The Play-Doh Debate

I recently read an article about Manhattan Free School, where high-school students can take classes in everything from comic-book-making to Play-Doh sculpting (whether they are 7 or 17). The idea behind the school is that when students are given a choice of what to learn, rather than being forced to attend certain classes, they will find what they are passionate about and they will eagerly learn. In essence, with freedom comes responsibility.  For most in the educational world, this model seems a little impractical and a lot far-fetched.  The business world, however, is a different story.

Google has famously subscribed to this model with their immensely employee-friendly work environment. Employees are hired based on their overall skill set and talents and are then able to choose which position they fit into the best.  Likewise, Apple also subscribes to this freedom bears responsibility idea by giving their employees similar degrees of freedom.

According to an article in the Washington Post, “Empowering leadership means that you have the foresight to share power with the people you manage—you give your employees opportunities to work on significant projects and participate in decision-making, and you remove bureaucratic constraints and show confidence that their performance will be high. When you hand over a project and give employees greater freedom, you’re giving them space to explore many creative solutions.”

In the world of business articles and blogging, I have found very few who have written articles encouraging more control. So what’s the deal? If managers believe that freedom is key to creative power, why are there an unprecedented number of unhappy employees? And why is that unhappiness connected to feelings of being stifled under managerial control.

I was recently talking to a friend of mine who works as an HR exec about this very issue. She suggested that while many of us say that we fundamentally believe that freedom is key to creativity, few of us are actually willing to implement it in our company because it just seems so risky. After all, Google and Apple employ those that are already super-creative and are the best of the best. Could this model work on hourly employees too?

What do you think? Is creativity and drive produced through freedom? Would you give your employees freedom?

Give me your thoughts…As always, you can catch me at JDanner@peoplelease.com.