Why and How to Embed Autonomy into Culture

Power dynamics constantly influence how we interact and make decisions in our personal and professional lives. This includes but is not limited to status.

One way these show up consistently is in cultural familiarity. Being an outsider within a culture creates a dynamic where you are "power-under".

Power-under in this context means you don't know "how things work". What is typical behavior? What is uncommon? Where are the unspoken boundaries?

By understanding norms, we gain familiarity with culture and we can more skillfully conduct ourselves within it. When we know "how things work", we can relax and adapt.

If someone is power-under, that means someone has to be "power-over".

Obviously, we cannot flatten this entirely, as there are people who have status within all groups and organizations.

We can, however, recognize the experience of occupying both places and attempt to account for it, so that everyone in an organization feels like they can exercise autonomy - the capacity to make autonomous decisions based on and aligned with your stated objectives to impact the world around you.

In this essay, I explore how making cultural norms explicit, rather than leaving them unspoken, helps to account for lopsided and unspoken power dynamics while laying the foundation for autonomy.

Why is Autonomy Important?

There is an abundance of research and theory that explores the role personal agency plays in our lives.

Self-Determination Theory (SDT) is a widely recognized psychological theory developed by Edward Deci and Richard Ryan. It focuses on understanding human motivation and the factors that contribute to optimal functioning and well-being. SDT posits that people have an innate psychological need for autonomy that is an essential component for fostering intrinsic motivation and positive outcomes.

SDT distinguishes between intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation refers to engaging in an activity for its inherent satisfaction, pleasure, or personal interest. Extrinsic motivation, on the other hand, involves engaging in an activity for external rewards or to avoid punishment.

SDT suggests that satisfying the three psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness leads to enhanced intrinsic motivation, well-being, and optimal functioning.

In the context of work, SDT highlights the importance of providing a supportive environment that fosters autonomy, competence, and relatedness. When employees have opportunities for autonomy in decision-making, opportunities to develop and utilize their skills, and positive social connections with colleagues and supervisors, they are more likely to experience higher levels of intrinsic motivation, work engagement, and job satisfaction.

Observing Culture

It’s your first day at a new job. You go into the office and your boss introduces you to some of your co-workers. Maybe this is a casual, informal intro as they are in their normal workflow. You’re not sure who, if anyone, you might share common interests with, or if they actually would appreciate discussing those common interests with you.

You notice they have jargon they use. Some of it is technical and job-related, and some of it is social. Not only are there abbreviations for internal processes, there are social hierarchies and cliques that you cannot be aware of.

You don’t know who likes each other, who has slept with each other, who wants to, or how much any of them actually likes their job.

You are in a power-under situation. Regardless of wider socio-economic contexts like race, gender, or class, in at least one way, most of the people in the office are in power-over, compared to you.

They know something you don’t know. They know how things work around here.

Slowly, you start to pick up on things. You notice some folks go to lunch together frequently, some take smoke breaks together, and some folks seem more friendly with the boss. One person is funny. One takes their work very seriously. One is always late, and one has a reputation for being lazy.

As a new hire, there is a lot to consider when it comes to just doing your job.

When we also accept the fact that we are social creatures who crave status and acceptance from our peers, this really complicates things. Wouldn’t it be helpful to know some of this?

Nobody wants to cross boundaries

I recently began working at a co-working space in South Minneapolis that has a gym onsite. When I signed up, I asked the community manager to describe the culture and if there were any norms, not rules, I should be aware of.

She couldn’t think of much to say, other than, “We’re pretty laid back here, I wouldn’t worry about it”.

I grinned.

There are unspoken cultural norms whenever groups of people come together. My question was aimed at being aware of any invisible boundaries. What should I be aware of? What is a typical day like here?

Part of the selling point for me was the gym onsite. I work out every morning I come in before sitting down to work. There is a big garage door separating the gym from the rest of the facility.

On two separate occasions, someone came and closed the garage door while I was working out. I wasn’t being “loud” by my standards, but I imagine that the noise I was making was more than folks preferred or were used to, or, that it was common courtesy to close the garage door if you planned to work out hard.

That’s exactly the type of norm that would have been helpful to know. Instead, the community manager came and closed the door once, without saying anything to me, as did another member once.

I noticed that I felt self-conscious when this happened. Was I being too loud? Was I disturbing the workflow of other members? Do they think I am inconsiderate?

I acknowledged the feeling and continued my workout. After speaking with one of the owners, I decided to just close the large door during my workouts.

Culture is something you have to watch. You have to see how things work and what people actually do. It is about careful observation and noticing.

How do we build the culture we want?

Building culture at an organization has as much to do with observing interactions between employees as it does with articulating core values.

Building culture requires taking implicit norms and making them explicit. We can have open and curious conversations about who shares personal preferences, and whether those preferences can be considered norms.

We also wrestle with impact. What happens when we violate this norm?

When we do this, we reduce friction and get everyone on the same page. The norm has been named, and from there we can look at it and decide how we want to be in relationship with it.

We also make it easier to welcome new people into our culture because we can share the context of what people do, and what is uncommon.

Which of these norms are important enough to be enforced, and which of them are just personal preferences?

How do the weekly team meetings go? How visible is leadership? Do folks get together outside of work? Why don’t people seem to like…that one guy? (Hint: it’s probably because he seems oblivious to a particular cultural norm that isn’t clear to him)

When we don’t have a way to meaningfully articulate and check these dynamics or the principles that seem to guide them, people are left to assume.

Then they take actions based upon those assumptions, from which they draw conclusions, and pretty soon, we aren’t actually sharing the same reality.

Creating space regularly to notice what is happening and talk about what we see forces us to meet culture head-on and allows us to become more aware of our impact on each other. Then, we can begin to consciously create our culture.

When we know what is typical behavior, we act more confidently and stop worrying about whether we are committing a social faux pas. That means we are free to do what is optimal for us as individuals and perform our best.

If not, we spend more time guessing what is appropriate than we realize.