Toolkit
Culture
Autonomous Culture
What
Autonomous Culture is a process by which rules, demands and ultimatums are transformed into requests and eventually agreements.
Why
Command and control styles of management and leadership are incompatible with knowledge work. Policies should embrace the autonomy of individuals and build freedom and autonomy into the culture.
Educated, autonomous adults in the 21st century generally don’t respond well to demands and ultimatums from those in power in organizations. Here in the U.S., most states are “at will” work places. That means that both employee and employer are maintaining the work relationship voluntarily. No one is “owed” a job and we’re not slaves.
During survival situations, in times of intense crisis, we may resort to top-down command and control models of leadership. But in the information economy in particular, where thriving knowledge work requires autonomy, space for serendipity and reflection, it is important that people maintain the power of choice. But freedom isn’t free, at work or in any context. We need to balance this freedom with responsibility. In a voluntary context, this responsibility is represented in agreements.
How
Set up: Pen, paper or computer to re-work language of management and to craft respectful, voluntary working policies for all stakeholders. All stakeholders are equally empowered based on their fundamental autonomy. Everyone can make requests, honor agreements, and balance freedom and responsibility in their own lives. In terms of a policy or process creation and documentation, this can be an individual leader’s work done alone or by the team. Once applied, it’s put into practice with other individuals, in team dyads or larger organizations.
Leaders rewrite command and control policies to encourage freedom and responsibility.
Include accountability and integrity in main cultural values.
Leadership models by owning integrity breaches, cleaning up messes and restoring trust and integrity, e.g. A. I had an agreement to do X, B. I did not keep that agreement, C. This had the following negative impacts, D. Are there other impacts I’m not aware of?, E. Going forward I will do Y so that this breakdown doesn’t happen again.
TIPS AND TRAPS
Freedom can be abused. People are generally good and policies that are based on that assumption create a culture that brings out the most creative energy of people. Handle the limited infraction, but don’t let it be an occasion to reverse your policy.
Self-policing should be encouraged. When there are breakdowns, encourage people to take note. When you are gathered together in a circle or meeting room, make note that there has been a breakdown in the team. Allow the offending party to own it, without judgment or accusation from others, and offer a way to “clean up their messes” and repair the infraction.
Attributions
Much of this movement is reflected in the work of Patty McCord at Netflix, where freedom and accountability have been woven into their culture to support autonomy in a high-growth context.
by Montaia