The New Way of Organizing (Part 5)

This blog is part of a series that started here and discusses the organizational model that belongs to the New Way of Working (NWoW). In a previous blog on ROWE (Result Only Work Environment), I stated that ROWE is a great concept, but it is not enough. First ROWE only addresses the organization dimension of the four dimensional work environment. Second even within the organization dimension it is pretty 'stand alone'. I believe ROWE needs to be embedded in an organizational structure and culture that supports the New Way of Working to be more effective. The picture below tells partly what I mean.

Having a 'result agreements' working environment only and only with individuals leads to the left half of the picture. People run after their own results and there is no guarantee that these result agreements are coordinated or that people even support each other in getting the results. Their is no clear direction and no synergy.

However when the result agreements are part of a bigger structure they can become more effective and more coordinated. The right half of the picture tells you what I mean. Let me elaborate on it just a little. Creating that structure requires a four step process.

First the organization needs a clear and crisp vision and ambition that is known and shared by the people that are part of the organization. It should not be a 'fluffy' PR-statement or a 10 page document, but something that is both authentic and able to energize people.

Second from this shared vision and ambition one deducts result areas that support the vision and ambition. All result areas together should be able to do the 'job': realize the vision and ambition of the organization. Transforming these result areas into operational and SMART result agreements requires a next level of deduction and refinement. Then we need to assign the result agreements to units, teams within units and individual within teams. Turned around each individual should have some individual result agreements, some at the level of his team and some on the level of his business unit. This makes sure that he needs to cooperate with colleagues in order to make his results. Also it should be explicit in his result agreement that when the individual makes his results he is not just doing a great job, but he is also contributing to the overall vision and ambition of the organization. This can create 'connection' between people of different units within the same organization that do completely different kinds of work like 'Sales' and 'Administration'. They still connect because everyone knows: we are all contributing to the same overall goal and each one is contributing his part.

Third, result agreements should not only tell the workers what they need to accomplish but also how they should go about. That means two things. First what processes and procedures are available in order to make the results (the structure) and second what kind of behavior is and is not acceptable in making the results (the culture). This is how part is where we need to exercise caution, because we can give too much structure and behavioral guidance but also too little. The idea is that we create a work environment where people are stretched but also empowered to get the things done.

Fourth and finally we need to embed this ambition-driven organization structure into a Management and HR system & process. Both systems/processes are aimed to support the workers in staying their course, getting the right facilities to do what needs to be done, to make sure that they are well rewarded for their accomplishments and to have the ability to grow.

So ROWE is great, but it needs more substance and more structure to get the maximum value from it.