The seven day weekend

For most people, success and money are not closely related. Rather than judging their success by income, most people determine it by how closely their work utilizes their talents and aligns with their personal interests. Similarly, organizations need new definitions of success that look beyond cash reserves, revenues and profits. Instead, they should evaluate whether their employees have opportunities to tap into their reservoirs of talents and abilities. To get the most from employees, make job changes easy, realize too much talent causes issues, stay focused instead of pursuing endless growth, and develop new metrics gauging success.

The most motivated and satisfied employees do work tapping into their talents and interests rather than just punching a time clock. This concept goes by terms like “finding your calling” or “aligning living and earning”. The key is that long-term job satisfaction comes from matching employees’ interests, not compelling passion for assigned projects. This matters because disinterested employees will not fully commit to success. Filling roles with clock-punchers fails, while enabling pursuit of passions succeeds. Thus, productivity rises when companies allow fluid department-switching as interests evolve, avoiding overstaffing with too much talent where egos obstruct decisions, and aligning workers' passions with company goals.

The traditional command-and-control management style where workers do whatever their boss dictates is ineffective when greater creativity and productivity are needed. A superior approach is for managers to inspire their teams, trust them to make good decisions, provide them autonomy, and get out of their way. Counterintuitively, the less managers control and micromanage, the better the outcomes. To drive productivity gains, managers should let employees determine their own direction, actively encourage dissenting voices and original thinking, and respect differences. Most companies have feel-good yet generic mission statements proclaiming ideals around satisfying customers and being the best. But when issues arise, such statements offer little practical guidance. A better strategy is for managers to relinquish control and enable self-management.

However, establishing trust and granting autonomy is challenging. Managers must share all available information so workers can make fully informed choices. They must allow customization rather than mandate compliance with rigid rules. Effective leaders view their organizations as a symphony requiring harmony rather than an army requiring command. Peer pressure nudges behavior more than heavy-handed oversight. Fundamentally, managers must trust their people to behave responsibly as adults. Rather than demanding uniformity, managers should encourage business creativity. Demonstrating faith in employees’ judgment fosters engagement and talent retention.

The best form of management is self-management, where employees take responsibility for their own work and results. This unleashes creativity and accountability. However, true self-management requires an organizational system that makes it possible. Traditional hierarchical companies typically have extensive rules, procedures, and centralized decision-making that leave little room for individual discretion. To counteract this, revolutionary companies like Semco institute processes for greater transparency and employee empowerment.

For example, Semco uses an "anonymous boss evaluation" system where employees rate their direct leader's performance every 6 months on criteria like fairness and respect. The scores are openly shared so bosses know how they compare to peers. Though acting on feedback is voluntary, most leaders take heed since their reputation depends partly on employee reviews. Moreover, Semco rotates the CEO role amongst senior managers every 6 months. This ensures organizational performance reflects collective leadership rather than any single person. Additionally, Semco's board includes a rotating cast of employees who participate equally with official directors. This gives workers a powerful voice in high-level decisions.

Most managers make the mistake of assuming the future will simply be an improved version of the past, steadily getting better year after year. They create financial models showing ever-increasing sales, which provides comfort but is rarely accurate. Instead of this flawed view, organizations should encourage unexpected learning and innovation by giving employees more autonomy to explore new ideas. Paradoxically, managers can best prepare their companies for the future by relinquishing some control and allowing people to wander into uncertain territory.

To set up an organization for success, managers should take three key steps. First, encourage everyone to freely ramble through new concepts instead of sticking to routine. Second, accept mistakes will happen and use them as learning opportunities rather than reasons for punishment. Third, help employees tap into their innate talents and creativity. The more rigid the structure for future planning, the less likely breakthrough innovations will emerge. With this in mind, smart leaders will urge teams to try unorthodox approaches in hopes valuable discoveries occur accidentally.

Semco manufactures products in Brazil using a process called “Go/No Go Meetings” to introduce some structure around innovation. Once a month, any employee can attend and propose new business ideas to the group. At the conclusion, all participants vote on whether to provide funding with no further research or planning required. This simple democratic system powerfully signals several cultural values: good ideas can originate from anyone, not just executives; sometimes intuition complements analytics in conceiving innovations; worthy visions should logically link to reality; and even strong proposals may fail in practice for reasons unrelated to the concept itself.