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Another OCTO + ROWE Update

Oct 22, 2010 » by Cali & Jody

The latest update from D.C. Office of the Chief Technology Officer highlights metrics in a ROWE. You know, measuring the productivity of employees based on performance as opposed to counting hours or by the temperature of one’s chair.

An excerpt:

Defining “individual deliverables,” as Bryan Sivak, Washington, D.C.’s Chief Technology Officer calls them, is a central challenge to migrating to a results-only world. “My biggest concern about all of this,” he told a group of managers last week, “is that in order for this to work, every manager in this organization needs to very specifically define the deliverables of every one of their reports. And then measure it. That’s going to be one of the hardest things to do.”

Another interesting paradigm shift being explored at OCTO is that of more leadership, less management. This aligns with ROWE’s philosophy for managers to move away from permission granting and to focus more on performance guiding.

Check out the full update here: Going ROWE: The Guinea Pigs in the Basement

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  • C. A. Hurst

    Hi Cali & Jody,

    This is yet another great blog.

    I read through “Going ROWE: The Guinea Pigs in the Basement”. What I find the most interesting about the discussion on metrics is that the process is making the entire organization really examine what needs to be done, when it must be accomplished, and how to accurately measure the outcomes as well as who will be responsible for what and when. What a great way to find out who is really producing and who isn’t.

    In reading great older management and business materials by Peter Drucker, by Tom Peters & Bob Waterman in “In Search of Excellence”, and by Jim Collins in “Good to Great” it’s obvious that in order to be effective any organization or business must clarify where they want to go. Once that is established everyone can begin to move in the same direction, with the understanding that the goals will need to be redefined along the way as well as the means of reaching those goals. A huge part of the ROWE mind-set is just this, clarifying what the objectives are. When the focus shifts from taking up space for X number of hours per day you have to decide what the “work” really is. What a concept!

    Go ROWE!

    • Cali

      Right – and it’s not until the focus really shifts that people can even start to think about what the “work” really is. When we talk with organizations about going ROWE, they often want to get very clear about goals and measures before starting the ROWE implementation process. This would seem like a logical thing to do. But there’s one big problem: The safety net is still there…everyone can still fall back on time and physical presence if they’re not exactly sure of a result or measure. It’s really best to rip away that safety net (and then burn it and bury the ashes beneath 50 feet of dirt) before trying to move toward complete goal clarity. And the cool thing is…everyone is going to be so anxious and nervous (we always say it literally looks like they’re going to vomit) that they won’t want to go another day without figuring out exactly what they’re getting paid to do and how success will be measured. The accountability spreads to everyone. Now that’s ROWE.