The Recurring Question

We were talking with a friend the other day and he wanted to know how the book tour was going. You know, personally. We said that we are energized by the response, and excited that people seem to be engaging with the book, even if they have questions about the contents.

Then he wanted to know what was frustrating about talking about the book. He wanted to know what was the question or concern that we found the most bothersome to answer. In other words, what cheesed us off.

First, nothing really cheeses us off. When we read a blog post comment that calls ROWE a “pipe dream” or us “hippies”, it doesn’t bother us. We’ve heard it all before. And when we hear these comments, we don’t hear the dismissive tone or the casual insult. We hear the sound of someone’s beliefs about work. Beliefs like:

Some people just need supervision

If you give people control over their schedules, they will take advantage

The best collaborations happen face-to-face

And so forth. If these statements were facts (if they had been generated in some kind of Swiss workplace-optimization lab), then we’d worry. But these statements are not facts. They are beliefs that most of us share, but that doesn’t make them true.

However, we do get frustrated when people say things like, “A Results-Only Work Environment sounds great. But it would never work with my job, because you couldn’t measure the results. I do [insert job here] and how do you measure results for that?”

Ironically, this is also the sound of someone’s beliefs about work, although it’s more subtle and much harder for us to answer. The reason why it’s hard for us to answer is that we don’t understand the ins and outs of every job on Earth. We have no idea how to measure results for your job, because we’re not inside your business, tracking its performance goals, jockeying for position with your competitors and trying to survive in your category or field.

But you are inside your business, aren’t you? And your coworkers are. And your boss and upper management and your leaders are. Collectively, you all know what’s important because you’re in the thick of it. If you banded together and had daily, probing questions about what you were trying to accomplish, then you’d know what kind of results your particular job (and every job in the organization) needed to drive.

So the question isn’t, How do you set goals and measure outcomes for [insert job here]? The better question is, Why doesn’t our entire organization have a culture that only cares about results? Why is my boss as concerned about my getting to work on time as she is about whether or not I actually do my job? Why do we have quarterly performance reviews when performance questions come up all the time? Why is 360-degree feedback this huge, elaborate ritual that freaks people out instead of being a natural part of our daily routine?

The answer to those questions is culture. The reason why people can’t even imagine setting goals and measuring results for their job is because the traditional culture of work doesn’t put a premium on results. The traditional culture of work puts a premium on a mixture of results, keeping up appearances and obedience. (Which is fine if you go for that kind of thing.) By putting results first, a ROWE changes everybody’s mindset about work. And when you are only judged on results, the entire organization shifts its focus. You figure out how to set goals and measure results because, quite frankly, it’s all you’ve got.