Organizations own your results - not your time.
We all want to make choices and decisions based on our needs and wants at any given moment in our lives.
However, it’s not uncommon for working professionals to feel squeezed by rules, policies, and yes, management. Competence gives way to compliance. Personal fulfillment is seen as a luxury for later. Stress mounts. The feeling of overwhelm and overwork percolates.
What’s the response?
Professional workplaces that resemble third-grade classrooms with
- core hours
- recess areas with ping-pong tables and beanbag chairs
- and where permission is required to do anything differently.
Organizational cultures also offer “perks” such as flexibility, which often comes with strings attached. Hybrid arrangements, though options are limited. More often than not, these carrots tend to become sticks or are taken away altogether.
What happened to trust?
In the Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE), the pendulum of control shifts. You are respected as a professional adult capable of following instructions, and delivering results, but also asking for clarity and support when needed. The work is positioned as something you do, not someplace you go. Your work gets managed - not your life. No more office politics or subjective unwritten rules or judgment around how you spend your time. You are measured on what you deliver. Results. Period.
Your life is your business because you have 100% autonomy in a ROWE. This liberates you from permission-based management. No longer are you subjected to someone else’s beliefs about how you should live your life. It’s time for everyone to stop shoulding on each other!
A University of Minnesota study published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior noted employees in ROWE-certified teams reported better health behaviors such as:
- less work-family conflict
- more sleep (almost an extra hour each night)
- more exercise
- improved mental well-being
- reduced stress
- greater feelings of being in control of one’s life
- better overall health
- improved energy
Clarity, objectivity, and consistency drive performance management in a ROWE.
What Does Your Work Culture Say About Your Company?
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It’s not just about more freedom to live your life. You also are 100% accountable in a ROWE. This means your results will be measured using agreed-upon metrics rather than beliefs, subjectivity, or hopes and wishes. That clarity removes the fog so many people attempt to work through.
Employees, teams, and organizations have normalized judging how others spend their time instead of getting clear about what the client or customer actually needs. When a relentless pursuit of clarity is paired with identifying the most efficient and effective approach to achieving measurable results, opportunities arise.
Opportunities can include addressing capacity, exploring innovation, and yes, employees choosing to spend their time as they need.
Objectivity and consistency around accountability press employees and teams to plan differently. To plan with measurable results as the drivers. To plan with clients or customers as the focus. Accountability in a ROWE is preventative and corrective instead of just punitive.
Better planning limits distractions, interruptions, and fire drills. Not to mention it sets a clearer path forward to help with strategizing and prioritizing. This, in turn, minimizes feeling overworked and increases levels of optimization.
Success is made clear. Performance is objectively verified. No more guessing games, ambiguous requests, or anxiety leading up to performance evaluations.
In a ROWE, you get your life back and the customer gets results.