Too often, it seems, people have to look outside their work to achieve the things that matter to them – agency, mastery, autonomy, purpose and community.
What if the thing we call ‘work’ enabled this too?
Owners who offer this to the people who work with them, find themselves able to achieve more of these things outside the workplace.
There’s no need to balance anything. It’s all life.
When people are given responsibility for a job, and the autonomy and resources to complete it, they impart a kind of delight to the thing they create, a delight shared with anyone who uses it.
We know this, which is why we love farmer’s markets, indy coffee shops, craftspeople and artists of all kinds.
It works for intangible creations too.
At home, if I burn my hand on the handle of the grill pan on my cooker (because I’ve forgotten that when the oven is on, the grill also gets hot), I don’t have to report that to my boss, who’ll report it to her boss, along with all the other mishaps of the kitchen. I don’t have to wait for a decision from them on how best to avoid that next time.
Of course not. I’m a grown-up. I say to myself “stupid woman, of course that would be hot!”, and remind myself to use an oven-glove next time. And I do. I don’t need a notice on my grill pan handle saying “Caution – may get hot”.
If I keep burning my hands, then I need to find out why. Are my oven gloves getting lost? Am I rushing things too much? Should I buy different oven gloves that are easier to use? Should I invest in a different cooking arrangement?
Of course this is fine for me, I don’t share my kitchen with other cooks. But I think the principle is the same.
Given the responsibility and the means, the people in the kitchen are probably best placed to solve most kitchen problems.
I’ve been having a problem with “employee engagement” for a while now. It’s a similar problem to the one I have with “customer experience”.
I’ve been thinking about why this is is, and I’ve realised that its because both these phrases speak from the same perspective. They’re really about ‘me the employer’ or ‘me the seller’. Actually, they are most often used by corporates, so are often really about ‘me the shareholder’.
As a result they feel (to me at least), manipulative, even extractive. They are about what I can get from you the employee, or you the customer.
Employees don’t want to be ‘engaged’, they want the same things you do:
Agency – to make their own ‘me-shaped’ dent in the universe.
Mastery – to learn and master new skills.
Autonomy – to be free to choose how we make their dent.
Purpose – to do this for something bigger than themselves, that has meaning beyond the sale.
Community – to do all this with ‘people like us’.
And the only experience the customer wants is one that gives them at least some of the same things you want:
Agency – to make their own ‘me-shaped’ dent in the universe.
Mastery – to learn and master new skills.
Autonomy – to be free to choose how we make their dent.
Purpose – to do this for something bigger than themselves, that has meaning beyond the sale.
Community – to do all this with ‘people like us’.
Perhaps if more businesses thought from this perspective, and tried to give their employees and customers what they really want, we’d have a happier, more productive world.
When you add a manager to a business, you add overhead. So the first effect of hiring someone to replace yourself as manager or supervisor – so you can work on your business instead of in it – is to take a real hit in profitability.
What if, instead of appointing someone new to manage your people, you appointed them to manage themselves? You could use the saving in overhead to invest in them instead, building a supporting framework, coaching, mentoring, training, and of course a fair share of the rewards.
When you want to expand to serve more customers or clients, you can simply add more people.
Those who’ve taken this approach have found the return on this kind of investment to be well worth it.
According to my Chambers dictionary, this is the probable origin of the word ‘Manage’, deriving from the 16th century Italian ‘Maneggio’.
It’s a lovely word, unless perhaps you’re the horse.
The other interesting thing I learned this morning is that the space where you get a horse to walk/trot/run in circles around you is called a ‘carrousel’.
Sounds like a pretty good place to work.
Last week I attended a workshop on co-operatives. I learned two things that surprised me. The first was that being … Read More “Co-operation”
In my teens, I had a Saturday job in what was then a well-known department store. I worked behind the scenes in the kitchen, preparing cold sweets for the restaurant.
Breaks were the minimum the firm could get away with, and a bell rang for the start and the end of each break, to make sure you knew when it was time to go back to work. Lunch hour was 30 minutes.
One Christmas Eve, we cleaned the kitchen five times over, because in spite of the fact that nobody was shopping (everyone else in the High St. having gone home early), we were paid our £3.80 to work till 5:30 , so that’s what we would do – even if we had to make work up to do it.
In short, the firm did all they could to squeeze as much work out of us as possible. My co-worker, who made the sandwiches, broke down one Saturday, having been told for weeks that she wasn’t working hard enough, and was promptly replaced by two people.
The irony was, that the more they squeezed, the less energy we put in. All the initial enthusiasm and desire to please was wrung out of us within a few weeks. We worked to rule, doing as little as possible, and certainly not thinking about the customers.
In my next job in a small independent bakery and coffee shop, I learned a different way of working.
A bit of flexibility on my lunch hour was repaid with an early stop when I had a party to go to. I went the extra mile when it was needed, and it was noticed. I helped my colleagues out and they helped me.
I enjoyed that job. I’d start early because I looked forward to the day. I got on with my Saturday colleagues. I got to know customers. I was proud of my coffee shop. And I got paid more.
It doesn’t take much to create engagement – treat me like a responsible adult, and I’ll behave like one.
Orpheus is an orchestra without a conductor.
That doesn’t mean they are directionless, they have a score that tells them what to play.
That doesn’t mean they are mechanical, a core group guides the interpretation for every piece they play, and that core group changes every time.
That doesn’t mean they are homogenous, many players dip in and out, although a minimum number of experienced players ensure the Orpheus promise is kept for every performance.
Being conductorless doesn’t mean they are leaderless, it means everyone has to step up and take their turn at leading.
There’s always another way of succeeding. It just needs to be thought through.
Orpheus (the orchestra) has been doing this for more than 40 years.