Give People 24 Hours to Work on Anything, Then Make Them Deliver It Overnight
A short burst of freedom at an Australian software firm led to useful new ideas.
TED · The puzzle of motivation | Dan Pink | TEDAtlassian, an Australian software company, a few times a year tells its engineers to set aside their normal assignments for a full day. That single stretch of self-direction yielded many helpful fixes, says Dan Pink, who studies the science of motivation at work.
The event is called FedEx Days. "Because you have to deliver something overnight." The company tells engineers, "Go for the next 24 hours and work on anything you want, as long as it's not part of your regular job."
They spend the stretch building code repairs or clever workarounds. When time expires, everyone shows what was built to teammates and colleagues across the firm in what he calls a "wild and woolly all-hands meeting." He notes, "Being Australians, everybody has a beer."
He describes the starting point as paying people "adequately and fairly" and "getting the issue of money off the table," then granting broad freedom over time, task, team, and technique.
As one way to try a version, you could pick a single 24-hour stretch with a single rule: no normal assignments. You could ask everyone to show something when time expires, even if rough, in a short demo to the full group.
Questions people ask
Does this only work for software engineers?
No. The underlying idea is autonomy over what you work on and a deadline to show it, which fits any project work. A sales team could test new pitches, and an operations team could fix nagging process problems, as long as the work is outside the daily routine.
What does getting money off the table actually mean?
Pink puts it as paying people "adequately and fairly" to get money "off the table." In practice, that means handling pay concerns first so the day is about interest, not compensation. As an interpretation, some managers check salary benchmarks once a year, but Pink does not specify a market rate.
What if someone delivers nothing?
Pink does not describe failure rates or what to do if someone comes up empty. In my expectation, it helps to treat a miss as information about workload or clarity. You could keep the demo low pressure and ask what got in the way.