Succeeding with Agile

If Not Overtime, What?

Extended overtime is a popular tool because it’s cheap, easy, and occasionally effective. It takes nothing more than a manager saying, “I expect you here on Saturday,” and has an immediate cost of no more than an occasional pizza. If we wish to establish a culture in which we eliminate such an attractive, seemingly free tool as overtime, we need to offer something in its place.

Tony Schwartz and Catherine McCarthy of the Energy Project believe they have the solution. They point out that time is a finite resource—we cannot add hours to our day. Energy is different, they say: We can add energy. We know this intuitively. There are days we come into the office energized and are hyperproductive. And then there are the days ...