{"id":6978,"date":"2015-05-20T23:08:00","date_gmt":"2015-05-20T23:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arliemediadesign.com\/?p=6978"},"modified":"2025-03-18T19:47:26","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T19:47:26","slug":"could-work-become-a-freedom-centred-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.happy.co.uk\/blogs\/could-work-become-a-freedom-centred-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Could Work Become a Freedom-Centred World?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Freedom and democracy aren\u2019t always linked with the way organisations run, but that was the topic of the Freedom At Work summit<\/a>, organised by Worldblu<\/a> this week in Miami. That was question was not asked by some California startup but by David Marquet, describing his time as Captain of a nuclear submarine in the US Navy. More on him shortly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research<\/a> by Worldblu found that freedom-centred companies grew their revenue, over a three-year period, by more than six times as much as the standard stock market. Between 2010 and 2013 they grew their revenues by an average of 103% compared to just 15.4% for the S&P 500. That is quite a claim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Choose your manager? Or have no managers!<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I was at the summit to argue that you should let people choose their managers. You can\u00a0read my speech here<\/a>. Normally that’s a pretty radical idea but at the summit I met companies who had gone further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zappos, the $2 billion online shoe retailer dedicated to Delivering Happiness (now owned by Amazon), abolished managers this month and have adopted \u201cholocracy<\/a>\u201d. Everybody who was a manager, simply no longer is. If I\u2019ve understood it right, the company now runs on circles of responsibility based around specific topics. These are based not on hierarchy but on simply who makes sense to be involved. It seems to be an approach that leads to both more freedom and more accountability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Nearsoft, a Mexican outsourcing company, they have never had managers. \u201cWe don\u2019t have bosses but we do have leaders\u201d, explained Anabal Montiel, \u201cThey emerge organically and last as long as needed. People do take ownership of certain processes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So who holds people to account? \u201cThe team. If somebody isn\u2019t performing, the team intervenes. There\u2019s a lot of peer pressure to do a good job. You are accountable to a lot of people. Having freedom doesn\u2019t mean you can do whatever you want. It means there is not one person following you and making sure you do what you have to do. Instead, we have an awful lot of feedback processes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was not your normal work conference. It was one where people were excited about the work they do and the companies they work for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Away with fear-based workplaces<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Rich Sheridan, CEO (or \u201cChief Storyteller\u201d) of the software company Menlo Innovations, reminded us of what work can be like out there in the more fear-based world. \u201cOne of our ex-developers, who had gone to work for another company, rang to say she wanted to come back. We said sure, start next Monday if you like. She gave in her notice. A security guard came to her desk and escorted her to the exit, like a criminal. How can companies treat people like that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Menlo has a different approach. They are fine about employees moving to other companies and welcome them back if they want to return. At Menlo all the developers work in pairs, literally sharing one computer \u2013 and changing who they work with every five days. They again don\u2019t have managers but instead the pairs themselves produce all estimates on the time it will take to complete the next software task. These are never changed by somebody more senior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Check out Rich\u2019s book \u201cJoy Inc\u201c.<\/a> It is both challenging and inspirational. This is a company seeking to create that Joy at work and that says \u201cour mission at Menlo is to end human suffering in the world as it relates to technology!\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The move away from fear-based workplaces is a common theme. Matt Perez, co-founder of Nearsoft: \u201cIf you put me in a position of fear, I\u2019m going to make my worst decisions, and I\u2019m not going to do what you want. That\u2019s why we set up Nearsoft to be freedom-based.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Trust your people<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Several people talked about how becoming a freedom-centred company had made a big difference. Garry Ridge, as CEO of WD-40, has taken it from $250 million to over \u00a31 billion in sales. He displayed the company\u2019s \u201cmaniac pledge\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Van Meter, an electrical retailer from Cedar Rapids, they have just renamed holiday time from PTO (Personal Time Off) to TOTAL (Time Off to Appreciate Life), set a minimum of two weeks and allowed people to take as much time off as they want. \u201cAs long as they are doing a great job, it’s not a matter of tracking it\u201d, explained Alicia Murphy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another concept from Van Meter is that of \u201cleaving a legacy for the future\u201d, and \u201cleave things better than you found it\u201d. This can range from filling the coffee machine if you find it empty to bringing truly great service to your customers. What is best about working there? Lorelli Christner: \u201cBeing able to be my authentic self. They allow you to be who you are and not fit into some corporate mould.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Brighton, Matthew Matheson introduced the \u201cChurch of Fail\u201d, based on the idea that \u201cwe have to break the conditioning of \u2018we can\u2019t get things wrong\u2019\u201d. In the \u201cChurch\u201d they ask 3 questions: What did you fail at? How did you cope with it? What would you do differently? And then you get applauded \u2013 and, crucially, you stay on stage to the end of the applause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Push the decision down to the person who knows<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

But surely such freedom-centred ideas couldn\u2019t work in the military? Yes, they could, according to David Marquet, who was put in charge of the Sante Fe nuclear submarine, the worst-performing submarine in the US Navy. He found that the way to improve things was to stop telling people what to do. \u201cWhen the leader says I don\u2019t know, it makes it safe for anybody to say I don\u2019t know. Bad leaders give bad orders, good leaders give good orders. Great leaders give no orders\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The key is to \u201cpush the authority for making the decision down to the person who has the information\u201d. The submarine became the best performing submarine and, of 10 officers, 10 went on to captain other ships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A key element of these companies seems to be more accountability to a team or to peers than to somebody higher up the hierarchy. Carrie Brandes, VP of people at Ubiquity (a California pensions advisory company) explained how they set bonuses. Everybody in the company is given 100 pts and can award however see fit to whoever they feel has made an impact on the business or the company. They then get a bonus based on these peer ratings. Interesting idea<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This stuff works<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I have to say, at the beginning of the conference, even with my belief in trust and autonomy, I doubted that freedom-based companies could really deliver six times the revenue growth. After hearing so many stories of the effect that these ideas have, it makes absolute sense that this would be the effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simon Anderson, Co-founder of Inktank, says it was the Freedom at Work concept that enabled them to go from startup to a $175 million sale in 18 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Worldblu\u2019s vision is to have 1 billion people working in freedom. That would be pretty damn wonderful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check out the Worldblu website for details of next year\u2019s conference. And get in touch if you want to know about the UK Freedom at Work Bootcamp, which we aim to host at Happy in London in October 2015. Contact me at henry@happy.co.uk or @happyhenry for details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Power Question<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

And finally, ask yourself the Power Question:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What would you do if you were not afraid?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Think about a personal issue or one at work. What is it that is holding you back? What could you be capable of?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a world where freedom and democracy are part of work, and not just outside society, all sorts of possibilities emerge. If you are still working in a company based on fear, it could be time to move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Related blogs<\/h3>\n\n\n\n