Impressed, I wanted to interview Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson, the creators of this approach and authors of “Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It.” I’ll be posting one part of this interview through the week, with other articles. A Results Only Work Environment is a culturally different approach to work. I want to take the space to help you understand why this is different.

Today’s subject is about what you can do to take some action for this environment at your work.

If someone reading is interested enough in ROWE to want to take some action, what should they do?

First of all, if you want to take action after reading about ROWE, we congratulate you. You’ve recognized that the foundation of work today is broken and we need to stop the band-aid fixes. There are two main things you can start doing tomorrow that will move you closer to a ROWE:

1) If you’re an individual contributor, you can start ensuring that your goals and expectations are clear. If you feel you’re doing useless activities, be vocal about that and show how the activities aren’t contributing to your outcomes. If you’re a manager, start focusing on results not time. Don’t reward your employees for “coming in early”, “staying late”, working weekends, or putting in a certain number of hours. Be very specific about the outcomes you’re rewarding them for. You’d be surprised how this change in behavior can affect team dynamics, productivity, and overall morale.

2) You can become aware of the language you’re using in the work environment. If you find yourself making comments about how other people are spending their time, that’s Sludge. Remember that in a ROWE, Sludge is not accepted because it’s not about the work. When you want to make judgments like this, stop yourself. And, if you want to go a step further, educate other people about Sludge. Now that you have a word to describe this gross, unproductive language, use it.

The Results Only Work Environment should be how work is done. Given corporations and cultures, there is much to overcome. But, I think it is the life to live as a Cubicle Warrior.

I want to thank Cali and Jody for the time and effort they put into this interview. It is much more difficult than it looks.

Cali and Jody – much success!

Scot

Related posts:

1. Why Work Sucks – The interview, part 3
2. Why Work Sucks – The interview, part 1
3. Why Work Sucks – The interview, part 2
4. Why Work Sucks – The interview, part 4
5. If management sucks, does your work still matter?

Impressed, I wanted to interview Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson, the creators of this approach and authors of “Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It.” I’ll be posting one part of this interview through the week, with other articles. A Results Only Work Environment is a culturally different approach to work. I want to take the space to help you understand why this is different.

Despite the attractiveness of doing what you need to do when you want to do it, the work for your company still needs to get done. It is still work. When time spent in the office is not the measure of success, how do we know the work is complete? I asked Cali and Jody.

In a Results Only Work Environment, the work still needs to get done. What training did you give employees on how to know their work was completed since the work didn’t necessarily happen between 8-5? Or was that between the manager and the employee?

The work does still need to get done…that is, if you still want a paycheck.  In a traditional work environment, both time and results are being measured.  People are trying to serve two masters. 

In a ROWE, there is only one master – results.  In a Results-Only Work Environment, everyone in a team, department, or organization wants to get very clear on the results that are expected of them.

Many companies have performance management tools in place.  The problem is that they may not be using them (or they may be forced to use them).  There isn’t really a need in a traditional work environment to set measurable goals and expectations.  If people are in the office for at least eight hours a day, something must be getting done, right?  It’s time to stop kidding ourselves.  A warm body in a cube doesn’t mean anything.  But measurable results do.

In a ROWE, managers and employees work very closely together on setting clear goals.  Employees start asking exactly how their performance will be evaluated.  They don’t settle for fluffy responses. 

On the management side of things, a flip must be made from monitoring the hallways to monitoring outcomes.  A secondary piece of this for managers is rewarding outcomes instead of activities.  Managers are used to rewarding people for the amount of time spent on tasks; in a ROWE, the amount of time doesn’t matter…the only thing that matters is that it gets done on time and that it meets or exceeds expectations. 

Managers at Best Buy had to really think about what they were asking people to do, and how they were going to know that the outcome was achieved. It’s easy to figure out if you’re working on a project with a clearly defined deliverable; it’s another thing if you’re a knowledge worker that performs more conceptual work. The trick is figuring out how to turn EVERYTHING into a performance metric.

One employee sat down with her manager and her goal for the year was to “crack the nut” on a particular issue. The employee said “what would it look like if I cracked the nut?”, “What does ‘meets expectations’ look like if I crack the nut?”, “How will we measure if I’ve exceeded ‘cracking the nut’?” “Cracking the nut” is not a performance measure, and certainly not a clearly defined outcome – it’s ambiguous. Defining “cracking the nut” is anybody’s guess. And, at the end of the year, it’s subjective as to whether or not the nut was cracked to the satisfaction of the manager or company.

Luckily, in this instance, the team was ROWE. So “crack the nut” became measurable by using customer satisfaction and employee feedback metrics. “Crack the nut” linked to broader initiatives that were measurable and directly related to the bottom line. The employee became crystal clear on who they were serving, and how there service would be evaluated. Makes it much easier to choose the right activities to focus on.

If an outcome or goal cannot be measured – in other words, the manager and employee cannot come to an agreement about how the goal or outcome can be measured based on bottom line business metrics, customer satisfaction or SOMETHING – then why would the company be spending money on the effort?

We’re not saying it’s easy – in fact, it’s difficult for managers to clearly define measurable goals. Using SMART is a great foundation for setting measurable goals. But, if a manager is monitoring the hallways AND using SMART, human nature has a way of taking over. Much easier to make sure people are in their cubes from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. than to toil over the SMART chart.

This critical clarity around expectations and results needs resolution. The results orientation allows you to push back against unnecessary meetings, knowing when you can do the work and the freedom from a schedule. I would point you back to my series on SMART goals for the Cubicle Warrior as a great starting point to get clear about your results. It’s important because in a Results Oriented Work Environment, being able to agree, measure, and understand the work needed to make a goal is paramount.

In addition, this measurable environment is foreign to departments. Sure, at a division or company level, goals are clear – reduce expenses by 5% by August 1^st – but getting goals to an individual to work and be responsible for is difficult. Especially at first. It does get easier as it goes along, but let’s not kid ourselves: getting clear on results is hard work.

What’s the clearest, measurable goal you have right now for work? The most muddy?

Scot

Related posts:

1. Why Work Sucks – The interview, part 5
2. Why Work Sucks – The interview, part 3
3. Why Work Sucks – The interview, part 1
4. Why Work Sucks – The interview, part 2
5. If management sucks, does your work still matter?

Impressed, I wanted to interview Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson, the creators of this approach and authors of “Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It.” I’ll be posting one part of this interview through the week, with other articles. A Results Only Work Environment is a culturally different approach to work. I want to take the space to help you understand why this is different.

A Results Only Work Environment itself needs to deliver results to both the company and the employee. No good plan lasts past the first implementation. Then changes reveal from the results – continuous improvement. So I wanted to find out from Cali and Jody the surprise results from the project.

You put work into moving the Best Buy teams into a ROWE. What was the most unexpected outcome?

There were many unexpected outcomes.  In terms of business results, productivity on ROWE teams is up an average of 41%.  We expected productivity to rise a little, but never saw this coming.  We also expected retention to improve, but not at the rates we’re seeing at Best Buy.   ROWE has created productive turnover.  ROWE is a talent magnet – good talent sticks, and people that are just taking up space are performance managed out.  Voluntary turnover rates are down as much as 90% on some teams.  Involuntary turnover rates are up as much as 100% on some teams. 

In terms of people’s lives, we always knew ROWE would have a profound effect, but didn’t quite know how far that effect would spread.  ROWE began in a company, but the people in a company have such a wide reach.  ROWE has paved the way for employees to be better parents, better spouses/partners, more active members in their communities, schools, churches, sports leagues, etc.  ROWE is giving people opportunities they never thought they’d have – or at least that they thought they’d have to wait until retirement for.  And once you’re ROWE, you never go back to the old way – you’ve found the life you want (or you’ve regained the life you’ve lost) and you’ll never let it go.  

These types of results are important to know before starting a Results Only Work Environment and are good selling points to your management team.

I want to focus on the employee turnover: voluntary turnover is down by as much as 90% and involuntary turnover is up as much as 100% on teams. The premise of a ROWE is that today managers evaluate their employees on time and presence in the office. If time and presence equals results, you can expect that people looking busy will do well and Cubicle Warriors won’t.

A ROWE places results front and center to your evaluation, not time spent in the office. People who do not produce results (and you know who they are on your team) will not do well in this new environment. Why? Because their manager performs on results as well. If you were a manager, would you want to carry someone working long hours in the office but not producing results? I think not.

The upside of results is what should persuade management that this is an experiment worth doing. Cubicle Warriors should embrace it.

What percentage of the people in your department produces the results for your department?

Scot

Related posts:

1. Why Work Sucks – The interview, part 2
2. Why Work Sucks – The interview, part 5
3. Why Work Sucks – The interview, part 1
4. Why Work Sucks – The interview, part 4
5. If management sucks, does your work still matter?

I was impressed and wanted to interview Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson, the creators of this approach and authors of “Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It.” I’ll be posting one part of this interview through the week, with other articles. A Results Only Work Environment is a culturally different approach to work. I want to take the space to help my readers understand why this is different.

Cultural change requires that we change our language, in this case about work. You will recall from The Case for a Results Only Work Environment that companies evaluate people based on their time and physical presence in the office. When you change to a Results Only Work Environment, neither the schedule nor physical presence that you work matter. However, to destroy the language of time and presence in the office is no easy task. Cali and Jody call this “getting rid of Sludge.”

Cube Rules: In a Results Only Work Environment, there is “getting rid of Sludge,” the conscious and unconscious harping by employees and managers that time, not results, is what matters. Getting rid of Sludge, I think, is necessary to have the culture shift to results. After you trained managers and employees about Sludge, what other actions did you and the teams do to remove sludge? How long did it take?

Getting rid of Sludge is THE thing that sets the shift to ROWE in motion. Sludge is the toxic language in the workplace that makes judgments about how other people are spending their time. “10:00 and you’re just getting in? Wish I had YOUR job!” “Did you see Nancy leaving again at 3:00 to pick up her kid? Wish I had a kid!” “Why can’t Julie’s husband stay home when they kids are sick?” “How did Eric get that promotion? He’s never even here!” None of this language has anything to do with the work that’s getting done – and it’s not accepted in a ROWE.

There is an Environmental Sludge Eradication Strategy that teams learn about when they migrate to a ROWE. They learn what Sludge is, how to identify different kinds, and how to eradicate them. Once they are Sludge Eradicators, their mission is to remove Sludge from their work environment completely. This is a difficult thing to do because this language has been part of the American work culture for so long, but teams work together to make it happen. They are committed to focusing on results and they are sick of this language that makes people feel guilty, frustrated, angry, and disrespected.

Removing Sludge opens the door for people to get their lives back. No more feeling guilty about leaving at 3:00 to coach your child’s t-ball game. No more slinking in at 8:40 a.m. because you’re scared you’ll get “the look” from your boss. No more getting indigestion because you crammed your lunch down your throat so you didn’t take more than 30 minutes. No more starving yourself because dedicated people don’t eat lunch. No more putting off all your errands for the weekend because you can’t take care of anything during the week. Sound nice? Sludge Eradication is the key.

It can take between 12 to 18 months for people to say they feel completely ROWE, or completely in control of how they spend their time. That’s how long it takes to undo all of the beliefs we have about the way work needs to happen – to rewire our brains to focus solely on results.

Moving to this environment requires adaptive change – one where embedded in the culture is a new way of thinking. Yet, most change in corporations, according to Cali and Jody, practice technical change. If you were carrying out a technical change Results Only Work Environment, you’d announce the initiative, remove schedules, say that results only count and then move on to the next item on your list.

This will fail. Technical changes almost always do because technical changes don’t address the culture of the organization.

Erasing Sludge is an adaptive change, one in which the culture needs to adapt to a new way of thinking. Without this adaptive approach and constant focus on the end goal, culture change won’t happen.

Listen to your workplace. Hear how much Sludge is out equating time and presence to results. Share the ones you are hearing in your workplace in the comments.

Scot

Related posts:

1. Why Work Sucks – The interview, part 5
2. Why Work Sucks – The interview, part 2
3. Why Work Sucks – The interview, part 3
4. Why Work Sucks – The interview, part 4
5. If management sucks, does your work still matter?

So says Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson in their new book “Why Work Sucks and how to fix it.” Evaluating work performance based on time spent in the office is rampant – and wrong. Instead, companies should adapt a “Results Only Work Environment” or ROWE. In this environment, only your results count, not the time spent in your office.

The workplace

They suggest that corporations currently evaluate people on this simple formula:

Time + Physical Presence = Results

If you ran your own business, you know that just sitting there for 8-10 hours a day straight being present will not produce results. Yet, that formula drives decision-making about performance in many companies. Need some proof?

Eve Tahmincioglu’s story of “How to make your job layoff-resistant” quotes these tips on how to keep your gig from Stephen Viscusi, author of the forthcoming book, “Bulletproof Your Job: How to Ride Out the Rough Times and Come Out on Top at Work:”

• Perfect the art of looking busy — being active makes a great impression.
• Come in early, stay late. (Even when there is nothing to do.) This aggressive stance as a hard-working employee is always remembered when it comes time to decide who will be on the chopping block.
• Look good — dress for success. Look the part — neat hair, clothes, and invest in whitening strips for your teeth. (Yes, whitening strips.) Be sure to dress appropriately for your work environment. Be sure to look professional and not stick out. Stay away from exaggerated colors and styles.

Makes you want to throw up, doesn’t it? You would have to think your manager was an idiot to not see through that, yet this is advice for making your job layoff-resistant. I wouldn’t recommend the approach.

A Better Solution: Results Only Work Environment

In a Results Only Work Environment, you and your manager decide the results to carry out. Since it is only the results that count, it means your time is now precious.

Go to a meeting that doesn’t help you meet your goals? Not going to happen. Taking on extra work that impacts your results? Needs negotiation. Need to attend your daughter’s practice session at school at 2 PM on a Monday? Not a problem. Want to stay with friends in another state for two weeks? That will be fine.

How you spend your time and where the work gets done is all about work results, not a schedule for you to be in the office.

Time + Physical Presence = Results is pervasive

Cali and Jody spend time in this book going through the culture of time corporations have built – and turn them on their head. They started at Best Buy, where I first read of their results in December, 2006, in an article called “Smashing the Clock.” Now there is the book.

I asked to interview Cali and Jody about this revolutionary approach to work and they graciously accepted. This week, we’ll take a look at the Results Only Work Environment.

For Cubicle Warriors, it’s a great way to get engagement back into your work. After all, work shouldn’t be a place you go to, it should be something you do.

Scot

Related posts:

1. Why SMART Goals are needed in a flexible work environment
2. 3 Ways to Create Accountability in a Flexible Work Environment