Autonomy

With so many things out of our control recently, it's no wonder we are focusing more on the importance of autonomy.

Many office-based workers previously didn't have a choice about how and when we worked. Often it was either just the way it was, and we accepted it, or it was annoying that there wasn't more flexibility. Then we had to do a 180 and embrace ways of working that had previously been resisted or off the table.

Now we are all doing a significant recalibration, and have us asking how we work in the future and if we get to choose.

Some organisations have been doing autonomy big time for a while. Some examples in the 2019 Forbes article, "If you love your employees, set them free" include,

"Ritz-Carlton, employees are given the freedom to delight guests to the tune of up to $2,000 per guest per day, with complete discretion and autonomy ... [and] Patagonia's flextime freedoms extend to taking classes, scooping up kids off the school bus, or taking two months off for a paid green sabbatical.

But it doesn't need to be this grand. Even small measures matter. The freedom to make simple choices and be involved in decision-making can have an impact. And it makes us smarter and more persistent in solving problems [check out this Neuroleadership article].

When employees and teams have even a small degree of control over their work and environment, there is increased engagement, innovation, and productivity.

What's ONE simple THING that you can do for your colleagues and teams that will increase a sense of autonomy? Try it out and see what happens.