BMA eBook - Manual / Resource - Page 143
Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time •• •M ANAGING Y OURSELF
A number of firms have
built “renewal rooms”
where people can
regularly go to relax and
refuel.
ecutives and companies are prepared to embrace the notion that personal renewal for
employees will lead to better and more sustainable performance. To succeed, renewal
efforts need solid support and commitment
from senior management, beginning with the
key decision maker.
At Wachovia, Susanne Svizeny, the president of the region in which we conducted our
study, was the primary cheerleader for the
program. She embraced the principles in her
own life and made a series of personal
changes, including a visible commitment to
building more regular renewal rituals into her
work life. Next, she took it upon herself to
foster the excitement and commitment of her
leadership team. Finally, she regularly
reached out by e-mail to all participants in
the project to encourage them in their rituals
and seek their feedback. It was clear to everyone that she took the work seriously. Her enthusiasm was infectious, and the results spoke
for themselves.
At Sony Europe, several hundred leaders
have embraced the principles of energy management. Over the next year, more than 2,000
of their direct reports will go through the energy renewal program. From Fujio Nishida on
down, it has become increasingly culturally
acceptable at Sony to take intermittent
breaks, work out at midday, answer e-mail
only at designated times, and even ask colleagues who seem irritable or impatient what
stories they’re telling themselves.
Organizational support also entails shifts in
policies, practices, and cultural messages. A
number of firms we worked with have built
“renewal rooms” where people can regularly
go to relax and refuel. Others offer subsidized
gym memberships. In some cases, leaders
themselves gather groups of employees for
midday workouts. One company instituted a
no-meeting zone between 8 and 9 AM to ensure that people had at least one hour absolutely free of meetings. At several companies,
including Sony, senior leaders collectively
agreed to stop checking e-mail during meetings as a way to make the meetings more fo-
harvard business review • october 2007
cused and efficient.
One factor that can get in the way of success
is a crisis mentality. The optimal candidates for
energy renewal programs are organizations
that are feeling enough pain to be eager for
new solutions but not so much that they’re
completely overwhelmed. At one organization
where we had the active support of the CEO,
the company was under intense pressure to
grow rapidly, and the senior team couldn’t tear
themselves away from their focus on immediate survival—even though taking time out for
renewal might have allowed them to be more
productive at a more sustainable level.
By contrast, the group at Ernst & Young successfully went through the process at the
height of tax season. With the permission of
their leaders, they practiced defusing negative
emotions by breathing or telling themselves
different stories, and alternated highly focused periods of work with renewal breaks.
Most people in the group reported that this
busy season was the least stressful they’d ever
experienced.
The implicit contract between organizations and their employees today is that each
will try to get as much from the other as they
can, as quickly as possible, and then move on
without looking back. We believe that is mutually self-defeating. Both individuals and the
organizations they work for end up depleted
rather than enriched. Employees feel increasingly beleaguered and burned out. Organizations are forced to settle for employees who are
less than fully engaged and to constantly hire
and train new people to replace those who
choose to leave. We envision a new and explicit
contract that benefits all parties: Organizations
invest in their people across all dimensions of
their lives to help them build and sustain their
value. Individuals respond by bringing all their
multidimensional energy wholeheartedly to
work every day. Both grow in value as a result.
Reprint R0710B
To order, see the next page
or call 800-988-0886 or 617-783-7500
or go to www.hbrreprints.org
page 9
This document is authorized for use only by Michelle Sales (MICHELLESALES@MKHCONSULTING.COM.AU). Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. Please contact
customerservice@harvardbusiness.org or 800-988-0886 for additional copies.
