“Simply giving employees a sense of agency- a feeling that they are in control, that they have genuine decision-making authority - can radically increase how much energy and focus they bring to their jobs.”
In this quote by Charles Duhigg, he emphasizes the importance of giving employees a sense of agency in the workplace. By allowing employees to feel like they have control and decision-making authority, it can significantly enhance their motivation and productivity. This suggests that empowerment and autonomy play a crucial role in employee engagement and job performance.
In today's fast-paced and competitive workplace, empowering employees is more crucial than ever. As Charles Duhigg suggests, giving employees a sense of agency can significantly boost their motivation and productivity. This highlights the importance of creating a work environment where employees feel valued and have the autonomy to make decisions. By empowering employees, organizations can foster a culture of innovation, engagement, and ultimately, achieve greater success.
"Simply giving employees a sense of agency- a feeling that they are in control, that they have genuine decision-making authority - can radically increase how much energy and focus they bring to their jobs.” - Charles Duhigg"
Agency in the workplace is a powerful motivator that can greatly impact employee performance. Reflecting on your own experiences, consider the following questions:
Have you ever been in a job where you felt empowered to make decisions and had autonomy in your work? How did this affect your motivation and engagement?
In your current role, do you feel like you have enough control over your tasks and responsibilities? If not, how could this be improved?
How can leaders cultivate a culture of agency and empowerment within their teams? What actions or strategies could be implemented to give employees more decision-making authority?
Consider a time when you were given the freedom to take ownership of a project or task. How did this impact your productivity and overall satisfaction with your work?
What steps can you personally take to increase your sense of agency in your current role? How can you communicate your desire for more autonomy to your manager or team leader?
“The best agencies understood the importance of routines. The worst agencies were headed by people who never thought about it, and then wondered why no one followed their orders.”
“Bureaucrats and politicians, rather than making decisions, were responding to cues with automatic routines in order to get rewards such as promotions or reelection.”
“It is facile to imply that smoking, alcoholism, overeating, or other ingrained patters can be upended without real effort. Genuine change requires work and self-understanding of the cravings driving behaviours.”
“Most economists are accustomed to treating companies as idyllic places where everyone is devoted to a common goal: making as much money as possible. In the real world, that’s not how things work at all. Companies aren’t big happy families where everyone plays together nicely. Rather, most workplaces are made up of fiefdoms where executives compete for power and credit, often in hidden skirmishes that make their own performances appear superior and their rivals’ seem worse. Divisions compete for resources and sabotage each other to steal glory. Bosses pit their subordinates against one another so that no one can mount a coup.Companies aren’t families. They’re battlefields in a civil war.Yet despite this capacity for internecine warfare, most companies roll along relatively peacefully, year after year, because they have routines – habits – that create truces that allow everyone to set aside their rivalries long enough to get a day’s work done.”
“Once you know a habit exists, you have the responsibility to change it . . . others have done so . . . That, in some ways, is the point of this book. Perhaps a sleep-walking murderer can plausibly argue that he wasn’t aware of his habit, and so he doesn’t bear responsibility for his crime, but almost all of the other patterns that exist in most people’s lives — how we eat and sleep and talk to our kids, how we unthinkingly spend our time, attention and money — those are habits that we know exist. And once you understand that habits can change, you have the freedom and the responsibility to remake them. Once you understand that habits can be rebuilt, the power of habit becomes easier to grasp and the only option left is to get to work.”
“Every habit, no matter its complexity, is malleable......however, to modify a habit, you must decide to change it. You must consciously accept the hard work of identifying the cues and rewards that drive the habits' routines, and find alternatives. You must know you have control and be self-conscious enough to use it.”