Your point about agency and autonomy is great! Some of our research is centered around self-determination theory, which argues that people perform their best (and tend to say) when autonomy is supported in their workplace. It's great to see examples of that in action here!
Loved that Ritz-Carlton example of giving employees agency. It feels good for the employee, and it ends up serving the customer and the bottom line too. Michel Falcon writes about a restaurant using a similar strategy in his book People-First Culture. I'm always surprised when leaders resist this, worried employees will make the "wrong" call. They'll make a different call, sure. But that's the point. Those choices come out of the employee's own read of the customer in that moment, which makes the solution more personal, not less. Here, variation is a feature, not a bug.
I still remember a director who used to say "we need to be paranoid" at every business review. I can still hear it, it became one of the background voices of anxiety at work :) Not exactly the state that helps you come up with new ideas, grow the business, or build something meaningful for customers.
Your point about agency and autonomy is great! Some of our research is centered around self-determination theory, which argues that people perform their best (and tend to say) when autonomy is supported in their workplace. It's great to see examples of that in action here!
Toxic companies are all about slogans. And their slogans are creatively bankrupt. It's like a shitty high school pep rally.
Loved that Ritz-Carlton example of giving employees agency. It feels good for the employee, and it ends up serving the customer and the bottom line too. Michel Falcon writes about a restaurant using a similar strategy in his book People-First Culture. I'm always surprised when leaders resist this, worried employees will make the "wrong" call. They'll make a different call, sure. But that's the point. Those choices come out of the employee's own read of the customer in that moment, which makes the solution more personal, not less. Here, variation is a feature, not a bug.
I still remember a director who used to say "we need to be paranoid" at every business review. I can still hear it, it became one of the background voices of anxiety at work :) Not exactly the state that helps you come up with new ideas, grow the business, or build something meaningful for customers.