New Help for Managers in a ROWE

When I first read Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It I remember thinking, "This is the way work should be." Not long after, I started managing a stealth ROWE department in my company. There was no guidebook, no instruction manual. Why Work Sucks offered some great insights about what it meant to work in a ROWE, but it didn't give any concrete guidance about how to implement a ROWE. As a manager trying to put the ROWE ethic into practice, I was literally flying by the seat of my pants.

Enter Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson's new book: Why Managing Sucks and How to Fix It. It picks up where Why Works Sucks left off. While there is some repeated material, it is primarily used to reiterate concepts from the first book. While it's not required to have read Why Work Sucks, I highly recommend it.

Why Managing Sucks expands on the concepts in the first book by providing guidance for managers who are operating in a ROWE. The book provides concrete examples of answers for managers struggling to come up with the responses to questions asked by those who don't understand what working in a ROWE is all about. I only wish this book had been available when I first started implementing a ROWE in my company.

"If you're wondering whether you're one of those who might fall into the category of still being stuck in the abyss of thinking of work as somewhere you go, here are some signs: 1) You find yourself saying, "The capacity of this building is 500 people, and we're almost there. Let's get cracking on finding a new site." 2) You think, "The vice president of that department is moving to the eighth floor. How soon can we get her team moved up there?" 3) You wonder "What is Alison up to? Haven't seen her for over a week!" 4) You tell a new hire, "We all show up around 8am; we'll see you then!"

If you're interested in understanding what it means to "manage" in a ROWE, then Why Managing Sucks is a good place to start. As someone who has been a practitioner of a ROWE, I've learned a great deal from the book. There are a number of things I'll be implementing and changing as a result of reading this book.

If you're not currently working in a ROWE, you generally have one of two reactions: 1) you're skeptical, or 2) you want to give it a try. If you're in the former group, you don't have to take my word for it, take a look at this Forbes magazine article. If you're in the latter group, and you have the ability to make it happen, do your research and start a ROWE.

If you're already working in a ROWE, especially if you're a manager and you're looking for answers to help you become a better "manager," buy this book!

My Experience Implementing a ROWE

When I began my ROWE adventure nearly a year ago, I had every intention of posting information about my experience on at least a monthly basis. Obviously, that didn't happen. Don't misunderstand, it's not because ROWE was a failure; on the contrary it's been an incredible success for both me and my staff. Truth be told, now that we're all working this way, I keep asking myself, "How did I ever balance my work life and personal life before I was working in a ROWE?"

Before I go any further, I need to explain a little about my ROWE situation. I work in a 500-person financial services company with offices spread across the globe. We provide Software as a Service (SaaS) to our clients. My department is a software engineering group within that company. My company isn't a ROWE, but my department is. In other words: for nearly a year, I've been running a stealth ROWE department in a non-ROWE company. That's why I didn't create this blog using my real name. I'm not sure what upper-level management's reaction would be if they knew, but I suspect it wouldn't be particularly favorable, given that I didn't "get permission" to try this experiment.

But here's the thing: based on 360-degree feedback, peer reviews and feedback, along with other measurable items, my department is one of the best-rated in the company! In fact, work (results) created by my staff has become the model for other departments within the company. The CEO has personally thanked members of my department for their contributions. My staff is frequently recognized by their peers in other departments and praised for:

• their commitment to the groups we work with, 
• their outstanding support, and
• their willingness to do whatever is necessary to keep our customers happy. [In our case, the customers are internal. We're not an external customer-facing department.]

You're probably looking at that last bullet and wondering what I mean by "do what ever is necessary to keep our customers happy." Let me give you a couple of examples.

1. We have an office in Asia. One member of my staff chose to work until 3:00 AM in order to make sure  our client was able to use the software we delivered to them.
2. For several days, during a particularly hectic time, we were literally working around the clock to assist internal teams who were dealing with external customer issues.

I'm sure some of you are reading the above statements and saying, "Wait a minute! If these people are working around the clock, then you're not really working in a ROWE." And you'd be wrong. If you think people in a ROWE don't work hard, you're dead wrong. You also haven't fully grasped what it means to work in a ROWE. 

In the case of the Asia example, I--as a manager--didn't ask my staff member to work until the wee hours of the morning. As a matter of fact, I didn't even find out it had happened until after the fact! My employee decided on their own to work those hours because she knew she had the freedom to work when she wanted and where she wanted. Oh, and by the way, she wasn't chained to her desk, she was working from the comfort of her home.

In the second example, when one of my people had already worked for nearly 24-hours straight, another person stepped in and took over the next 24-hour shift so the first person could get some rest and recharge. It took nearly 4 days to get everything resolved by the other teams that we support within the company. In the end, the external customer was satisfied and our internal customers were grateful for the support we provided them. Sure, we were tired. Hell! We were exhausted. But the thing is: no one had to worry about having their butt in a seat in the office the following morning because of "normal business hours." My folks who hadn't been involved in the over-nighters covered for the folks who had. That's the beauty of working in a ROWE. 

One last thing. Even after that experience, the morale of my team continues to remain high. I can't say the same for the folks on the other teams that don't work in a ROWE. For them, it just felt like a particularly crushing work schedule followed by more of the same.