In the book Drive is suggested to leave people autonomy about what to do, when, how and with who because the important is to make the work done.

I believe this is an incomplete sentence. A more complete one should be: the important is to make the work done in the most efficient way possible given the specific situation (competence, available resources,…).

Moreover it is important to make a division between work that requires creativity and innovation and work that requires following a plan.

In the first case, it is important giving a degree of autonomy, because autonomy increase motivation and some researches show that motivation increase creativity.

In the second case, hence it is important to collect people advice, sometimes it is necessary to limit the autonomy and be clear about the goals and how to reach them through a plan.

Only giving autonomy risks to do not complete important projects or completing them on delay or with higher costs. To reduce this risk is important:

• to be clear about the limits between autonomy and following a plan
• to balance autonomy and accountability where accountability is intended giving responsibility about reaching a goal.
• that the goals should be shared and valuable for the people involved.
• to increase the competence of the people. Competence makes people able to distinguish what is valuable and what is not.

Related Questions:

Related Topics:

• Motivation

References

• Drive | 2011 | Daniel Pink
• How Spotify Balances Employee Autonomy and Accountability | 2017 | Michael Mankins and Eric Garton for Harvard Business Review