ROWE in the News

Cali On FutureWork Radio

Laura Goodrich, Innovator, Author, Expert Speaker, Radio/TV/Film Host, and Internationally Recognized Expert in Workplace Dynamics and Change hosts the radio show FutureWork, a part of Linked2Leadership Radio Network.

FutureWork is a collaboration of the host, the guests and you, and the audience to create meaningful solutions to workforce challenges and opportunities. FutureWork will feature reoccurring guests that are engaging and insightful, with subject matter expertise on innovation, future trends, change, and forward thinking workplace solutions.

ROWE will be featured in a five part series on FutureWork Radio. Listen to the first interview between Laura and Cali here.

Human ROWEsources

Recently, we enjoyed the pleasure of being interviewed by Jared Shelly for Human Resource Executive Online / Human Resource Executive Magazine. We discussed work ethic, the sense of freedom in a ROWE, teamwork, and how ROWE is impacting human resources.

We also want to thank everyone who contributed their time and insight to the story.

Following is an excerpt…

Daniel Pink says HR executives who don’t buy into the ROWE concept might not understand how it could change HR, along with the rest of the company.

“More of the administrative tasks end up going away for HR and, I think, it frees up HR to do more sophisticated, strategic work like finding and nurturing great talent,” he says. “HR does fewer of the routine ham-and-egg administrative [tasks] and does more of the strategic responsibilities and does better for the firm.”

Eva Sage-Gavin, executive vice president of human resources at Gap, says she sees a similar change for HR since the organization went ROWE. If an employee is responsible for completing a task and doesn’t do so, for example, he or she has the entire team to answer to — not just the supervisor and HR. And that’s changed how HR does its job.

“I’ve found something amazing: It’s almost relieving HR from being a disciplinarian because the team depends on each other”

Read the whole story, “Anytime, Anywhere”

ROWE On NPR

Last week, ROWE was featured in a three part series on NPR reported by Jennifer Ludden. We know a lot of you had the opportunity to listen to it. You also shared some very kind and encouraging words on our Facebook Page and Tweeted us too.

Thank you! Thank you for your support and belief in how ROWE will change the way we work.

Links to each part can be found here for your convenience:

Part 1

When Employers Make Room For Work-Life Balance - “For years, Katie Sleep’s life was dominated by a grueling commute. She remembers never eating dinner before dark, never getting to watch her kids play in the yard. When she lived in San Francisco, she would drop her kids off at day care at 6:00 a.m. in order to get to the office on time. When Sleep launched her own software development company, she felt passionately that her employees should not suffer as she had. “Work cannot be everything,” Sleep says. “People who have their lives are far better workers.”

Part 2

The End of 9-To-5: When Work Time Is Anytime – “Hennepin County is practicing what’s called a results-only work environment, or ROWE, which gives everyone in a company the freedom to do their job when and where they want, as long as the work gets done. The state of Minnesota signed a contract for the program last year as part of a campaign to reduce rush hour traffic on 35W in Minneapolis. Nationwide, 3 percent of businesses now say they have a ROWE, though as far as participants here in Hennepin County know, theirs is the first public agency to adopt it. Many are ecstatic at the way it’s working so far.”‘

Part 3

How To Make Shift Work Family Friendly – “While much of the focus around job flexibility has centered on an elite cubicle culture who can work from Starbucks on their laptops, Williams says low-wage workers often need it more. First, they actually have to be at the store, hospital or factory. What’s more, a disproportionate number are single moms, yet wildly variable schedules mean they essentially have to be on-call at-will.”

CO2 Interview

Just recently, Cali and Jody were interviewed by Gary Cohen, a Leadership Coach for executive coaching firm CO2 Partners. CO2 Partners is a group of experienced, entrepreneurial-minded executive coaches with complementary skills and a shared passion for elevating others in their leadership journey. Gary is upbeat, highly knowledgeable of the demand for organizational leadership to better connect with and motivate the workforce, and C&J truly enjoyed this opportunity.

An excerpt:

Gary Cohen: Is there something in the timing of human development and this mix of generations (Boomers, X, & Y) that makes ROWE work today or would this always have worked?

Cali & Jody: Interesting question! The ROWE mindset would always have worked. We actually heard from a ROWE fan with a point of view that ROWE has always existed. Thousands of years ago, people had to figure out the most efficient ways to reach their outcome – eating. That’s ROWE. If you have to find food to stay alive, you’re probably not going to spend your time chatting with the people around you. That’s ROWE. The mix of generations just provides the perfect scenario for the benefits of ROWE to be experienced. It could be easy for Boomers and Traditionalists to dictate to X and Y how they need to approach work. However, that severely undermines efficiency and holds organizations back from what they could be producing.

Please take a moment to read the interview in its entirety here.

Twin Cities Business Journal

The Anti-Control Freaks

The women who transformed Best Buy’s corporate culture now want to bring their revolution to your company.

As consultants, Jody Thompson and Cali Ressler promise “ability, activism, and attitude” enough to transform the traditional workplace. Like a lot of self-employed people, Ressler and Thompson have no leased work space and no standard work hours. The mailing address for their consulting firm, CultureRx, is Thompson’s Twin Cities home. In their case, however, it’s not just a cost-saving convenience. It’s a statement.

Read More >

The New York Times

Flexible Work in a Recession

The American Society of Human Resource Managers found that while the number of companies offering things like flextime, part-time and telecommuting schedules had been increasing steadily leading up to the down-turn, the latest measure showed a drop of five percent.

But there are some exceptions to that trend — places where the commitment to flexibility is actually increasing. Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson are among those leading the push-back.

Read More>

London Evening Standard

Rise of the results-oriented work environment

Companies that bother to consider their employees’ difficulties balancing work with the rest of their lives tend to nibble at the problem. Imagine instead a job where all that mattered was your results. Not the hours you spent at your desk or the number of meetings you attended but the extent to which you produced what was asked of you. This is the essence of ROWE, the results-oriented work environment.

Read More>

Business Week

Gap To Employees: Work Wherever, Whenever You Want

Three years ago, I wrote a cover story about Best Buy’s radical experiment to reshape the workforce. The story told the tale of two HR subversives who started a stealth movement among Best Buy’s headquarters employees to work wherever and whenever they wanted.

Our cover story on this smashing the clock phenom said it all: “No schedules. No meetings. No joke.” The idea was that work should be measured in output, not hours. Performance should be based on results, not face time.

Read More>

Minneapolis/St. Paul Star Tribune

Leading a cultural revolution

After creating a results-focused workplace model at Best Buy, Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson left to promote the idea through their company, CultureRx. When Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson set out to change corporate culture, it was an inside job.

Read More >

PBS Night Business Report

Working for Balance – Results-Only Work Environment

How would you like to work in a place where there are no schedules, no mandatory meetings, and you have the freedom to do whatever you want whenever you want as long as you get your work done? Well, that’s the policy at Best Buy (BBY), thanks to the pioneering work of Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson, former employees of the consumer electronics firm. They created a workplace culture called “results-only work environment,” or “ROWE,” and detailed the concept in their book titled “Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It.” When I met with them, I began by asking Cali why companies should adopt this revolutionary organization model.

Read More>

Forbes

Viva La Workplace Revolution

It could start with one team, which could consist of 20 people in an organization. It’s something that usually bubbles up from the bottom ranks of the organization, because individual contributors are unhappy with the way that work is happening today. They want to live the lives they want, and usually managers are also feeling that there’s something not right–because they’re not getting the amount of engagement they need from their people and the work.

Read More>

USA Today

Results should matter, not just working late

Ressler and Thompson — founders of CultureRx, a consultancy that promotes better ways to work — have a long list of reasons for disliking the standard work culture. Atop the list is the commonly held myth that “Time + physical presence + hard work = results.”

Read More>

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