Self-Direction Does Not Emerge Simply by “Leaving It to People”
Connecting with people inside the same company, asking questions, trying, and learning
In our previous article, we looked at Microsoft not through its systems or the words of its CEO, but through a different lens:
What do employees actually do?
What stood out in Microsoft’s Hackathon and Garage activities was that employees do not stay only within the boundaries of their assigned work.
When necessary, they reach out to people in other teams and people with different expertise, and they try ideas together.
The stories behind the Xbox Adaptive Controller and Seeing AI reveal a similar pattern:
Notice something.
Reach out to someone.
Think together.
Try.
Learn.
Try again.
So why do these behaviors emerge at Microsoft?
This time, Dash and Peemo explore that question together.
Dash (Akira Chida)
SmartWorks / HLS Global Case Research
— asks questions about how companies work and considers what those practices mean for leadership and talent development.
Peemo (AI Research Partner)
— researches publicly available information, identifies patterns in employee behavior and organizational practices, and develops hypotheses together with Dash.
Is Taking Initiative Simply a Matter of Having Talented People?
Dash (Akira Chida):
Peemo, there is something that interests me when I look at the Microsoft examples.
With both the Xbox Adaptive Controller and Seeing AI, no one started with a complete answer, did they?
Peemo (AI Research Partner):
No.
What came first was a question or realization:
“There is a problem here.”
“Could this be improved?”
“Is there something we could do?”
And rather than trying to solve everything alone, employees looked inside the company for people with the knowledge and experience they needed.
Dash:
I think that is important.
When we talk about self-directed employees, we often imagine someone who can:
think independently and act independently.
But what we see at Microsoft suggests something rather different.
Perhaps being self-directed also means:
not trying to handle everything alone, and being able to connect with the people you need.
You Do Not Necessarily Need a Special Experience Outside the Company
Peemo:
Another interesting point in the Microsoft examples is that employees do not necessarily have to leave the company to broaden their perspective.
Often, they simply expand their connections inside Microsoft.
From their own team
to another team.
From their own area of expertise
to someone with different expertise.
From people they already know
to people they have never worked with before.
Dash:
I think this has important implications for Japanese companies.
When we think about talent development, we sometimes assume that people need a special experience:
spending several days working in another company,
or being placed in a completely different environment.
Those experiences can certainly be valuable.
But perhaps we can start much closer to home.
Inside the same company, there are already many people, jobs, and areas of expertise that we know very little about.
Simply connecting with them may significantly change the way we see our own work.
Peemo:
So we do not necessarily have to say:
“You have to leave your company to broaden your perspective.”
Dash:
Exactly.
A salesperson can ask an engineer.
A researcher can talk with someone who works directly with customers.
A younger employee can ask an experienced person in another department.
Someone at headquarters can speak with someone working at a factory.
Even these simple connections can expose us to information and perspectives we did not previously have.
If we want to create Smart Work, perhaps one of the first things we should do is make it easier for people inside the same company to connect with one another.
Questions Connect People
Peemo:
And this brings us to another important point:
questions.
To approach someone you do not normally work with, you usually need something you want to know.
For example:
“How do you see this problem?”
“Could you help me understand this area?”
“Would you be willing to try this idea with me?”
A question can become the starting point for a new connection.
Dash:
That reminds me of what we considered when researching NVIDIA.
We developed a hypothesis:
Questions do not make employees leaders.
They may act as a catalyst that brings out leadership behavior in each individual.
Looking at Microsoft makes that hypothesis more concrete.
Have a question.
Ask someone.
Encounter a different perspective.
Try something together.
That is how work begins to move.
Managers Are Not Only There to Provide Answers
Peemo:
If we look at it that way, the role of managers also begins to change.
Managers do not need to have every answer.
Another important part of their role is to help employees think for themselves and connect with the people they need.
Dash:
Exactly.
Instead of only saying:
“I’ll tell you the answer.”
a manager might ask:
“Who do you think you could ask?”
“How might another team see this?”
“What could you try on a small scale first?”
That begins to look much more like coaching-based management.
Bringing HR Themes Back to Everyday Employee Behavior
Peemo:
When we look at Microsoft employee behavior, we can see connections with many themes
that HR organizations are focusing on today:
Psychological Safety
Self-Directed Growth
Collaboration with Different Teams Inside the Company
Learning Agility
Coaching-Based Management
Next-Generation Leadership Development
Dash:
But simply using these terms is not enough.
Before saying:
“Let’s improve psychological safety,”
perhaps we should ask:
Can people say, “I don’t know,” when they do not know?
Before saying:
“We need more self-directed employees,”
ask:
Can people reach out to the people they need without waiting to be told?
Before saying:
“We need stronger collaboration between departments,”
ask:
Can people consult someone in a team they do not normally work with?
Before saying:
“We need more Learning Agility,”
ask:
Can people try something, change it when it does not work, and try again?
Perhaps the important thing is to bring abstract HR terminology back to specific everyday behaviors.
SmartWorks’ Current Insight from Microsoft
Peemo:
If you had to summarize our current insight from Microsoft in one idea, what would it be?
Dash:
I would put it this way:
To develop self-directed employees, we do not necessarily need to send them into a special external environment.
Inside the same company, they can connect with people they do not normally work with, ask questions, try things, and learn.
The ability to repeat these small behaviors in everyday work may be one of the starting points of Smart Work.
Peemo:
In other words, organizations already contain a great deal of talent, knowledge, and experience.
The question may simply be:
Are those resources connected?
Dash:
I think so.
That is why I do not believe the main lesson from Microsoft is simply to introduce a Hackathon.
The deeper lesson may be in much more ordinary behaviors:
“If I need help, I’ll ask someone in another team.”
“If the idea looks promising, let’s try it together.”
“If it does not work, let’s learn from it and change it.”
When those seemingly simple behaviors become part of everyday work, we may be seeing one of the essential elements of Microsoft’s Smart Work.
Before Looking at Systems, Look at How People Work
This article does not suggest that Microsoft has adopted SmartWorks’ PQA, DialogueWORKS, or Zenger Folkman programs.
It is an independent SmartWorks analysis that compares publicly available information about Microsoft with the knowledge we have developed through our work in questioning, dialogue, and leadership development.
We will continue comparing NVIDIA, Microsoft, and other companies around the world as we explore one larger question:
What kind of Human Leadership System enables people to think for themselves, connect with others, and demonstrate leadership behavior in their everyday work?
Akira Chida / Dash
SmartWorks
HLS Global Case Research
#Microsoft #SmartWork #Leadership #HumanLeadershipSystem #PsychologicalSafety #SelfDirectedGrowth #LearningAgility #Coaching #LeadershipDevelopment #FutureOfWork