UPDATE 090228: An idea has been bouncing around in my head for months. I’ve finally committed it to words. It’s the opposite of the unacknowledged reality about the ROWE approach: ROWE won’t go anywhere, because their sales pitch focuses on what you can get from a ROWE environment, not what you can give to your work. Our philosophy is also results-focused, but it also acknowledges the reality of business. Check out “Working on the F.A.R.M.“

A Results-Only Work Environment is a great idea. But the book sucks.

So much is wrong with the authors’ approach that I’m at a loss as to where to begin.

• I thought I ordered a book about ROWE. What I received was a calling card of feel-good case studies and vague “our productivity increased by X%”-type testimonials. If I wanted to read Chicken Soup for the Worker’s Soul I would have picked it out of the garbage where it was rightfully thrown. The authors “Cali and Jody” owe me twenty bucks.
• Part of the book’s tag line is “No Schedules, No Meetings — No Joke”, but due to the complete lack of detail, the tag line should be: “No Tips, No Detail — No Help.”
• They have completely missed their target audience. Because ROWE originated from within Best Buy, the authors assume that that will be the method under which the idea will propagate. Nuh-uh. If they had targeted their material for managers and business owners with specific, bottom-line metrics it would spread much, much faster. Most business owners won’t have the time to implement it themselves, so they would gladly, if convinced, hire a consultant to do it.
• Instead, the authors have dumbed down a great idea into a childish masses-against-the-Man approach. This may resonate with some back-corner cubicle outcast, but anyone with half an ounce of ambition will be turned off. Even more important, if a manager or owner does become curious, the antagonistic vibe on the website will kill the curiosity.
• The 13 Guideposts aren’t guideposts. It’s a silly, repetitive list even less helpful than “Lose Weight in Six Easy Steps.”
• Not only did they waste my money, they wasted my time, something they purport to value. Although the book was obviously empty from page one, I hoped for more and struggled through. Conclusion? They took a ten-page memo and turned it into a 200-page book.
• They are obviously scrambling for a business model, and it’s handicapping ROWE’s development. It started with the shiny-happy website and a “coming soon” for the book. Just as the book was released, they offered a 2-hour presentation in Minneapolis for $450 per person. (That has now changed to $149…) Then they offered a ROWE Launch Kit for $4,500. (That has now changed to $899…)
• Dear Cali and Jody: Best Buy employs 140,000 people, but less than 500 are following your blog. In contrast, 37signals is a 10-person software company with 90,000 blog subscribers. And they publish their philosophy for free. Do you think you could be missing the point? Maybe your deployment is a little dated? Maybe the work world is changing, but you haven’t noticed?

Even worse, the authors condone, in not-so-subtle ways, lying and bad work ethics as accepted methods to get through a work day. The premise is that it’s a big, bad corporate world out there and you need to do whatever you can to make it through. The gist is “It’s not your fault you did that. You had no choice.”

• Page 11: “I’ve been late to work for the past three days… Then I see it. Traffic backed up by two stoplights… I’m positive I’ll be fired… I reach for the phone, knowing what I have to do. I fight with myself because what I’m about to do feels awful. I convince myself that if I don’t do it, I will lose my job… I get his voicemail… ‘Jim, I’m just not feeling well today. I don’t think that I’ll be able to make it in. I was up all night with a fever. [Cough, clearing throat.] I’ll see you tomorrow.’“

Are you serious? Being late three days in a row and lying on the fourth isn’t a traffic problem; it’s a character problem. ROWE ain’t gonna fix that no-how.

• Page 100: “Socially unacceptable excuses are the truths about our time that we dare not utter.”

So let’s lie? How about being a stand up person instead?

If your job actually sucks as much as “Cali and Jody” think all-work-but-ROWE does, then it’s up to YOU to change it. You control your life; your boss doesn’t. You’re where you are because you chose to be there — YOU sat in the interview, and YOU accepted the offer. And you can improve your life a whole lot better by abandoning the office politics, lying and deception.

Stand up, be honest, and go after whatever it is you truly want. Begging your boss and company to do it for you is a cop-out and only a temporary fix.

Here are the sole 95 words of concrete hints (from Why Work Sucks) that ROWE may actually be a good idea:

• Page 85: “Before we started working in a Results-Only Work Environment we could do ten, maybe twelve courses a month. We recently put through forty-three courses out in a single month.“

My only contention is that the speaker should have said “Before we started working in a ROWE, we [chose] to do ten…”

• Page 85: “I just set my goal’s so everything is done three days ahead of time.”
• Page 94: “…the execution of anything worthwhile requires diligence, attention, effort, and time… Just because [there's no such thing as being] late doesn’t mean [there's no such thing as being] lame.“

ROWE is a great idea. But its creators are putting their consulting income ahead of the idea itself. In an age where “open source” is the new standard, “Cali and Jody’s” approach is a step backward that will ultimately limit how far and wide ROWE will spread. Not only that, but if a consultant hides the details of their idea, it’s pretty certain that the idea is SMALL, and you don’t need their help to implement it.

I spent twenty bucks on their book and it didn’t deliver. As a direct result, I will NEVER hire them and NEVER buy their products. Neither should you.

More info:

• www.culturerx.com – The Best Buy spin-off for their ROWE consulting business. Big on warm, fuzzy fantasy; short on detail. “Koom Bye Yah” songbook sold separately.
• The book: Why WORK SUCKS and How To Fix It, by Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson
• A better book (for free): Getting Real, by 37signals

UPDATE August 11th: In stark contrast to Why Work Sucks, David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done, reveals him to be a prime example of two things:
1) A consultant with a novel, genuine, BIG idea; and
2) A consultant confident enough in the scope of his idea that he knows publishing it will lead to more business, not less.

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