Autonomy is a common topic in leadership development, driven by the fact that it's one of the pillars of intrinsic motivation, as outlined by Daniel Pink in his 2009 book Drive. Giving our team members the autonomy to decide how they do their work and, in some cases, what work they do, can be a great way to engage them and this has all sorts of benefits for the organisation and its customers.
It can be challenging, however, when these individuals want to introduce something new. When their desire for autonomy goes beyond how they do the existing work of the organisation and moves into creating new ideas for things that the organisation should or could be doing to serve its customers.
I've seen times when this gets outlandish. When organisations perceive or recognise opportunities in the marketplace and pursue them, without recognition of the fact that it didn't align with what their organisation was known or loved for. Harley Davidson perfumes were a great example. Yes, you have a strong name and brand recognition, but are people attracted to Harley Davidson for their feminine qualities? Perhaps not, judging by the failure of their perfume line. Or what about Colgate's frozen foods? Customers had such a strong connection in their minds between the brand and their toothpaste that they couldn't get on board with their range of frozen meals. Or software companies like Microsoft moving into hardware space, like Microsoft's Zune (their competitor to the iPod) or the Windows Phone.
Of course, failures tend to happen because of several factors, so it's not just down to one thing. The quality of these products will likely have impacted, as will the marketing and the market timing and lots of other things. But it's important to recognise that just because there's a gap in the market or just because a new market is starting to emerge and grow, that doesn't mean that your organisation is best placed to meet this need.
For a start, brand identity matters. Consumers associate brands with certain products (e.g., Colgate with toothpaste, not food). When people think of high street banks, they tend to think of stability and history, not innovation and progress. If you step significantly outside of your lane, it can be tough to get people to come on board with your new ideas, so that needs careful consideration. It can be done, but it's not easy!
Secondly, it's crucial that organisations understand the behaviour of their consumers. Why do customers buy a certain product and when they do, what makes them pick yours over others? Changing your product or product range might open the door to new customers, but it might also close the door on the customers you have already, causing sales to go backwards instead of forwards. Equally, moving to compete in an established market without a unique advantage is risky. We saw that with the Windows phone and with Amazon's Fire Phone. Big, recognisable brands, but their products weren't unique and just looked like crap knock-offs of the existing best-in-class. This diminishes your overall brand, rather than enhancing it.
As you might expect from one of my blogs, understanding all of this starts with leadership. If you want to create the autonomy we opened this blog up by talking about, you need to create the framework in which it can operate. Help your people understand why your organisation or team exist. What is it they're there to do? What is the purpose and vision that your work needs to rally behind? What does the market landscape look like and where do you fit into it? Encourage and support them to stay on top of trends and developments to identify areas where you can grow and pivot and think about how these things sit alongside your aims and goals.
Otherwise your meetings can end up like a frustrating version of Alan Partridge coming up with an increasingly outlandish list of ideas for programmes!
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