10 Questions to Ask to move to Results Oriented Work Environment (ROWE)

February 13, 2010 3,755 Views

Previous Interview Part 1
From interview with Cali & Jody

Gary Cohen:What are your top 10 questions you ask your clients to move them forward toward ROWE? The questions organizations need to ask themselves in order to move toward ROWE are based on the 13 Guideposts:

Cali & Jody
1) Are people in your organization able to make common sense decisions about what they work on and what they don’t work on, as long as they reach their outcomes? [And not just the “senior” people, but everyone]
2) Do you have core hours? Why?
3) Is every meeting in your organization optional? EVERY meeting?
4) What time is it on the clock when people are “coming in late” to your office? What time is it when they’re “coming in early”?
5) How many hours do you expect people to work – in a day? In a week? Why?
6) If someone is going to not work on a Thursday, do they submit vacation time?
7) How are your employees available when they’re not working?
8) Who do your employees need to tell if they’re going to leave the office for 3 hours and go to a movie?
9) How clear and measurable are your employees’ goals and expectations?
10) How do you know if your employees are reaching their outcomes?

As a leader what are the questions that I was likely asking before Rowe to align, engage, motivate, & hold co-workers accountable? And what do those questions change to in the new environment?

As a leader, there are questions you might be asking today that you think are engaging and motivating employees, and helping them to hold each other accountable. However, the ROWE mindset might change them. Here are some examples:

Pre-ROWE: “Let’s get everyone together next Friday for a barbecue.” “Let’s plan an off-site team building event.”

ROWE: Team socialization is driven by the team, not the manager. If a team is experiencing low engagement in the work, it won’t be solved by spending more time together – it could, in fact, make the situation worse!

Pre-ROWE: “Let’s congratulate Eric for the great job he did on his last project. He actually gave up Thanksgiving dinner with his family and came in last weekend to meet his deadlines.”

ROWE: “Let’s congratulate Eric for the great job he did on his last project. His outcome was to deliver a system for delivering our product that would improve customer satisfaction by 10 points. The system he created has done just that!” [No mention of time, hours, or effort – the praise is for the end outcome]

Pre-ROWE: “I’ve noticed that you’ve been falling short on your expectations over the last few months. Let’s have you come back into the office vs. working at home and see if things improve.”

ROWE: “I’ve noticed that you’ve been falling short on your expectations over the last few months. What can I do to assist you? Are you clear on the expectations?” [No reference to where the work is happening]