Boundaries of Freedom

I work with a lot of leaders who see the benefits of flexible work and want to free up what’s possible in their workplace. The possibilities sometimes derail when we get to discussions about autonomy. Some level of autonomy is one of the essential ingredients if a flexible workplace is to function successfully.

Autonomy seems to be a loaded word for many leaders, concerned about people taking advantage and slacking off when they should be delivering work. This is the fear factor that gets in the way of accessing the benefits of flexible work that so many organisations are striving for.

With that in mind, I’ve been thinking about giving leaders a tool which balances autonomy with control. Jeremy Leslie wrote a fantastic article about this recently, reminding me of Dan Pink’s four types of autonomy - the four Ts. As a flexible work specialist the area of autonomy that gets a bit lost in the four Ts is ‘place’. Given that so many people are working remotely at the moment I want to give ‘place’ it’s own space in the autonomy sun. The five areas of autonomy that I’ve been exploring are: Who, What, Where, When and How.

What if leaders and teams agreed the boundaries of each of these five aspects of autonomy within which people were free to roam? It could look something like this:

Factors that determine the boundaries can be adapted to fit the way your team and business operate. You get to agree what lies within the freedom boundary and what sits outside it. By being explicit about what autonomy means for each person it keeps you as the leader feeling secure and the team feeling trusted to deliver their work in a way that fits best for them, which is what flexible work is all about.

Give it a try and let me know how it goes!