The Path to Self-Management and the Hybrid Organization

While completing my course on the Hybrid Organization it has occurred to me how essential it is that employees develop effective self-management skills. From the culture of control dominant in the 20th Century manufacturing organization to the knowledge-work economy of the 21st Century there has been a gradual path from top-down to bottom-up, from a culture of control to a culture of self-control and self-management. In between has been the focus on small groups, the work team, that is still the essential unit of organization.

The pandemic lockdown of 2020 greatly accelerated that transition as most corporations are now wrestling with the design of a post-Covid organization and work practices. While some executives such as Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan are insisting that employees return to the office, he may be creating a competitive disadvantage as employees report they are willing to change jobs if required to return to the old in-office requirement.

 It is very clear to me that the future will be dominated by flexible organizations with flexible (hybrid) work arrangements. But what are the key skills that will enable that organization to be successful? I think there are two and they are not about technology. First, effective team leadership and facilitation to assure rapid problem-solving and continuous improvement; second, promoting the skills of employee self-management, enabling bottom-up management of performance.

 Several surveys, including my own which you can find here, point to the belief among employees that they were more productive working from home and had higher job satisfaction. This is a benefit to all concerned.

The challenge now is to both design this hybrid/flexible organization and to increase the capability of team members to manage their own performance in a remote setting. I believe that there has been almost no attention paid by corporations to the development of self-management skills. Why not? I think the answer is that the assumption has always been that you aren’t managed by yourself, but by your manager. Hence, billions of dollars spent on management training, and none devoted to building self-management skills. I don’t know whether this will change soon, but the logic of it seems obvious to me. For this reason, I devoted about a third of my course to employee self-management skills. It is a subject on which I would love to have input and feedback. 

For a checklist of self-management practices please see this blog post on my website.