Increased productivity, happiness, and growth in a workplace. How the next great companies will be managed.
This April marks the tenth month since I started working in a real world — away from school. For that period I’ve learnt a lot of things, both positive and constructive. A lot of new and great skills. But most importantly, the dynamics of a workplace — the best and worst in a workplace.
It is fine to argue that I don’t have enough experience concerning a workplace because I’ve only worked in a single institution — Tunapanda Institute. But I’ve been keenly following other big companies including the “the four” — Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Apple. I’ve read a book about Amazon (One click: Rise of Jeff Bezos and Amazon.com by Richard L. Brandt). I’ve watched more than 5 documentaries related to Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Google. I’ve listened to 10+ podcasts featuring the founders and employees of “the four”.
On goodreads.com some of the books in my “want to read” category include iWoz, Snowball, Rise and grind, Shoe dog, and Creativity, Inc. The commonality in this list is the fact that it try to answer how some of the greatest companies (such as Nike, FUBU, and Apple) came into existence and the philosophies that the founders have held tightly since the start of these companies and are believed to have helped to steer up the growth of these companies.
For the small-time I’ve been at Tunapanda, I’ve gotten the chance to related to what I watched or listened to when say Mark Zuckerberg, John Daymond, Phil Knight, Larry Page, Jeff Bezos, or the late Steve Jobs were being interviewed. I’ve also read Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux. The book is one of my favourite books. It explains the future of organizations. Frederic Laloux broke down the elements that will reign the future organizations or the organizations that will be inspired by the next stage of human consciousness as Frederic said it (organizations operating from a teal perspective) into three sections; self-management, wholeness, and evolutionary purpose. For more information about the book read this Medium article written by Tom Nixon or order a copy from Amazon or any other bookstore near you.
And now on to the business. Some of the best practices at a workplace involve those which bring people together — either through a collaborative project, meeting, or team building sessions. People feel good when they come together to do something that adds value to their lives and those of their fellows.
From my experience some of the best practices at a workplace include;
How autonomous is your team? This entails the freedom the workers/employees have at the workplace. From Reinventing Organizations, more freedom increases the productivity of the team members. As a CEO leave the critical decisions to be made by the team members because they’re the ones to experience the roughness or smoothness of the incoming policies.
Instead of using the waterfall technique where all instructions and commands come from the CEO and HR, the team members should be allowed to make their own decisions. Whenever necessary or it is a must for a CEO or HR to make a decision, he/she should use advice process where he seeks for advice from other people, including the team members. Learn more about advice process here. The advice process works for both the leaders and followers — team members can also use it when making a decision.
Transparency and openness within the organization/company. Allowing every person (from manual labourers to CEO) within an organization or company to access every document. The documents include financial records, payrolls etc. This practice helps to release any tension and guilt that might arise from within the organization.
One of the main problems current organizations/companies face is lack of trust between employees and employers. The reason behind this problem is the presence of useless privacy such as financial records. Now you know and I hope your company/organization will be at ease with you from today henceforth. The level of trust between your employers and employees will increase.
Perception of a workplace. By the way, what is a workplace? You may be wrong. Because my definition of a workplace is a place just like your home where you can work and continue living your purpose in life. Not a place where you spend your time from 9 till 5 every day and wait for the end month to get paid a salary.
Don’t waste your time working in a company or organization that doesn’t help you drive your mission in life. You only live once (YOLO). So no need of wasting time doing something you’re not happy about. Find something interesting. There are a lot of companies/organizations out there that can help you grow and live your purpose. When you’re working in a company that doesn’t give you comfort, you’ll start talking unnecessary talks. If a company/organization doesn’t suit you, leave. No negative talks because no one is interested in your negative energy.
The world has a lot of problems already. Anyone who tries to add more becomes an enemy.
Rules for a workplace should not be laid down. This practice denies people the chance to be the real version of themselves. No attires. No rigid way on how to perform a task — because there a lot of ways to tackle a single problem. No specific way on how to arrange an office. Anyone should be allowed to arrange an office according to his/her own aesthetics. If I love dogs, I should be allowed to come with my puppy to the office.
Job titles and descriptions should be ripped off. No one is better than the other as far as I’m concerned. Labelling people as CEOs, HRs, Salesperson, office cleaner etc. are never good ideas. It undermines others while giving others power and authority to look down upon others. Getting rid of job titles and descriptions put people on the same level. You may wonder why people in your organization/company are ever fighting, wrangling, and throwing bitter words at each other. It is because some people feel superior to others. HR may think that office cleaner can never tell him/her anything important simply because he/she is the “HR”.
We should identify ourselves with our skills. “I’m a web designer, database administrator, videographer, digital marketer etc.” And not “I’m the CEO of company X”, “I’m the HR of company Y”. The phrases like CEO and HR are vague — they don’t explain anything. Within the CEO role, what are you doing in specific? The common mantra: “I’m always busy making sure that everything within the organization is OK”. This is just bragging and showing off. Busy? Who ain’t busy?
Are you worried?
You might wonder how my points above can be really implemented. I want to assure you that this is how the next great companies will be managed. Very soon this is going to be the trend and culture. To gain more courage I recommend you read Reinventing Organization by Frederic Laloux.
Cheers,
