All In

October 9, 2023
“If you want your employees to be all in, you need to be all in on your employees,” according to this scattershot program. Michalowicz (Get Different), founder of an IT support company, outlines how to bring out the best in workers by following his “FASO model” (fit, ability, safety, ownership), which encourages managers to “recruit potential,” prioritize specialists over generalists during the hiring process, and ensure that employees feel safe “expressing their true opinions” and feel “ownership” over their work. Illustrating the advice with case studies, Michalowicz discusses Container Store cofounder Kip Tindell’s practice of keeping personnel costs down by hiring fewer workers than competitors but paying 1.5 times the industry average, a strategy Tindell suggests attracts passionate employees who are more productive than their less enthusiastic peers. Though the recommendation to boost employee motivation by giving workers autonomy over specific responsibilities is well considered, Michalowicz’s exhortation for managers to “use possessive phrases like ‘this is yours’ and ‘you own this’ ” (for example, telling a grocery store clerk the “beer and soda coolers are officially yours” to upkeep) highlights the superficiality of his vision of “psychological ownership,” which emphasizes convincing employees to make work “their true identity” without offering them a meaningful financial stake in the business. Some exploitative suggestions sour the otherwise sensible guidance.