The autonomy challenge
I was part of a conversation about autonomy last week that got my wires sparking.
There's no doubt that, during lockdown, we've all found ourselves with various levels of new found, sometimes forced autonomy. That might be over our time, over the set up of our workspaces, over how some decisions are made, over what time Friday drinks starts! Now I'm hearing people start to challenge how we keep this up.
To be honest, I'm a bit skeptical (feel free to poke holes in this - please!). While we're experiencing a time of change, for the most part the people who run our organisations, make decisions, and create the environment for autonomy (or not) have not changed. And while we might love the idea of a bit more freedom once those kids are back at school and we can work from home, there's still some significant mindset shifting to take place in organisations. On one hand, I hear many leaders say this is a great opportunity to springboard to more modern ways of working; on the other, some say they can't wait to get back into the office; that yes - we've managed to get by but it's been stilted and painful, and - really - this proves that you need presence to have full productivity.
Sheesh, that's all a bit dark! So what do we do about it then? Well, I reckon it's time to get to work on clarifying what we've gained with this new level of autonomy. Instinctively, we know autonomy has a positive impact on engagement. Having the freedom to explore one's interests, passions, ideas and big questions leads to better creativity, more expansive thinking and deeper exploration. Engagement increases and your people get a greater sense of fulfillment as they spend time working on what matters.
Results from Josh Bersin of organisations surveyed during the Covid-19 pandemic make this more than instinctive - the forced experiment we are in has rammed home the impact of people having autonomy about their work. We have a compelling case for bringing what has worked well during lockdown into our standard ways of working.
That can be a big challenge for a leader. Does this mean it's just a free-for-all now? That my people do whatever they want and while I spend my time trying to put an octopus in a string bag?
Well, no. The list on the right contrasts autonomy against control. In an environment of autonomy, you still create clarity of mission, challenge to go further, and accountability for results.
And, of course, there are norms and expectations we all sign up to when we choose to work in a team or organisation; outcomes that we have to achieve to take a business towards its bigger goals. But within those, there's always room for developing autonomy. In Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Dan Pink describes the 4 T's of autonomy:
Task: I can make choices about what I work on
Time: I can make choices about my work schedule
Technique: I can make choices about how I achieve an outcome or result
Team: I can make choices about who I work with
As you reflect on how your people have worked during lockdown, you'll be able to find elements of the 4 T's. With the sun starting to rise on office-based working again, some questions you might ask yourself and the people you lead are:
What have you felt a positive sense of autonomy over during lockdown?
How has that impacted on the engagement of the team?
How has that impacted on the work the team has done?
What lessons are we learning from this?
What do we want to apply and try out as we move back to the office?