The balancing act of Free-Range Work

Last time I wrote about how we fixate on the location of work, without thinking to redesign any other aspects.

If we simply make work ‘remote’, but keep everything else as if we’re all in the same place, it adds friction and frustration.

What we need to do instead is completely redesign creative work for the new era.

I’ve been developing this way of working for fifteen years now, and call it Free-Range Work.

It’s made up of three freedoms, balanced with three responsibilities.

The freedoms are:

• Freedom of time: We are free to schedule our work to meet our commitments in a way that best uses our talent, energy and focus.

• Freedom of place: We are free to work where we can be most effective for each different type of work we do.

• Freedom of initiative: We are free to decide what to take on, how to prioritise, how we do the work, who we collaborate with, and more. We are proactive in identifying opportunities to improve the way our team and organisation works, and acting on them. We are entrusted with decisions about our work that would traditionally have needed approvals from managers. We are provided with all the information we need to make good decisions.

As you can see, freedom of initiative is the biggie. Way more important than place.

That’s where we need to focus our thinking.

But, what is even more key to having a healthy, effective agency is balancing the freedoms with clear responsibilities:

• Responsibility for clarity: We communicate clearly what we are doing, when and where, how it is going, any issues, expectations of others, and any help we need or would like. We actively broadcast our intent and activities.

• Responsibility for connection: We put time, thought, care and effort into our communications and collaboration so that we and our colleagues are able to feel strongly connected regardless of location and are able to work together effectively. We value connecting in-person in certain contexts, and understand it takes extra thought and effort to connect across different times and locations.

• Responsibility for commitment: We make clear commitments in work and life, and stick to them — and don't make commitments we can't meet. We manage our workload to be achievable within our constraints. We are dependable and trustworthy. We are committed to serve the best interests of our colleagues and organisation in the time we work with them.

But I find agencies tend to head off down two potential wrong paths instead of just having clear responsibilities:

1. Being too ‘nice’. Giving all the freedoms, but not doing anything to communicate, train on, or hold accountable for, the balancing responsibilities.

2. Being too ‘controlling’. Trying to set lots of rules and regulations for specific things in specific situations, rather than equipping people with the understanding of their responsibilities and the need for them to think themselves about how to live up to them in different contexts in their daily work.

There is a middle path between these, in which people understand, and step up to fulfil, their responsibilities.

That is the way to healthy Free-Range Work in the 21st century creative workplace.

Next week I’ll share more about how to approach giving freedom of initiative in your agency, and the week after I’ll share more about how to embed the idea of responsibilities rather than rules.

Don’t be remote, be free-range :)