Can you imagine a company in which all of its employees (and not just a select few) are trained to make important decisions that affect their work? Where anyone can not only make suggestions on what will work best for clients, but also create and lead teams to implement solutions to the problems raised.
For the hundreds of thousands of employees around the world who work for companies that have adopted self-directed management structures, this is how they work every day.
Recently, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh made headlines for shifting that company to a self-managed structure called the Holocracy, where everyone operates in “circles” and there are no internal titles of “Manager,” yet more experienced employees receive a role of mentor for compliance within the company.
Journalists around the world have tried to make sense of it: the common thread is “without managers, everything will be chaos!” However, as usual with these things, everything old becomes new again.
Actually, you probably know someone who works on this type of system. You may have even worked on one. In fact, approximately 10% of organizations worldwide have adopted some form of self-management.
For nearly 25 years, corporate giant 3M has been one of many business organizations employing self-directed work teams they call “Pods.” They have been shown to be between 30% and 50% more effective than their traditional counterparts.
The benefits of using a pod system, according to 3M’s most experienced employees, are numerous. In addition to offering obvious corporate benefits, such as greater flexibility, lower operating costs, better quality, productivity, and service, they also offer cultural benefits.
For example, with the group structure, there are simpler job classifications. Employees tend to feel more valued for their individual contribution, which increases their commitment to the organization as a whole. The company is able to communicate its goals and employees can act on them without feeling hampered by the bureaucracy of management above them.
Other companies such as Xerox, Federal Express, Johnson & Johnson, Procter and Gamble, and AT&T have recognized their self-directed teams for increasing the quality of customer service, reducing service errors, achieving multi-million dollar inventory reductions, increasing production profits and reduce staffing needs. while increasing efficiency. By simply giving your existing employees the ability to make the changes they saw were most needed, your businesses were able to succeed.
One of the reasons is the multifunctional nature of these teams. In every group or circle, no one person has full responsibility for a project. If someone is unable to contribute fully, it will be addressed quickly. And, in the case of a “missing man”, the computer can still function without downtime.
If these teams are more successful, does that mean that it is suitable for everyone?
There are some elements of self-management that can work in any organization, however a complete change like the one 3M and Zappos have made is better suited to certain industries. Personally, I have seen this type of structure work wonderfully in the airline and technology industries.
It all comes down to being in a company with a strong vision that is clearly communicated so that when employees take action, they know that your company is behind them.
And really, that’s all that matters anyway.