For a very long time businesses worked on the principle that employee productivity could be increased with better top level leadership, more robust performance management processes and of course, clear goals and targets. While much of this may have been true during the industrial era, things are a little different in the 21st century.
An increasing number of leaders are beginning to challenge long-held assumptions and are willing to try bold new tactics to improve performance and profitability. What follows are five counterintuitive — some would say crazy — ideas that have been successfully implemented by corporate leaders.
Thierry Breton, CEO of Atos Origin realized that the constant stream of emails was distracting to both him and his employees, so he took radical steps to eliminate what he believed were negative effects on company productivity. In February 2011, Breton announced that he was banning email. In three years’ time, he wanted Atos to be an ‘zero-email’ company. They instead built an internal social network for the entire enterprise. The result? A study conducted in 2014 by an independent firm showed that by the end of 2013, the company had reduced overall email by 60 percent, going from an average of 100 email messages per week per employee to less than 40. As well, employees reported feeling far more productive and collaborative by using the far less intrusive social network.
When Netflix went public in 2002, it was recommended that they build a standard vacation policy like most other companies. However CEO Reed Hastings realized that since the company had never asked employees to track the days they worked, it made no sense to ask them to track the days they didn’t work. The traditional rationale just didn’t apply. Netflix scrapped the standard policy in favour of… no policy at all. Employees take as much time as they need and inform their manager when they’ll be gone — but they don’t track how many days they take each year. They learned that when you give your employees trust and freedom to act responsibly, you don’t need nearly as many policies.
Alexander Saint-Amand sought to offer the employees of Gerson Lehrman Group, Inc. (GLG), a compromise between the segmented and separated office layout and the chaotic and noisy open office concept. What they ended up with was a giant, light-filled atrium with furniture designed to look like a living room. The entire space is a collection of various furniture types with a coffee shop in the center of the first floor. The office furnishings range from open tables to library-style carrels, to conference rooms big enough for large groups or small enough for one person seeking solace. Employees at GLG have the freedom to go anywhere in the two-story, 65,000 square foot space. The flexibility provides the benefits not only of collaboration and ease of interaction but also of peace and quiet for those who are more easily distracted by the noisy areas of the office.
In July 2009, the acclaimed artist and designer Stefan Sagmeister took the stage at the annual TEDGlobal conference and launched a rather counterintuitive idea: work less. He told his audience that he completely closes down his design studio every seven years and gives himself and his designers an entire year for personal travel and experimentation. Sagmeister believes that stepping away from a successful career is, in fact, what has allowed him to have such a successful career. He found that, after his first sabbatical, all of his new projects were of much higher quality and directly related to his time off. Since these ideas turned into higher-quality projects, his studio was able to charge even higher prices once the designers reassembled in New York after their year on leave. Sagmeister’s experience was that the combination of rest and experimentation that came from the sabbaticals taken by him and his team re-fired their creativity, which in turn, refuelled their company’s financial success.
Employees at Valve Software don’t have to take orders from ‘the boss,’ because there are no bosses to give orders. Valve doesn’t believe in managers, or job descriptions. When new people join the company, they rotate around on various projects, talk to lots of people, and then decide which project (or projects) to jump into full-time. The work Valve employees do changes so much each day that every employee’s desk is equipped with wheels and organized such that only two cords need to be unplugged before it can be rolled to wherever it’s needed in the shop. Employees are even empowered to make hiring decisions. Bottom line: when individuals feel free to determine what they’re working on or how they work, they’re more motivated, more loyal and more productive.
These ideas are radical, and may not be suitable for every business, but nor are they just flights of whimsy. Each is backed by solid research and anecdotal evidence. Sometimes innovation can happen only when leaders have the courage to try something new. At the very least, the lessons learned in the attempt are valuable.
David Burkus is the author of Under New Management. He is host of the Radio Free Leader podcast and associate professor of management at Oral Roberts University.
