or bad, and make key suggestions which often make or break the outcome of battles."
"Fight the introduction of process at all costs. Empower your employees and your fellow team members by avoiding it. Believe in the people around you, and if they fail, keep the safety net just harsh enough that a lesson will be learned. Counter intuitively, less process will help your organization run smoother, and ensure it is filled with the right kind of people."
Lhert, Yan. (2017). If you don’t trust your employees to work remotely, you shouldn’t have hired them in the first place. Quartz. Retrieved on March 17, 2016 from https://qz.com/891537/if-you-dont-trust-your-employees-to-work-remotely-you-shouldnt-have-hired-them-in-the-first-place/
Lhert, Yan. (2016). Introduce Process Only As A Last Resort. Medium. Retrieved on March 17, 2017 from https://medium.com/@yanismydj/introduce-process-only-as-a-last-resort-21bd25e53eb#.s9ze5kgv6
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