Uncle Sam Goes ROWE!

The US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is launching a Results Only Work Environment pilot program for 400 of its workers.  Currently there is only one government entity running under ROWE: Hennepin County, Minnesota.  Imagine letting government workers work when they want, how they want and with whom they want?  What’s a ROWE you ask? From the book, ‘Why Work Sucks And How To Fix It.’ 

 13 Guideposts of a ROWE:

1. People at all levels stop doing any activity that is a waste of their time, the customer’s time or the company’s time.
2. Employees have the freedom to work any way they want.
3. Every day feels like Saturday.
4. People have an unlimited amount of “paid time off” as long as the work gets done.
5. Work isn’t a place that you go — it’s something you do.
6. Arriving at the workplace at 2 p.m. is not considered coming in late. Leaving the workplace at 2 p.m. is not considered leaving early.
7. Nobody talks about how many hours they work.
8. Every meeting is optional.
9. It’s OK to grocery shop on a Wednesday morning, catch a movie on a Tuesday afternoon or take a nap on a Thursday afternoon.
10. There are no work schedules.
11. Nobody feels guilty, overworked or stressed out.
12. There aren’t any last-minute fire drills.
13. There is no judgment about how you spend your time.

Two former Best Buy employees  created this work model, the Best Buy corporate office has been running this way since 2004.  Voluntary turn over decreased as much as 90% and productivity went up 35%.  This is an international company with 140,000 employees.  Though, it’s not a new idea, SEMCO has been working like this in Brazil for more than 20 years.

For me this is a dream come true!  I have a goal of bringing motivation 3.0 to governments and institutions.  It’s fair to say that the workplaces that would benefit the most from empowerment and productivity are government work places.

Comments

[Andy Gibson]

A couple of years back I was writing about the importance of voluntary organisations, because the opposite is 'involuntary organisations'. We claim to have moved beyond slavery, but it still informs so much of our theory of Work.

It's time we stopped using money to force people to do things. I really hope Mindapples can remain a voluntary organisation as it grows, in the sense that consent and engagement are at the heart of how we work. Because, frankly, if the only thing that makes our business work is being able to force people to do things they don't want to do, that sounds like a rubbish way to make money!

Great post, thanks for picking this up.

[Eddie Colbeth]

Hey Andy,
Thanks for your post. It's all about being engaged.

Eddie