大公司如何守护创新灵魂

    你还记得公司刚刚起步时的工作情形吗？一切都很好。面对变化，你反应迅速。你有能力在几周、甚至几天内推出新的项目，而且经常可以做到这一点。快速的调整只需要老板点头即可通过，然后就能迅速看到成果。

    接下来，你到了一家大公司，开始担任要职。从此，情况有了变化——速度下降，成本上升，受到繁文缛节的束缚，不那么实际，也不那么有试验性。这是因为大公司比较复杂。面对复杂局面时，我们就会变得紧张。我们需要结构、政策、责任和条例方面的确定性以及合作，以便消除我们的紧张情绪。

    我们无法改变我们对复杂事物的恐惧，也无法改变我们的控制欲。那么，怎样做才能让我们的公司保持活力呢？甚至是在它不断增长的情况下？怎样做才能确保创新能力不消失呢？

    1. 工作指南，而非政策

    随着公司增长，人们通常会试图通过政策和程序让公司的成员保持活力。规定带来一致性，从理论上讲，这会让整个公司保持统一。

    我们对合作以及控制有自然而然的倾向性，对此我们不应试图予以抗拒。实际上，几乎不会有人对整齐划一的好处提出异议。但和紧抱严格规定不放相比，有一种做法更胜一筹。

    四年的时间里，Atlassian的员工人数从100人增加到了700人。我们设法不让条例那么僵硬，而且我们更青睐于提供指南。区别在哪里？举例来说，我们的《Atlassian设计指南》（Atlassian Design Guidelines）就是一个提供设计组件和设计原则的在线资源库。它指导人们如何构建Atlassian的产品和插件。这个工具不会干扰开发人员的设计，它只是帮助他们加快工作进度（他们可以迅速地对代码进行剪切和复制），这样开发人员就能在自由进行尝试的同时保持基本的一致性。指南和规定不同，规定的意思是“你必须这样做”，指南则让人获得回旋余地，从而更好、更快地完成工作。

    2. 自由活动

    Atlassian每个季度都会举办一次名叫ShipIt Day的活动。公司会选择在某个周四的中午开始这项活动。人们放下手中的工作，每个参与团队都会按照自己的业余爱好着手开展一个项目。24小时后，每个团队都要向同事们介绍他们的创意，然后由大家投票选出获胜者。六年来，700个出自这项活动的点子成了我们的产品。

    给人们自由和空间，让他们实施自己的项目，培养自己的兴趣爱好，这样能鼓励他们采用新方法来开展工作，同时在不受到负面影响的情况下尝试自己的想法。大多数公司都抹杀了人们思考新事物、尝试新事物的空间——结果导致太多的人变成了日常要紧事务的奴隶。

    Remember working for that start-up? Things were good. You responded quickly to change. You could, and often did, roll out new programs within weeks or days. Your boss approved quick changes with a simple nod. And you got results -- fast.

    Then you moved to an important role at a big enterprise. Things were different -- slower, costlier, stuck in red tape, less tangible, less experimental. That's because big organizations are complex. And when we are accosted by complexity, we get anxious. We need certainty and coordination -- in the form of structures, policies, responsibilities, and rules -- to push that fear away.

    We can't change our fear of complexity, nor our desire for control. So, what can we do to keep our organizations agile -- even as they grow? How can we ensure that innovation doesn't get crushed?

    1. Practical guidelines, not policies

    As organizations grow, they typically try to align people though policies and procedures. Rules offer consistency and, so the theory goes, coherence throughout the organization.

    We shouldn't try to fight the natural tendency toward coordination and control. As a matter of fact, few people will argue against the benefits of consistency. But there's a better way to do this than to insist on rigid rules.

    At Atlassian, we've grown from 100 to 700 staff in the last four years. We try to limit hard rules. We favor guidelines instead. What's the difference? Take, for instance, our Atlassian Design Guidelines, which is an online resource with design components and principles. It provides guidance on how to build Atlassian products and add-ons. The tool doesn't interfere with the developers' design process; it just helps them work faster (they can quickly cut and paste code) so they can experiment freely while still retaining a base level of consistency. Unlike rules—which say "you must do this"—guidelines give your people latitude to get the job done better and faster.

    2. Ritualize autonomy

    Every quarter, Atlassian goes through a ritual called ShipIt Day. The organization halts at noon on a Thursday and every participating team starts working on a pet project of their choice. Twenty-four hours later, teams present their idea to the rest of the organization and everyone votes for a winner. Over the course of six years, 700 ideas have made their way into production.

    Giving people the freedom and space to pursue their own projects and interests encourages them to anticipate new ways of doing things and test their ideas without repercussions. Most organizations eliminate the space to think up new things and experiment -- too many are slaves to the urgent matters of the day.