The ability to create work
＊This article was originally written in Japanese by our CEO, Yoshihide Arai.
Remote work has become the norm, and the old-style hierarchical management-type organizations are no longer working, so the autonomous decentralized organization is getting more and more attention.
However, there are still people who are looking for, or trying to create, ways to monitor whether their subordinates are working properly in remote environments.
To those people, I ask, “Would you skip work if your boss wasn’t watching?”. Then he always replies, “I like to work and am motivated, so of course I don’t skip work even if my boss isn’t watching.”
You might think “I don’t slack off, but I know my subordinates do.”
But interestingly, your supervisor might think that if he or she isn’t watching, you will slack off. This is a bad example of a hierarchical organization built on an idea “humans are Inherently evil.”
By the way, this is a bit of a digression, but it’s interesting to note that in a 360-degree evaluation like ours, we often get comments like, “I don’t think it’s a good idea that someone with insufficient skills to evaluate someone evaluates others.”
I ask such people the following question.
“Are you confident that you can properly evaluate your subordinates?”
Most people respond that they are doing reasonably well.
Then I ask them this question: “Do you think your bosses give you an adequate evaluation of yourself?”
And a lot of people will disagree…
It means that there are quite a few people who think they can do it, but don’t think the evaluation of themselves is appropriate, and I guess that means that they are still unaware that their evaluation is self-centred and no longer objective.
To return to the topic at hand, it is becoming more and more difficult to give detailed instructions to employees as more people work remotely, and especially in the knowledge industry it is getting more and more difficult to make a complete job description and carrying out the job as it says doesn’t necessarily lead to the success.
In such a situation, it is more important than ever for people to create their own work. Of course, there is a minimum level of work to be done, but we have entered an era in which people who can think about what they can do and what they should do by themselves play an active role.
In other words, people who are able to work on a mission basis are far more valuable than those who are task-based.
In the past, a person who was able to do what their boss told them to do without errors was highly evaluated.
Nowadays, however, the highly evaluated person is the one who understands the goals and strategic direction, and who can think about what they can do to contribute the most, and what they must do in the team.
In these times, one-person business owners and CEOs are strong because from the beginning, they don’t have a boss, and no one tells them what to do except for themselves. If you slack off on your work, it will come back to you.
If you’re used to getting paid and doing what your boss tells you to do, this is a great opportunity for you to change the way you work. You should take this opportunity to think about what you can do with your current organization and team to more fundamentally achieve your goals and increase customer value.
In these uncertain times of VUCA, I think the only greatest stability is to be able to become a person who can demonstrate your own value in any organization and on any project.
Finally, I think a lot of companies have realized in this remote work situation that the labor laws are completely unsuited to the realities of many industries and organizations. I’d like to see it changed quickly.
