The Great Workaround

Losing Good People? Use Workarounds to Figure Out How to Keep Them Around.

What is a Workaround?

The term workaround came into the business vernacular in the ‘80s; becoming much more prominent in the ’90s. It most likely started in computer programing, but has become common in all aspects of organizational life.

It simply means circumventing something that’s keeping us from completing a task or achieving a goal. It's like “walking around” an obstacle in a path. When we encounter persistent barriers to regular tasks, we find ways to overcome them. That's a workaround.

Two Organizational Truths from Workarounds

Workarounds are a testament to two organizational truths:?

• First, people are wonderfully adaptive, creative, and goal-oriented.?
• And second, workarounds are a function of constrained empowerment.

The first truth is positive. It tells us that when we are faced with obstacles preventing us from achieving a desired outcome, our default setting seems to be to innovate ways to overcome them. However, there is a dark side to this positive truth. Leaders often over-rely on the adaptive abilities of their people, believing that their teams can endlessly do more and more with less and less.

And that leads to the second truth; workarounds are a function of constrained empowerment. But, what does that mean? Empowerment, in this sense, represents all of the ways leaders can create an environment where their people are more likely to succeed and less likely to leave.

Five Flavors of Empowerment

The root of the word empowerment is “power”. Empowerment occurs when we imbue or give power to someone else to act. In work settings, Empowerment comes in five main flavors:

1. First, and foremost, is authority or permission to act ?
2. Second, is a clear and compelling target, goal, or direction
3. Third, is (accurate, timely, and understandable) information to act, including feedback about actions taken
4. Fourth, the necessary capabilities or skills to act, and
5. Fifth, the required physical and fiscal resources to act

When any of these five flavors is not present in sufficient quantity or quality to effectively achieve a goal, empowerment is constrained and workarounds will ensue. If empowerment is constrained too much, then workers will literally resign and leave, or at least resign themselves to mechanically go through the motions leaving their innovation and adaptability at the door.

A Thought Experiment - First Job

Think of your first official paying job where you received an actual paycheck from an organization. Perhaps it was working in a fast-food restaurant, or in some kind of janitorial role, or (like me) in a grocery store. Now think about the work you did. Did you experience any persistent workarounds? Were some of these passed down from previous generations of employees? Which of the five flavors of empowerment were more or less present for you in your young work-life?

Perhaps you were lucky enough to work in an organization with clear objectives, strong training programs, appropriate autonomy, excellent feedback, and sufficient tools and resources to do what you were asked to do. If so, congratulations! However, from my experience, most first jobs are painful reminders of how frustrating life can be with constrained empowerment.

Eliminating Workarounds to Keep Great Talent

Whenever attrition rises (or rumblings of attrition increase), one proactive thing managers can do is go hunting for workarounds. Workarounds can become a barometer of pending (and pent-up) frustration. Identify the work-around, figure out which of the flavors of empowerment are missing then try investing in a fix.

Of course, there will always be limits on how much leaders can invest in empowering their teams. But, my belief is that a little investment can go a long way! Most companies could do far more to create environments of empowerment without spending significant money.

So, the next time you start losing good people, try finding the workarounds and the constrained empowerment they represent and do what you can to fix them. You just might empower someone to stay!

If you're interested...

Take a 1-minute survey to tell me which of the five flavors of empowerment you think are most often neglected and whether there are any flavors you think are missing from the list.

For more ideas on building more resilient and effective teams, organizations and leaders, visit our website at Ferroncreek.com