The news is full of this “quiet quitting” idea. Supposedly, employees are doing just what the work demands and no more.
That sounds reasonable to me. (See the blog post, It's Time to Clarify Work Boundaries and “Quiet Quitting.”) I don't see why people should do “more” than a day's worth of work in a day.
Aside from not being sustainable, people get tired when they work too long. Tired people make mistakes—with possibly severe consequences. That's the idea of doing “more” with “less.” I can understand why managers want that, but no one can deliver that.
Instead, let's consider why leaders might create working agreements with the people they lead and serve.
Why Working Agreements
Working agreements help everyone on a team clarify how they will work together.
For example, some teams have needed agreements about how they discuss contentious issues. I've been on some teams where we instituted a talking stick because some team members could not help their outbursts.
I've also been on teams where the team learned how to do an unfacilitated round-robin discussion. Other teams have used the ideas of divergent and convergent thinking, with and without facilitators.
But each team had working agreements about how they would discuss their issues. And when that agreement no longer worked, they reflected and created new agreements.
Agile teams often have many working agreements, such as: what done means, the team's collaboration time, and when and how they choose to retrospect.
These agreements ease the friction of how people work together. That allows everyone to see what to do and finish it.
That's why leaders can create working agreements with the people they lead and serve.
Why Create Working Agreements With People You Lead and Serve
Even though leaders might not work directly with the people they lead and serve, working agreements can create more ease and reduce friction.
When leaders create working agreements, they reinforce a specific culture of power with, not power over (See Three Possibilities to Move from Power Over to Power With.)
Leaders gain several benefits when they create working agreements with people:
- The leaders can share the overarching goal behind this work. That's the purpose.
- When people understand the goal, they can decide—as individuals and teams—how to achieve that goal. That's about autonomy.
- The leaders can achieve more mastery in their leadership. And the people and teams gain more mastery in their work.
Everyone learns to trust each other more, a congruent approach to work. And they create ease in communications.
I started this newsletter by discussing that “quiet quitting” is an incongruent stance by managers.
I suspect it's incongruent because everyone feels significant pressure to deliver more and faster.
Instead, when leaders create working agreements with the people they lead and serve, the leaders can learn their actual capacity. Understanding that capacity helps leaders make better decisions.
Some Examples of Working Agreements
Here are some possibilities for working agreements leaders might want with the people they lead and serve:
- How early does the leader want to know about risks that have come true that will affect how the product works or the delivery schedule?
- When do teams feel the need to start overtime? (Overtime never works. Instead, ask people to limit their work time to 8 hours a day if they work alone. If a team collaborates as in mobbing/ensembling, encourage the team to leave when they're tired. Then, replan what the team can do.
- When does the leader need to know about problems in the team that the team can't solve?
You might see other problems that cause pressure in your organization. Most issues, such as “quiet quitting,” result from too much pressure.
You might not be able to anticipate all pressure-creating situations, but working agreements can help with many typical situations.
Pressure Causes Incongruent Stances
If you feel pressure from your management, don't “just” allow that pressure. Help your leadership understand what their desires mean to you. And if you are a leader, watch to ensure you're not pressuring people.
Instead, clarify your expectations when you create working agreements with the people you lead and serve.
(This newsletter discusses topics in all the Modern Management Made Easy books.)
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© 2022 Johanna Rothman
Pragmatic Manager: Vol 19, #9, ISSN: 2164-1196