POUND vs. FLEX
CRITICAL THINKING AT WORK LLC provides a way for you to view your company through the proven lens of scientific data and research. The central theory looks at the differences between POUND companies, those that control from the top down, as opposed to FLEX companies, that allow freedom of thought, experimentation, and continued pushback against the status quo for maximum innovation.
POUND companies
Take a close look at most well established businesses and you will find no shortage of POUND companies. They are the result of built-in assumptions about hierarchy and structure that have not been questioned over time, due to habit or fear.
Process-Heavy
Unnecessary procedures built over time to impress those higher up, labor-intensive metrics and mind-numbing tasks are used to validate work and impress senior management.
Overbearing Oversight
Procedures that require heavy management to ensure that unnecessary tasks have been completed. These practices burden management by wasting their time while sapping worker initiative, so that new opportunities go unnoticed.
Underused Employees
Due to the way the mind works, able to focus on just one thing at a time,
new ideas are literally not seen because people’s minds—and chance for advancement— depend on concentrating on mostly trivial pursuits. Ironically, employees are overworked and underused— underused for sparking the innovations companies deeply crave.
new ideas are literally not seen because people’s minds—and chance for advancement— depend on concentrating on mostly trivial pursuits. Ironically, employees are overworked and underused— underused for sparking the innovations companies deeply crave.
Negativity
Senior management disparages any new ideas they have not come up with. The negativity extends both to competing products as well as to any new approaches within the company.
Dogmatism
“That’s how we’ve always done it.” Employees are hemmed in by rigid attitudes, with no way to pilot test opportunities for change.
FLEX Companies Drive Innovation
The FLEX workplace leverages existing scientific data to improve worker satisfaction and encourage new ideas. Evidence from brain science research supports intrinsic motivation rather than the carrot/stick approach of most traditionally structured companies.
Fluid
By experimenting and constantly failing forward, FLEX companies shed unnecessary processes. Workers are truly excited about the possibility of developing new ideas to benefit the company.
Loyal Opposition
The greatest leaps in knowledge come from divergent ways of thinking. FLEX companies know this, allowing experimentation of theories that at first sound unreasonable. They encourage and reward people who propose and test unorthodox ideas.
Experimental
Rather than requiring an elaborate “permission” process, FLEX workers are encouraged to experiment with ideas they think might benefit and add value to the company.