8/21/2018 Article: Make every day an Independence Day at work — People Matters

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Make every day an

Independence Day at work
This Independence Day, let's all pledge to give complete independence to our
people at work. And do it, not just for the ceremonial Independence Day, but make
every day into one.

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It is that time of the year again! The time when children in all-whites are seen waving their ags around on
the streets, marching towards their schools, in anticipation of some laddoos when they return. The time
when children set up in dead-straight formation in school playgrounds, marching to the drumbeat and
paying homage to freedom ghters. The time when echoes of Jana Gana Mana and Vande Mataram come
from Public Addressing Systems. The time when the 52-second chant of the national anthem brings a chill
down every Indian’s spine. The time when we all feel liberated, and join in unison to celebrate
independence, celebrate freedom; even if we do it until the clock strikes 12 on August the 15th, and
everything reverts to a state of ‘normalcy’ on August the 16th.

As you sit down sipping your late morning tea/co ee in your living room enjoying 1 of the 3 yearly national
holidays, ask yourself – if you celebrate Independence Day at your workplace. Not the ‘let’s all wear tri-
color and take sel es’ celebrate, but celebrate freedom – freedom of thought, expression, and action.

Are you, as an employee, independent at work? Are you, as an employer, granting your people that
independence at work? Are you, as an organization, celebrating Independence Day? And not just for one
ceremonial and decorated day, but every day. Flaunting wearing tri-color one day and your true colors for
the rest of the year is rudimentary/irrelevant anyway.

Organizations could very well use this Independence Day to free their people of imperialistic control and
provide them independence, in the true spirit. Autonomy, after all, increases employee productivity, keeps
them satis ed, makes them stay longer, and most importantly, is the right thing to do.

Starting today, give your people the:

Freedom to take decisions

Don’t apply bureaucratic constraints on your people and take away all decision-making powers from them,
resting them in the hands of a handful bosses. Giving people autonomy to take the nal call, to choose the
projects they want to be a part of, can be fruitful. Every business sets out to make pro ts – the average
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ones keep citing ‘constraints’ and ‘business needs’ as excuses and can never truly liberate their people; the
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exemplary ones create an architecture where both people can take their own decisions and the business
keeps ourishing. Look no further than Google’s 20 percent time, where people were given the power to
choose which projects they would want to work on 20 percent of the time.

Freedom to express themselves

Allow your people to say what they feel, even if that doesn’t align with the organization-wide populist
beliefs. Go one step ahead and create an environment where people are encouraged to voice divergent
views. A place where there is a diversity of thought is the one which prospers. Ideo, a famous design
company, thrives because of the diversity in thought process the various members of every team bring.

Freedom to try and experiment

Encourage people to experiment, reward and recognize people for doing so, and appreciate people for
trying but not succeeding. Adobe, for example, pioneers in encouraging people for trying and celebrates
both failures. In an interview with People Matters, the then SVP – Customer and Employee Experience at
Adobe, shared how they recognize achievers in R&D, reward people for sharing disruptive ideas, and then
fund them to pursue those ideas.

Freedom to fail and rise again

Fear is a powerful emotion. Powerful enough to stop potential world-changing discoveries, powerful
enough that because of its presence, a lot of ideas and innovations don’t see the light of the day. Fear of
failing, fear of getting rejected, fear of losing the position in the company, is what has made so many
people hesitate and decide not to put their hand up when asked to start something new at the
organization. Companies need to give their people an environment where they don’t have the fear of
failing and provide them the strength to rise up if they do. That’s how successful ventures are built.

Imperialism ended in this country 70 years ago. But do you feel that it still runs in your organization? Do
your people breathe freedom when they step in at work? Does your environment has that air of freedom
about it? If you haven’t created such an environment yet, create one. If you think you have, make it better.
If you have made it better, then maintain it. The forefathers didn't ght for anything if the free citizens do
not have any feeling of freedom in their o ces.

 Pledge to make every day in o ce an Independence Day!

 People Matters wishes you a very Happy Independence Day. 

Topics: C-Suite (/category/leadership-strategy/c-suite?utm_source=post_article&utm_medium=desktop),

Employee Engagement (/category/compensation-performance/employee-engagement?
utm_source=post_article&utm_medium=desktop), Life @ Work (/category/organizational-culture/life-at-work?
utm_source=post_article&utm_medium=desktop)

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