I attempted a 4-day workweek at my firm and it failed — for a few of my workers

For a number of workers, that reply was a convincing sure. Nevertheless, because the experiment
matured, I began to see that what felt versatile to at least one worker was restrictive to a different.
The fact is that folks’s Jobs and private circumstances are totally different. Some
workers cherished the four-day construction, and a few nonetheless work that manner in the present day. For others,
having all people work the identical 4 days wasn’t significantly versatile in any respect.

As we listened to our individuals and checked out how totally different groups and roles operated, IT
turned obvious that the four-day workweek wasn’t working equally nicely for everybody.
We had modified the schedule, however we hadn’t essentially created true flexibility. If I inform you
precisely when you must be versatile, that’s probably not flexibility. We’d changed one
schedule with one other.

When flexibility will get much less versatile

The lesson wasn’t that the four-day workweek had failed. IT was that we had been asking
the flawed query. As an alternative of specializing in what number of days individuals ought to work, we would have liked
to deal with what every position really wanted to ship.

That’s once we modified the query. As an alternative of asking, “What’s the versatile working
mannequin for Safeguard International?” we began asking, “How a lot alternative can we give every
particular person over how they work whereas nonetheless delivering what the enterprise and our prospects
want?” That shift led us to what I name “optionality.”

Optionality is the brand new flexibility

Optionality is about giving individuals extra alternative in how they construction their work reasonably than
changing one company-wide schedule with one other.

If somebody can meet the expectations of their position in 4 days, that’s nice. If a five-day
workweek is best, that possibility stays in place. The identical philosophy applies to the place
individuals work. We’re overwhelmingly distant, however we preserve places of work and coworking
choices for individuals who need or want them. The purpose isn’t to eradicate construction. IT’s to provide
workers as a lot alternative because the work permits. The second you prescribe precisely what
flexibility has to seem like for everyone, you begin taking the pliability out of IT.

Nevertheless, optionality solely works if in case you have accountability. And that accountability wants
to return from the highest.

Giving alternative with out dropping accountability

Flexibility solely succeeds when individuals know precisely what they’re accountable for. If a
supervisor has to depend on hours labored or bodily presence to find out whether or not somebody
is performing, the group might not have outlined the suitable measures of efficiency
clearly sufficient.

In our case, we knew management needed to set the framework, so we went position by position and
outlined what individuals want to perform to fulfill our objectives. As an alternative of asking managers to
deal with hours labored, we requested them to deal with whether or not individuals have been delivering the
outcomes their roles required.

For a customer-facing position, that may imply enhancing a key buyer relationship,
decreasing recurring points or tickets, or enhancing buyer sentiment. The precise metric
will differ by position, however the precept is identical: Measure the result that issues reasonably
than utilizing time or bodily presence as a proxy for efficiency.

That required a shift in my very own pondering as a frontrunner, too. Giving individuals better freedom
doesn’t imply turning into much less demanding. In some methods, IT requires leaders to be extra
disciplined as a result of you must articulate what success really seems to be like. That’s a a lot
more healthy administration dialog than making an attempt to dictate when somebody must be in
entrance of their pc.

IT comes right down to being extremely clear concerning the outcomes you anticipate after which trusting
individuals to find out for themselves the easiest way to ship these outcomes for the
enterprise and your prospects.

Cease designing flexibility from the highest down

4-day weeks, hybrid schedules, and return-to-office insurance policies can all fall into the identical
lure: Leaders determine what the best working mannequin seems to be like, then anticipate workers to suit
themselves into IT.

Corporations are nonetheless determining what the office of the long run seems to be like. I don’t assume
leaders are going to determine IT out by making an attempt to foretell the following office pattern. Our
expertise taught me one thing extra helpful: be keen to check an concept, take note of
what really occurs and alter course when the fact doesn’t match the idea.

As a CEO, I don’t think about altering an method a failure. The failure could be sticking
with one thing just because IT was determined that was the reply. The office will
maintain altering. Our job as leaders is to continue to learn with IT. That’s optionality.

The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary items are solely the views of their authors and don’t essentially replicate the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.