Chapter 4 – Autonomy• Old fashioned ideas of management

are giving way to a newfangled emphasis on self-direction according to Pink.

• Management is shifting from walking around and watching workers to self-direction – give them a task and get out of the way.

Autonomy, cont.• ROWE – Results Only Work

Environment• Concept created by Cali Ressler and

Jody Thompson– Principle – “They just have to get the

work done.”• How they do it?• When they do it? Is up to the

individual• Where they do it?

Autonomy, cont.• Management is checking up on people• Autonomy is about “creating conditions

for people to do their best work.”• Jeff Gunther decided to implement the

ROWE concept to his own business.– At first, people came to work at the normal

time and continued business as usual, but as more people began to embrace the concept of when, where and how to complete their tasks – it caught on and was successful.

Autonomy, cont.• Results that Gunther saw in his business.– 1. Productivity Rose– 2. Stress Declined

• Gunther said that people outside of his business thought he was crazy. But he couldn’t help but see his business becoming more successful.– Why? “They were focused on the work itself

rather than on whether someone would call them a slacker for leaving at three pm to watch a daughter’s soccer game.”

Autonomy, cont.• Why was this important for Gunther? His

business designed software and he needed his designers to be creative – in other words – they were being creative and successful and not thinking about the little stuff.

• Logistics – Under the ROWE concept, certain goals had to be met. As long as the goals were set at an appropriate level and people were meeting their goals – then it works.

Autonomy, cont.• Gunther also realized that if his

employees basic needs were being met – non-monetary awards worked great (flexible hours, etc.)

• He found that people opted to stay with him because they felt that the freedom they have to do great work was more valuable than $10,000 more pay.

Autonomy, cont.• Management is past its prime. Consider

this as an example: what is in your office that was there in the 19th century?

• Is the idea of management outdated?• Do we need to move toward autonomy?• Deci and Ryan state that autonomy is a

basic human need – “acting with choice”• According to D & R, “Autonomy is

something that people seek and that improves their lives.”

Autonomy, cont.• Benefits of autonomy (Autonomous

Motivation)– Promotes greater conceptual understanding– Better grades– Enhanced persistence at school and in

sporting events– Higher productivity– Less burn out– Greater levels of psychological well being.

Autonomy, cont.• Autonomy applied to business– Businesses that offered autonomy grew

at four times the rate of the control-oriented firms and had 1/3 the turnover

• Autonomy applied to school– The Flipped Classroom?????

Autonomy

The Four Essentials

Atlassian

• Scott Farquhar and Mike Cannon-Brookes

• 2002

• FedEx Days

• Evolved from permission to be off task to requirement to be off task

Lesson Learned

• “If you don’t pay enough, you can lose people. But beyond that, money is not a motivator. What matters are these other features.”

--Mike Cannon-Brookes

• Features?

Autonomy(4)

• What people do

• When they do it

• How they do it

• Whom they do it with

• Task

• Time

• Technique

• Team

Autonomy over Task

• William McKnight and 3M– “Hire good people and leave them alone”

• Growth in this area– Hired a dream team of innovators– Pulled one of them off of what would eventually be Scotch

Tape– Encouraged “experimental doodling”– 15% time yields post-it notes

Autonomy over Task

• “Google it”– Adopted 20% time • Google News• Gmail• Orkut• Google Talk• Google Sky• Google Translate

Autonomy over Time

• Billable Hours– Examples• Lawyers• Auto Body Repair• Insurance

– Has a place with routine tasks• You should be able to assemble this many widgets in

this amount of time by following these steps• Be careful…there may be a more efficient way (we will discuss

during the section on technique)

Autonomy over Time• ROWE, ROWE, ROWE your boat

–R-Results

O-Only

–W-Work

–E-Environment

Autonomy over Time

• Examples– Best Buy Corporate• Had a reputation for grueling hours and nit-picky

bosses• Abandoned schedule and went totally ROWE(G)• Currently one of the last remaining nationwide

consumer electronics store surviving• Salaried employees get their job done…period• Hourly employees work the allotted amount of hours

but have flexibility with the when

Autonomy over Time

• Examples—continued

– Netflix vacation policy• Take off when you want as long as your work is covered

– Ahmed Ahmed

– Adam Emerson

Autonomy over Technique

• Zappo’s Customer Service

– Serve the customer– No scripts– No monitoring– No time restraints

Autonomy over Technique

• Homeshoring

– Route calls to the home– Provides freedom to be you– Makes sense economically for employer and

employee

• Wristbands

Autonomy over Team

• Most difficult of the four to influence

• When the other three are in place, it creates a great segue to this area of autonomy

Autonomy over Team

• Examples

– Whole Foods• Department hires

– W.L. Gore• Assemble your team and go with it

– Facebook• Boot camp rotation then you choose

The Art of Autonomy

• Autonomy is not the absence of accountability

• People will attach differently to each component of autonomy

• Must scaffold this concept into an organization’s life.