By Curt Sardeson, November 16, 2018
Autonomy
Our next core value is autonomy. We define this core value as “little to no management required, intuitively prioritizes, holds self-accountable.”
There is a very practical reason we value autonomy at Open Sky Group. While we generally work in teams, occasionally we have projects that only require one person or what I like to call the team of me, myself and I. From a practical standpoint, we need people who can work solo when required. At Open Sky Group, this does not mean you are on your own island without even a volleyball to keep you company. We invest heavily in our infrastructure, onboarding, training, etc. to make sure that people are not only properly trained from the start, but there are tools to assist available 24/7. Another core value, caring, also plays a big role here. Our people genuinely care about their fellow employees and are happy lend a hand when needed.
One of the nice side effects of autonomy is less management is required. We have always tried to avoid multiple layers of management which can be inefficient. There is also an increased risk of unhappy employees (bad boss = unhappy employees). We value great managers who help remove impediments and protect our doers from the administrivia that can creep into big projects. We don’t expect those managers to micro-manage day-to-day work. That’s one of the reasons we value people who can intuitively prioritize their work. We also want people that hold themselves accountable for making their commitments, or renegotiate them when necessary.
