Praise “Brian Carney and Isaac Getz have used their powerful concept of freedom to serve as a crucial foundation for their imaginatively framed ideas in the broader area of commerce A most interesting and original work.” JAMES MACGREGOR BURNS, A P ULITZER PRIZE AND AUTHOR OF Leadership AND OF Transforming Leadership “Brian M Carney and Isaac Getz’s book Freedom, Inc is after my own heart Its core idea of empowering employees to lead organizational growth is the holy grail of corporate sustainability and the only definitive antidote to enterprise rejuvenation The book is indeed a must-read for all managers and proprietors who are serious about remaining relevant in the shifting sands of time!” VINEET NAYAR, FORMER CEO, HCL T ECHNOLOGIES AND FOUNDER, SAMPARK FOUNDATION, AUTHOR OF Employees First, Customers Second “When you your best work? When told how to your job, or when you know — and embrace—the reason why you are working? We all know the answer Carney and Getz help you apply this fundamental insight to liberate your company, your employees, and your life This thrilling book has the cure for what ails most companies, and perhaps even most economies.” JONATHAN HAIDT, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY STERN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS, AUTHOR OF The Righteous Mind “Freedom, Inc is a revolutionary manifesto for unplanned dynamism—the root strength of every successful company in history.” Forbes “Carney and Getz show that organizations that spend the time, money, and effort on the ‘soft’ stuff of organization’s culture end up with truly empowered workforces.” Strategy + Business “Messrs Carney and Getz offer portraits of chief executives who guided their businesses to prosperity by freeing up talent.” Wall Street Journal “Carney and Getz book's central point: If you give your workers maximum freedom they will lead your business to higher productivity, profits, and growth.” New York Times “Brian Carney and Isaac Getz take us into companies that have made freedom their lifeblood —companies that trust their employees and liberate them, counting on those employees to act in the best interests of the company, and taking advantage of that passion to achieve enviable corporate financial results.” Globe and Mail Copyright © 2009, 2016 by Brian M Carney and Isaac Getz All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or part in any form For information, address International Creative Management at 730 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10019 Design by James Fletcher ebook ISBN: 978-07867-5636-0 paperback ISBN: 978-0-7867-5635-3 Distributed by Argo Navis Author Services To our children: Brian’s Luke, James, and Aletheia and Isaac’s Elie and Adèle Contents Praise Preface to Second Edition Introduction “How” Companies and “Why” Companies: How Not to Run a Business Are You Managing for the “Three Percent”? Exceptional Companies Do Not Confuse the Exception with the Rule From Artisans to Automatons: The Origins of the “How” Culture Freedom Is Not Anarchy: A Liberated Company Must Have a Shared Vision Why They Did It: Two Triggers of the Liberation Campaign What’s Your (People’s) Problem? Building an Environment That Treats People As Equals Liberating an Established Company: How to Reach Out Directly to Your People From Motivation to Self-Motivation, Part One: Beyond Grace and Intrinsic Equality From Motivation to Self-Motivation, Part Two: Work and Management Practices That Nourish 10 In Search of Lost Boots: The Big Payoff from Letting People Self-Direct and Grow 11 The Anti-Mad Men: One Man’s Quest for Peace and Liberty in Advertising 12 The Secret of Liberating Leadership: How Paradoxes and Wisdom Help Freedom 13 The Ultimate Paradox: The Culture of Happiness as a Path to World-Class Performance 14 Butterflies in Formation: Sustaining Freedom Over Time Epilogue Acknowledgments Notes Index Preface to Second Edition Corporate liberation is not a strategy It is a business philosophy that leaders around the world are using to radically transform their organizations Liberating leaders believe that a workplace based on respect and freedom is a more natural environment than one based on mistrust and control So they acted to align their organizations with these beliefs: They liberated people's initiative and potential and with it, unshackled their companies’ performance A lot has happened since Freedom, Inc first appeared in 2009 The book itself has been translated to six other languages In France, it won the best business book award and was the No.1 business/management bestseller on Amazon.fr ten months almost without interruption More importantly, it has inspired hundreds of leaders to launch their own corporate liberation The French daily Le Monde has heralded the start of a corporate liberation movement in France Since then, the phenomenon has made the cover of leading periodicals, been shown on the evening news of major European TV chains, and been the subject of a 90-minute TV documentary that broke all the records for popularity Most liberated companies have been small and medium size—though some have grown tremendously since Yet increasingly, multinationals such as Michelin or Decathlon—operating in Europe, America and Asia—are joining the corporate liberation movement that pioneers such as W.L Gore and USAA began Corporate liberation has no frontiers, geographical or industrial Vineet Nayar has liberated an Indian high-tech giant and David Marquet, a U.S nuclear submarine Leaders of organizations of all sizes and types are shedding their hierarchies and bureaucracies and transforming them into respectand freedom-based workplaces Every morning their employees go to work, but many prefer to say they go to have fun—pursuing a common dream using their own initiative Incidentally—or naturally —their organizations routinely outperform the competition In other words, respect and freedom breed fun and greatness Brian M Carney and Isaac Getz New York and Paris September 2015 Introduction FREEDOM WORKS In every aspect of our lives—in politics, in economics, in entertainment, and in family life—we demand the freedom to decide matters for ourselves And yet when it comes to our work lives, far too many people are stifled, constrained, hemmed in, and tied down by bureaucracy and rules that have nothing to with allowing them to the best they can in their jobs These constraints leave people feeling out of control of their work lives, which, in turn, leads to stress, fatigue, and disengagement from work Amazingly, all of this is already well understood and has been for decades As far back as 1924, William L McKnight, the legendary CEO of 3M, put the matter succinctly: “If you put fences around people, you get sheep Give people the room they need.” With that in mind, McKnight went on to build an environment at 3M that unleashed the creativity and initiative of 3M’s people And yet the culture McKnight built at 3M has been more admired than imitated Sixty years later, Japanese industrialist Konosuke Matsushita looked across the ocean at his competitors and described a corporate America still in the grip of Frederick W Taylor’s “scientific management,” which organizes work by means of detailed procedures that specify narrow, repetitive tasks for everyone, and demands full compliance with their execution: We are going to win and the industrial West is going to lose out because your firms are built on the Taylor model Even worse so are your heads With your bosses doing the thinking while the workers wield the screwdrivers For you the essence of good management is getting the ideas out of the heads of the bosses and into the hands of labor We are beyond the Taylor model Business is now so complex and difficult, the survival of firms so hazardous and fraught with danger, that continued existence depends upon the day-today mobilization of every ounce of intelligence.1 Notice that Matsushita was not arguing that liberating your employees was a nice thing to for them, or that it would make them happier or make managers better people “Continued existence,” he said, “depends upon the day-to-day mobilization of every ounce of intelligence.” That means every ounce of intelligence in every brain that comes through the door of your company every day If you are not doing everything you can to take advantage of that brainpower and the knowledge those brains possess about your business, you’re not only leaving money on the table, you are putting your company’s survival at risk As we write these words in early 2009, the United States and the world economy are in a dire state The U.S economy is shrinking rapidly, corporate profits are collapsing—or in many cases simply nonexistent—and a half a million Americans a month are losing their jobs Everyone is afraid Bosses are afraid that if they don’t maintain or restore profitability, their jobs will be on the line Frontline employees are afraid that their jobs will be cut so that their bosses can keep their own We can guarantee you that important opportunities—for the elimination of senseless waste that ... Brian’s Luke, James, and Aletheia and Isaac’s Elie and Adèle Contents Praise Preface to Second Edition Introduction How Companies and “Why” Companies: How Not to Run a Business Are You Managing... A P ULITZER PRIZE AND AUTHOR OF Leadership AND OF Transforming Leadership “Brian M Carney and Isaac Getz’s book Freedom, Inc is after my own heart Its core idea of empowering employees to lead... tremendously since Yet increasingly, multinationals such as Michelin or Decathlon—operating in Europe, America and Asia—are joining the corporate liberation movement that pioneers such as W.L Gore and