The technology in your head

One of the risks of getting wrapped up in your own world is that you get  . . . well . . . wrapped up in your own world. Which is why we are grateful to Tim Walker for his post about relying on your brain instead of relying on technology.

We spend a lot of time talking about how technology frees people to work whenever they want and from anywhere. And it’s true: part of what makes a Results-Only Work Environment so successful is the widespread availability of laptops and cell phones.

But technology isn’t the whole story. In a ROWE, the point isn’t to see who can get the most done over e-mail, or who can stay out of the office the longest, or who can work from the most remote location. Technology gives people the power to live “untethered,” but if they’re not putting results first, then they’re not living up to the promise of ROWE.

A workplace that had zero technology could still be a ROWE. People could still do whatever they want, whenever they want, as long as the work got done. They could still decline meeting invitations where the desired outcome of the meeting wasn’t clear. They could still challenge their boss to give them meaningful goals, rather than thirty things that would be nice to accomplish that year. They could still serve the customer and not the clock.

We call this using the “ROWE mindset.” It’s a way of looking at work and the world and solving problems based on what needs to get done, not our assumptions about how work needs to get done. Technology just makes it all shiny and pretty.

Posted in ROWE mindset, Technology