Topic: Setting the "R" in ROWE

I'm taking steps toward setting up a ROWE for my team, but I wouldn't say I'm there yet. As far as managing results, we have cross-functional project teams that have deadlines and clients to please. I pretty much rely on them to keep an eye on results and raising issues. There's still quite a gap though, and one of the things I'm working on is visibility. When everyone is in the office at the same time there's lots of little interactions and eyeballing of each other's work that happens informally but has quite an impact on overall results. I'm looking at online tools like Basecamp and Ning that create new channels for sharing work and keeping people in touch - to create that type of visibility. I'd love to hear any success stories people have had with that type of thing.

gordon - Basecamp is great. We don't use it right now but have had some success with it in the past. It's certainly very easy to use so the chance the staff will pick it up is high.

For us we have a bunch of tools internally that help with visibility. The latest one is a little tool I threw together that is like Twitter + a simple Work Log which really helps to keep everyone in the loop without a lot of structure or effort.

But high visibility is no panacea... in fact it almost encourages micromanagement. What I'd like is a really intelligent, well thought out process from someone smarter than me that details the best approach to set goals with employees and have them regularly judge progress towards them.

Feel free to message me if you have any questions about Basecamp or other tools... I am sort of obsessed with this stuff and am happy to be of whatever assistance I can.

Hi Jake! I prefer to be included in expectation settings conversations. I find that I challenge myself more and am motivated by having these open dialogues with my manager. It definitely sends a strong message that I am included because I am valued and am trusted. Because I'm the subject matter expert and closest to the work I can help streamline goal setting to really focus on how my work can fit into the larger organization's goals. After expectations are set, I take the initiative to keep my manager informed. We talk about what makes sense in terms of rhythm and channel but it's up to me to get the work done and make sure people are informed appropriately of the progress and any hiccups. I think it's not so much visibility that's important to my managers but that they trust that I'm geting stuff done and keeping them informed as necessary.