Do You Make Use Of Everybody?
I want to challenge you…
To stop for a day, put all your projects in a shared space, including all problems, remove your job title, leave your authority at the door, include everyone in the company, and invite everyone to work together to change things.
Every day people follow the same routine, invite the people they know and love to meetings, include certain people in email circulations and work really really hard at achieving something mediocre.
Why would you accept that? You have access to an incredible wealth of minds, be that employee’s, friends, family or followers. Why would you limit yourself, your projects and your business to the same old invited few?
Think about it. People are employed because you have a job that needs doing or you fulfill a position that needs your skill set, right? But how long does it take before that ‘spark of enthusiasm’ dulls, and that role becomes tedious, or worse that company becomes stale. Why drive your friends, employee’s and acquaintances to utter boredom?
The limits of the job description, does just that, limits people. Limiting their passions, their ideas, their enthusiasm for getting up in the morning and it limits the development of a great cultural, collaborative, participatory working environment. Meetings are closed (invite only), managers tell people ‘as much as they need to know’, people are urged to work towards a collective goal but only given a piece of the puzzle to play with. Stop doing that. It’s counter productive. Have you ever considered that environment you instill in a workforce, breeds the very culture you are desperately wanting to get away from?
The reason I think people don’t try something new, is because they are afraid that someone else’s priority won’t get done. That urgent thing which determines if Sales get made and wages get paid won’t happen. The fear is that ‘new’ equals ‘will most likely fail’. That is wrong. People love their jobs, people love their teams and projects and ‘want’ to do a great job. But they also want to contribute to the success of the company, not just their corner of the office.
Give them that chance. I challenge you. Put it all on an internal Wiki, everything. Invite everyone to contribute. But here’s the biggie. Give them the time, and remove all priorities from their workload. Clear their minds of worry for that day. Don’t just stop the day, create the space, and move the deadline. Take the pressure off and reward the people you work with and for and want to make use of. Make it happen midweek, on Friday, or whenever you like.
Don’t just encourage evolutionary working, create revolutionary rethinking.
Take that (perceived) risk and I guarantee you’ll see rewards.
Am I talking rubbish? Bring it on in the comments.
February 5th, 2010
I like this approach. In my business there’s no hierarchy. That’s somethings that meant a lot to me when I started out 3 years ago and remains just as important today. I learn so much from everyone that I work with. On occasion there’ll be something that requires just me to make a decision but most of the time I’m not frightened to ask everyone what they think/what they’d do…..all that happens is that they end up having or at least feeling like they have ownership on lots of other stuff. People need to feel valued and including them in decisions lets them know that they are important and that their opinion counts.
Also agree with the job title thing. I had ‘director’ on my card for a long time, Kirsten had ‘do’er’ Scott had ‘sales guru’ but now we’ve not got titles anymore cause we all do loads of stuff and again it means there’s less sense of hierarchy and importance.
I do think every business needs a leader though. I do think people need defined, clear goals. But people often know how to get there collectively better than just one person.
Anyway, nice thought provoking……
Rant over
February 7th, 2010
A great extension on the Free The Power chapter in Zen and the Heart of Social Media.
February 8th, 2010
Thanks for the great comment there Dobelou :)