素材記事：The Four Freedoms We Want at Work
素材写真：Photo by Arlington Research on Unsplash
With a touch of humanities flavor, an organizational psychology researcher discusses the four essential freedoms in the workplace. It’s well-organized and seems useful for judging whether a work environment fits you.
The freedom to fail: to take risks, conduct experiments, learn from them, and be coached for future opportunities. This is common sense now, but very few organizations actually implement it. It’s the first point in ensuring psychological safety. Without the sentiment of “Go ahead and fail as much as you want! We’ve got your back!” no one will engage with innovation. After all, the probability of failure is higher there.
Seemingly similar but distinct is The freedom to fade: to periodically step back from the spotlight and performance pressure. It’s about whether the environment allows you to press the pause button and say, “I’m not quitting, but can I take a break?” Without this, the more talented individuals are the ones who will officially leave the organization and never come back.
In university terms, this is the “leave of absence” system. My university, APU, has surprisingly low barriers for taking this leave; it feels almost like they’re openly encouraging it, saying “Go ahead and take a break!” As long as you follow the formal procedures, you can maintain your student status with paying almost nothing. I think it’s fantastic.
Once you’re over 30, a 2 or 3 year age difference is practically negligible. But a single year in your youth is incredibly significant. Taking a leave of absence during university, considering this impact difference, has the potential to completely transform your life depending on how you spend that time.
That’s why I actively recommend it to many students who come to me for life advice. Quite a few seminar students of mine do it too.
It’s the same once you enter society and start working for a company. You need an environment where you can say, “I’m going to fade out for a bit.” Even if that environment doesn’t exist within the company, however, having it at home at the very least serves that purpose.
少し人文系学問的なテイストも入れて、組織心理学の研究者が職場で不可欠な4つの自由について語っています。上手くまとまっているので、自分とフィットする労働環境を判断するのに役立ちそうですね。
The freedom to fail: to take risks, conduct experiments, learn from them, and be coached for future opportunities.は、今やもう常識でありますが、実行できている組織はとても少ない。心理的安全性を担保する最初のポイントですよね。どれだけ失敗してもいいぜ！チームでケツを持つぜ！というセンチメントがなければ、誰もイノベーションに向き合いません。だって失敗する確率の方が高いんだから。
一見似ているが異なるのが、The freedom to fade: to periodically step back from the spotlight and performance pressure.です。「別にやめるわけじゃないけど、ちょっと休憩させてもらっていいですか？」と、一時停止ボタンを押せる環境かどうかということです。これがないと、優秀な人間ほどガチで組織を離れていくことになる。
大学で言えば休学の措置ですよね。私が所属する大学は、この休学がびっくりするほどハードルが低く、むしろ建前レベルでも「どんどん休学せよ」と言っているんじゃないかという気安さです。正式な手続きさえ踏めば、授業料をほぼ払わずに、ちゃんと学籍を維持してくれます。素晴らしいと思います。
30歳を超えれば、2歳や3歳の年の差なんて誤差にすらならん。でも若い間の1年というのは とてつもなく大きい。このインパクト差を考慮して行える大学時代の休学というのは、過ごし方によっては人生を一変させる可能性があります。
なので、私に人生相談に来る多くの生徒たちには積極的に勧めてますがね。ゼミ生にも結構いるし。
社会に出て企業に勤めるようになっても同じです。「ちょっとfade outしますわ」と言える環境は必要ですね。企業内にはなくても、家にあれば最低限それは作用しますけどね。
