数字自由挑战：追求工作的自由

    创造的自由。大多数组织的结构和文化都对冒险抱有偏见。当然，冒险是大多数创意的来源——提出问题、打破常规、尝试新事物。很少有组织培养出了鼓励即兴创作和勇于尝试的愿望和技能。大部分组织都没有一套流程，容纳与创新伴生的必然失败（以及奖励成功）。更重要的是，很少有组织致力于用空闲的时间、资源和机制来开拓新的方向。结果如何呢？迟钝麻木、担心恐惧、视野狭隘。另一方面，那些为改革创新、与众不同、不合常规奠定良好基础的组织将收获不同寻常的回报。

    选择的自由。工作岗位和任务通常是自上而下进行分配，也往往局限于狭义的责任范围。负责任的成年人可以选择抵押贷款，在周末购买新车，他必然也能获得允许来采购全新的办公椅（或者安排假期、尝试新的技术）。最具活力的组织致力于给个人更多的选择，让他们决定工作的地点、工作的时间、工作的方式、工作的搭档和工作的内容。在少数开拓创新的组织中，员工甚至可以选择他们的工作伙伴和领导者。

    挑战的自由。大型组织往往会让不称职的员工和群众煽动者感到度日艰难。持有不同意见的人很难得到鼓励，通常还会受到排挤。然而，正是这些忽略规则、藐视惯例、不断质疑的人在创造未来。组织应该对不同意见和异常行为更为宽容，以适应环境的变化。

    在组织内部释放自由会带来严峻的挑战，因为这样做需要消除根深蒂固的管理原则和惯例。得益于数字技术的出现，我们可以设想这样的组织的形象：它规模庞大却没有官僚习气，专注于业务却不目光短视，经营有效却不墨守成规，遵守原则但却不失去权力。我们认为，接受和尝试新兴的数字技术以及赋予数字技术以力量的强大原则（比如开放性、多元化，以及灵活性）将带来全新的、而且比现在无限强大的管理实践。

    这就是我们提出数字自由挑战的原因：发掘最先进的案例研究和大胆创意，研究数字技术和强化技术的原则如何帮助我们提高个人在工作中的自主权。你和你的组织为扩展联系、贡献、创造和挑战的自由做了哪些工作？请在下面和我们分享你的故事和大胆想法，你将有机会加入MIX著名的管理创新者行列。

    本文作者加里•哈默尔、波莉•拉巴尔、米歇尔•贾尼尼是管理创新交流（MIX）的联合创始人，这个组织主持了一系列致力于管理创新的M-Prize挑战赛。卡罗尔•罗兹威尔是公司副总裁、Gartner公司著名分析师，数字自由挑战项目的构建者。（财富中文网）

    译者：孟洁冰 

    The freedom to create. Most organizations are structurally and culturally biased against risk-taking. Of course, that's where most creativity comes from -- asking questions, breaking the rules, trying new things. Few organizations have cultivated an appetite or the skills for improvisation and experimentation. Most have no process for metabolizing the inevitable failures (and rewarding the successes) that accompany invention. What's more, too few organizations have designed in the slack (time, resources, mechanisms) required for exploring new directions. The result?Inertia, fear, and a narrow, prescribed field of vision. On the other hand, the organizations that lay out the welcome mat for the new, the different, the irregular will reap irregular rewards.

    The freedom to choose. Job roles and tasks are often assigned from the top down and are all too often limited to a narrowly defined area of responsibility. Responsible adults who can select a mortgage or buy a new car over the weekend must obtain permission to procure a new desk chair (or schedule a holiday or try out a new technology). The most vibrant organizations are working to give individuals more choice over where they work, when they work, how they work, with whom they work, and what they work on. At a few pioneering organizations, individuals even get to choose their workmates and their leaders.

    The freedom to challenge. Large organizations tend to make life uncomfortable for misfits and rabble-rousers. Dissent is hardly encouraged and usually squashed outright. Yet, it's the people who ignore the rules, flout convention, and question constantly who invent the future. Organizations must become more hospitable to dissent and deviance to adapt to all the changes in the environment.

    Unleashing freedom inside organizations is a tough challenge because it requires dismantling deeply embedded management principles and practices. Thanks to digital technologies, we can imagine organizations that are large but not bureaucratic, focused but not myopic, efficient but not inflexible, and disciplined but not disempowering. We believe that embracing and experimenting with emerging digital technologies and the powerful principles that power them—from openness to diversity to flexibility—will lead to new and infinitely more empowering management practices.

    That's why we're launching the Digital Freedom Challenge: To unearth the most progressive case studies and bold ideas on how digital technologies and the principles that undergird them can help us increase individual autonomy at work. What are you or your organization doing to expand the freedom to connect, contribute, choose, create, and challenge? Share your stories and bold ideas here and earn a chance to join the ranks of the MIX's celebrated management innovators.

    Gary Hamel, Polly LaBarre, and Michele Zanini are the co-founders of the MIX (Management Innovation eXchange), which hosts a series of M-Prize Challenges for management innovation. Carol Rozwell is vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner, and the architect of the Digital Freedom Challenge.