In many business cultures, laziness is a trait that is not much appreciated. Instead, employees are expected to be extraordinarily motivated and dedicated to their job. They should be willing to work overtime for a while and always put their company first. Ambitious managers study hard to unlock the intrinsic motivation of their employees. They want to push them to become high performers. And while there is some value in this paradigm, there is also another perspective to consider. Because being lazy occasionally isn’t necessarily a bad thing in agile.
Allow being lazy for psychological safety in agile projects
Creativity comes from a place of ease which includes psychological safety. In order to achieve that, permission to be lazy is required. Otherwise, laziness would leave a bad impression in the office. Consequently, employees would feel pressured to appear busy. As a result, they might struggle to relax and keep distracting themselves in ways that seem productive. In the worst case, they start doing work, which should not be done at all.
In addition to that, it is hard to have those creative sparks that might lead to brilliant ideas, if you’re constantly busy. So counterintuitively, allowing employees to be lazy in your agile project for a while actually increases their performance.
Genuine trust and care are key
But how do you avoid that people exploit your trust and become lazy all the time? There are two answers to that: First of all, if this is a real threat, you should reevaluate your HR process: Why do you hire and keep people in the first place, if you can not trust them to not take advantage of you? Second, it is your job as a manager to unlock the intrinsic motivation of your employees. As a result, they just do not want to be lazy all the time, because they care.
The thing is, Bob, it’s not that I’m lazy. It’s that I just don’t care
Ron Livingston as Peter Gibbons in Office Space
And that is why working on motivating your employees is still important as a manager. But also, you should allow them to be lazy in your agile project at the same time. Do not question their motivation or loyalty, if you observe them at lazy phases. Keep up your trust in your people and allow them to surprise you with the ideas they had when they were sunbathing on your office terrace.
Read more about agile paradoxes in “Don’t try going fast with agile without slowing down first“
Key Takeaways
- Do not expect your employees to be busy all the time
- Allow for some laziness to achieve psychological safety for creativity
- If you can’t trust your employees, reevaluate your HR processes
- Work on the intrinsic motivation of your employees to avoid exploitation
