Day 11 - July 1

The day I had been so eagerly anticipating finally arrived!  My conference call with Cali Ressler co-creator of ROWE.  At 10:30 sharp, I dialed into the number she had provided.  And I heard - voices - speaking in a language with which I was not familiar.  And I was confused.  And upset.  So I quickly shot her an email explaining I was on the call -but did not understand the language.  Then I wondered if maybe, just maybe, I had fat-fingered the entry code to the call and hung up and tried again.  YAY!!!  There was Cali - waiting for me!  Sorry to arrive late Cali.  I told her the story and she laughed and assured me she would speak English.  WHEW!!!  I was nervous, but her voice was calming and I was drinking up every word she said - feverishly taking notes because I knew I would be so excited that I would forget it all!  5 pages of notes, to be exact! 

My notes read:

ROWE is NOT a remote only work environment.  IF the OUTCOME requires use of certain equipment which is located at the office - people WILL come into the office - willingly - because that's the only means by which they can get to the desired outcome.  And since performance is measured ONLY by outcome/results - it just happens - without being told to do so.  This makes sense to me.  And answered my question about how a call center would work under a ROWE.  Obviously technology could foster a virtual workplace for a call center, but if we don't have it and the phones only ring at the office and don't have the necessary features to facilitate remote work - then people will still come to the office.  Got it.  Also made a note that this virtual PBX we're looking into is definitely the route we want to go so that this whole, "someone HAS to be here at ALL times to answer the phone" thing can be removed - which would work well for helping people not feel so "owned" by the company.

She then shared with me the fact that a ROWE is currently being implemented in a Nursing Home.  WHOA!!!!  A nursing home - being run in a "work whenever you want, from wherever you want" environment???  Their goal/desired outcome is:  Resident Health & Happiness - 'DELIGHT OUR CUSTOMER' and because they all love what they do, but hated how they had to approach it - they're reaching their desired outcome!  I mean seriously people - this could be life or death if employees didn't show up to work - and there are no schedules - no shifts - talk about risky.  But it's WORKING. 

We talked about how to measure performance and how to determine what the goals would be.  Turns out - I can't do this ahead of time and on my own.  This has to be a collaborative effort between management and employees - this evidently is a big part of the shift to ROWE - setting the goals is the responsibility for EVERYONE to figure out.  Good to know - I won't waste any more of my time racking my brain on this one.  But I will continue to jot down my ideas as they come to me so that WHEN we get to this point (oh - and we WILL get there) I have my ideas handy. 

I asked her about how to determine staffing needs - how do I know if we are under or over staffed?  She indicated that currently employees are only producing about 50% of their actual potential.  WHAT?  But she's likely accurate as I've read this at least a hundred times in the last two week from a multitude of sources.  Pathetic.  She went on to tell me that under ROWE, the productivity goes up 20% - 40% within 4 months after implementation.  It doesn't make sense, because at their 50% productivity, they were complaining about being over-worked - and now they're able to produce more and are actually ASKING FOR MORE TO DO.  She then went on to explain that on an ongoing basis, during the ongoing performance conversations and dialogues I would be having with them, I would just "know" when we were not properly staffed.  Interesting.  Right now, I ask that my staff log their time on every project, every task, every thing they do - so I can use those metrics to determine staffing needs.  And likely, right now I'm also making them feel more "owned".  EGADS.

I explained to her my "lamp lighter exercise" I have my staff going through right now.  She advised me that it is very natural for people to start thinking about the tasks they do and how those activities might not be driving the outcome.  Which I think is what I'm ultimately after with the lamp lighter exercise.  Getting rid of shit tasks that people are doing that add NO value to the outcome.  She suggested I take them to an even higher level - by asking them what is the RESULT of the outcome?  - this reminded me a little of "Hundred Percenters" - in that a HARD goal should serve something bigger than ourselves.  I like how I'm hearing this from at least two sources now. 

I brought up the fact that we do track time for billing, accounting, and certain contract deliverable purposes and asked if perhaps this wasn't a contradiction to the ROWE.  She suggested that we take out the "total"  - and just have people insert the minimum amount of information - so they were accounting for chunks of time - but not against something by which they could be measured.  I liked this - but explained to her that we sell things in chunks of time.  Customer buys 30 hours of training.  So we must track our time to ensure we deliver.  She's so freakin' brilliant - she asked if there was a way to package the training differently.  Into different kinds of chunks other than time.  WELL YEAH!!  DUH!  God I'm dense sometimes.  We used to sell it chunks of days.  But then everyone defined the number of hours in a day differently.  So we sold it in chunks of hours.  But when she asked me that it was like, "DOH!  We deliver in chunks of MODULES  - so why not just sell MODULES in chunks - that way if it only takes a customer 1/2 the amount of time to get through the module - we're not continuing to try to deliver the remaining chunk of time."  She's a genius - this Cali - genius!!!

I had concerns about the call center - and I know I already mentioned that and the technology and all that  - and she explained that a natural shift in autonomy will occur - the outcome is customer satisfaction and if everyone understands and works toward that and the supervisor steps out of the way and asks people to figure out how to achive that outcome - it will happen.  I do that a little already - in terms of lunches.  Phones need to be covered.  I'm not going to set lunch schedules.  They're all adults, they know how to communicate - figure it out - and they DO!!  So evidently if they can figure it out between the hours of 11 and 2 - they can figure it out between the hours of 7a and 6p.  Huh.  I never thought about giving them THAT much trust.  But why?  I can only trust them for 3 hours.  But not for 10 hours?  Based on?  What?  Nothing.  I have nothing to say for myself in regard to this.

We then talked a bit about the boss and how he thinks and acts and how I could maybe subtly bring him along.  She asked me what keeps him up at night.  Sales.  And who manages sales?  Him.  And how do they work?  In a ROWE - conceptually.  They have specific metrics by which they are measured ( in theory) and they work when they want, from where they want and we don't track their time.  And are they meeting their goals?  No.  Well that Cali - she figured that one out - he's been conditioned to believe that if he can't see people - they won't meet their goals - because that's what he's getting from his sales people.  AH!  That's so logical - and solves one mystery!  She went on to explain that the PERFORMANCE needs to be addressed - NOT the fact that we can't see them and somehow my colleague and I will need to get the boss to understand that. 

She went on to explain that it is VERY common for CEO's to act this way - because he is autonomous for the most part - so he doesn't feel the negative impact of being judged on time.  Dang she's smart.  She said that it is really up to me and my colleague to guide him to discovery that he is ALREADY operating this way and wouldn't he LOVE IT if EVERYONE felt the way he does and operates the way he does.  The feeling of being "owned" drains people and doesn't allow them to perform at their highest possible level. 

She said people feel entitled to their jobs - they put in their time - they deserve to keep their job.  But in a ROWE - it's about achieving results - so it really drives the entrepreurial spirit.

She said a lot more - I likely said even more than I'm willing to admit - because I do not know when to shut my mouth.  But I was so jazzed that I couldn't help myself.  She was amazing and dynamic and I was all gung ho!  She is going to send me a detail of how a ROWE implementation looks so we can understand it and maybe even move a few things in that direction.  She told me I could email her any time I wanted.  She'll likely be sorry she said that!  I wanted to tell her I loved her - but it seems premature.  Maybe later on I will, though.

I was SO ecstatic over the whole sell training in chunks of deliverables and NOT time, that I immediately emailed my staff and suggested the idea and solicited their feedback.  Crazy- they were ON BOARD - it made sense to them.  This is almost frightening - I mean is this ROWE stuff that simple?  Seriously?  Is this entire concept of OUTCOME vs TIME elementary?  I cannot wait to infuse more of this into our department!!!  It makes me giddy to see how easy this part is - no resistance - and they don't even know WHY I'm making these suggestions - but they act...... relieved.  Lighter.  More pleasant.  Approachable.  My GOD - were we really owning them that badly that just taking one finger off of them has relieved them this much?  It's like Christmas - I've delivered one gift and it was amazing to watch them open it - I cannot wait to have them unwrap their others!!!