Motivation Twitter-style
So . . . how’s your week going?For me, and perhaps for you, this week is like any other — a tangle of deadlines, meetings, phone calls, email, and dreams deferred.
But in the hallowed halls of Twitter, something else is going on. It’s “Hack Week.” For seven days, Twitter employees will “all be building things that are separate from our normal work and not part of our day-to-day jobs.”
It’s another example of the growing trend of companies tapping the power of autonomy to deliver results. And it joins similarly inspired efforts like Atlassian’s brilliant FedEx Days — a concept that is spreading like benevolent kudzu at companies and even schools across North America — and the 20 percent timeinitiatives at Google and elsewhere.
On its Engineering blog, Twitter offers a few more details:
There aren’t many rules – basically we’ll work in small teams and share our projects with the company at the end of the week. What will happen with each project will be determined once it’s complete. Some may ship immediately, others may be added to the roadmap and built out in the future, and the remainder may serve as creative inspiration.
As I’ve repeated and repeated and repeated (and repeated? – Ed.) over the last several months, “management” does not lead to engagement. It’s a technology designed to get compliance. (For a related view, check out Gary Hamel’s outstanding book, The Future of Management). The only way people truly engage is through self-direction. Which is why Hack Weeks, 20 percent time, and FedEx Days are so urgent – and why, in many ways, they’re the future of business.
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