1
The first employee
Makes a decision and gets to work.
Room to act
Room to act
Room to act emerges through the interplay between what the environment makes possible and what a person experiences and uses.
Sometimes moving forward calls for something from the person, sometimes from the environment and often from both.
Environment and person
What room is there to act?
Environment
The environment in which people work includes both the way the work is organised and the people and relationships within that work. It is shaped, among other things, by:
Strategy & objectives
Governance & ways of working
Culture
Resources
Environment
What room does my environment give me?
Person
What room do I allow myself to use?
Being given room is not the same as taking it.
In practice
The same room. A different experience.
Two employees are given room by their manager to make decisions independently.
2
The second employee
Hesitates. They made a decision independently before and were later pulled up on it. Since then, they prefer to check with their manager first.
On paper, they are given the same room. In practice, they experience and use it differently.
Patterns
A pattern no one consciously chooses
If the second employee keeps asking for confirmation, the manager may start to think that they apparently need more direction.
The manager starts providing more direction, and the employee experiences less and less room to act independently.
Employee asks for confirmation
Manager sees a need for direction
Manager provides more direction
Employee experiences less room
A pattern
no one
consciously chooses
no one
consciously chooses
When room feels limited
What if you experience too little room?
Sometimes you experience little room to do what is needed.
A decision you disagree with
A way of working that gets in your way
A manager who exercises a lot of control
A colleague’s behaviour that affects you
The first reaction is often resistance. We form an opinion about it, become irritated or keep hoping that the other person or the situation will change.
The question is what you do next.
Explore what is really happening
You can explore what is really happening. Sometimes something changes in the way a person views the situation or acts. Sometimes something in the environment needs to change instead: agreements, authority, collaboration or the way the work is organised. And sometimes a limitation cannot be influenced and calls for acceptance or taking a position.
Room to act does not arise on one side alone. Sometimes moving forward calls for something from the person, sometimes from the environment and often from both.
Room to act
Not everything can be influenced.
But even within limitations, there is room to act.
engage@humanize7.com