The optimism of #Purpose & science of #design in forging #digital customer experiences! Opinions my own!

Dan Pink, in his book, Drive, popularized the ideas of autonomy, mastery and purpose. He’s had plenty of company throughout the years. I recently read Under New Management: How Leading Organizations are Upending Business as Usual, by David Burkus. I’ve also read some of the agile management books, such as Joy Inc: How We Built a Workplace People Love, by Richard Sheridan.

Agile makes the ideas of autonomy, mastery, and purpose transparent to everyone. But you don’t have to be agile to use those ideas, or even to provide a fulfilling work environment. Actually, fulfilling is synonymous with authentic these days.

That’s because people don’t work to be agile. People work for their satisfaction, and we could argue, purpose. Often, autonomy, mastery, and purpose will satisfy them. Keep people satisfied at the personal level and they will provide the results you want in their team. Sinek uses the Barry-Wehmiller example a fair bit.

You might think people work for money. Money is necessary, but hardly sufficient. We need to do good, and stay away from evil. People actually want to do good, and help each other; as witnessed in the Barry-Wehmiller furlough program that transformed a company in the red into a success!

One of the golden rules organisations must follow to successfully implement agile working is to ensure that the development is business-led, actually Purpose-led. People-centric and business leaders should collaborate to create agile working practices that address not only employee needs but those of the business and its customers.

But how do HR leaders, secure the buy-in of other business leaders? Demonstrating the positive impact that agile working can have on the bottom line is Benefits of agile working – for businesses

Benefits of being agile – adopting ways of working:

1. Cost savings

A flexible workforce means a reduction of expenses for office space and equipment. In the case of organisations that rely on remote working, this also means the choice to hire from areas where salaries are lower for equally talented candidates.

Global Workplace Analytics reports that the average business would save $11,000 per person per year if staff with remote-compatible jobs worked from home just half the time. Furthermore, a poll of 1,500 technology professionals revealed that 37% would take a pay cut of 10% if they could work from home

2. Increased ability to attract and retain high-quality talent

The demand for flexible work is on the rise. Interest in flexible working increased by more than 40% in 12 countries across the world (Australia marking the highest increase from 2013 – 2015). Many qualified potential employees are looking for flexibility – companies who don’t offer it may be missing out on great talent.

But here’s the problem with hierarchy: Problems travel up, across, and down for solutions. Rarely do the people who have the problem and the people who have potential solutions talk together. Instead, the solutions travel back up, across and down to the team with the problem.

It’s even worse if management hands down a solution, because the people doing the work understand the problems more than the managers do.

Hierarchy often creates a mess. What are your options?

One way to change things is to change how managers manage. If managers become servant leaders instead of turf owners, they can facilitate the teams’ work with no organizational reorganization.

Working in an agile way does not eliminate hierarchy. I’ve seen many organizations that want teams to commit to a quarter’s worth of work, or where the erstwhile scrum masters (really controlling project managers) tell people what to do, and when. You can call that agile, but if the team doesn’t collaborate and deliver, it’s not.