We’d like to offer a big thanks to Matt Metzgar for setting up this public ROWE forum. We couldn’t be happier. Ever since the beginning of ROWE, we have talked about how great it would be if people took this idea and ran with it. Of course we joined, and of course we’ll be following along, but this isn’t our baby. We started this conversation about how to fix the problem of work, but the ultimate outcome belongs to everyone.
We hope this forum starts to answer the question that people ask us all the time, “What can I do to get in a ROWE?” One of the things you can do is participate in the larger conversation about ROWE and work. This happened at Best Buy in the early days of ROWE. Even when not many teams were ROWE, people were talking and those conversations helped change the culture.
For example, in the early days, if someone found out you were ROWE, they might say, “You’re doing that ROWE thing, aren’t you? How do you like working from home?” The misconception created an opportunity. The person in a ROWE would say, “It’s not really about working from home. I still come in, but I don’t have to come in unless it drives results.”
The non-ROWE employee might not believe them, or they might think there was a catch. But at least the idea was out there. When the non-ROWE employee kept hearing messages like these, her mind started to open up. Later, when it was time for her to transition into a ROWE, she was already a little farther along than if people had remained silent.
That’s how social change works. It’s slower than other kinds of change because you have to change how people think. But it’s possible. Just ask the people at Best Buy and J.A. Counter. They’re living the end result of all that talk.
