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“W

here should your em-

ployees be working?” It

is really surprising in

this age of highly devel-

oped communication that this ques-

tion is still being debated.

My business partner, Cali Ressler,

and I were very disappointed in

March 2013 when the US electronics

firm Best Buy replaced their Results-

Only Work Environment (ROWE)

programme, which we created, with

an “all-hands-on-deck” approach.

ROWE is a management strategy for

teleworkers that measures workers’

performance based on their results.

Best Buy’s reversalof ROWE came

one month after Marissa Mayer

pulled the plug onYahoo’s telework-

ing programme. And suddenly, we

were back in the old days of debating

whether or not employees should be

allowed to work from home. This is

an extremely short-sighted view of

where and when to get work done in

the most productive ways can be

made. And those decisions should be

made by the people doing the work

and not dictated by management.

Research shows that productivity

skyrocketswhen employees have com-

plete autonomy and accountability

over their work.

If you, or any team in your organi-

zation, find that you are having con-

versations about where work is taking

place, stop. Talk about what the work

is and the right decisions about where

it should take place will follow.

accountability Verantwortlichkeit

[E)kaUntE(bIlEti]

all hands on deck alle Mann an Deck

[O:l )hÄndz Qn (dek]

(hands Arbeitskräfte)

co-founder[)kEU (faUndE]Mitgründer(in)

environment Umfeld

[In(vaI&rEnmEnt]

fix sth. [fIks] etw. reparieren

huddle [(hVd&l] Haufen

mandatory [(mÄndEtEri] obligatorisch

on point: get everyone ~ jeden für seine Er-

[)ɑ:n (pOInt*]US ifml. gebnisse verant-

wortlich machen

pull the plug on sth. einer Sache ein

[)pUl DE (plVg Qn] ifml. Ende bereiten

reversal [ri(v§:s&l] Aufhebung

skyrocket nach oben

[(skaI)rQkIt] ifml. schnellen

suck [sVk]US ifml. Scheiße sein

turn the ship around das Steuer herum-

[)t§:n DE (SIp E)raUnd] reißen

Jody Thompsonis the co-founderof the consult-

ing firm CultureRx and co-author of the best-

selling book Why Work Sucksand How to FixIt.

Alone at home: does this work for both staff and firms?

No!

“Talk about what

the work is and

the right decisions

will follow”

Jody Thompson

how work is done in the 21st centu-

ry. The idea promoted by these two

companies is that, by gathering every-

one together for a big feel-good

huddlein the office and getting “all

hands on deck”, you will magically

turn the ship around.

I have no problem with people

working at the office. But I do have a

problem with making it mandatory

and not allowing employees to make

decisions about where and when they

get the work done. This demonstrates

an old-fashioned idea of collabora-

tion — that communication and col-

laboration can’t really be done with-

out a sit-down meeting. In fact, when

leadership calls for “all hands on

deck”, they’re really saying they don’t

know how to get everyone on point.

The question “Where should my

employees work?” must be changed

to “What is the work?” Once that has

been answered, decisions about how,

■BS

Moodboard

Listen to more views on this topic on Business Spotlight Audio

* This symbol marks standard US pronunciation.

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