Open Management opens up the Future | Employment Information | Colorkrew

If you can work more freely at Sonic Garden > freelance work > conventional company, then no one will leave Sonic Garden

Keiji

The areas covered by each programmer is wider than I imagined.
It means, not only in the technical field, they are in charge of customer relation and deeply involved in the business building with the customer as well, right?
Communication with customers done by programmers can be ongoing sales promotion, so programmers can also play the role of salesperson.
Then I think that each of your employees could work as a freelancer and I wonder why they won’t leave your company.

Kuranuki

Most of our employees who switched to our company are those who want to keep working as a programmer forever. As programmer, a company will request you to be a manager in your late thirties and, if you deny it, your salary will not rise anymore in many cases. I always thought what a pity it is.
Although you are polishing your skills as an experienced programmer in the middle of the field, you must throw it away on your way…
In the world of sports, it can happen that physical problems come up with age and you must retire. But as programmer, I believe you could still make use of your knowledge even if you get older.

However, when you become freelance, there are many things you must do other than programming.
Although you start working freelance to become free, it is actually very difficult. Other than programming you must also work as administrator, salesperson and so on. Furthermore, it will be over when you get sick.

Our company is supposed to do 100% programming without thinking about any other things. Programmers can work more freely at our company than as freelancer. Then there is no reason to leave our company.

Keiji

I think that there are many people misunderstanding, but also from the previous story the programmers mentioned by Mr. Kuranuki are not only writing programs, but also doing some other jobs around. Otherwise you cannot create anything good.

Sonic Garden’s definition of “Programmers”

Kuranuki

You are right. There are some misunderstandings since we often use the word ‘programmers’. But programmers are not those who only write a program according to the specifications.
They are people called coders, and I think there is no job just to type something according to the specifications nowadays.

Keiji

Hey, everyone at Colorkrew, please listen to him carefully!! (Laughing)

Kuranuki

Real programmers think through what he wants to make and plan it even without someone’s help. In my eyes Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are both programmers.
Programmers are those who creates a product from zero and it is a very creative job, in our company's definition.

Our task is, in the first place, to solve the problem of the customers.
This is common knowledge at our company.
For example, a doctor’s job is not doing a surgery, but curing the patients’ illness. Surgery is just a means for his job.
And a lawyer’s job is to solve legal problems, but not to just have legal knowledge.

Our job is to clear customers’ problem with the help of IT.
Jobs dealing with people will surely remain in the future, so that our job will not shrink, nor it will be taken away by AI. I assume our work will remain for a long time.
And to solve problems, we focus on programming in any case. We will never compromise on this point.

Keiji

Understood.
I think that all occupations should agree on the idea of “making a service together”. I was originally a salesperson and I think the job of a salesperson is not only selling the goods. For me, the range of sales is very wide.

I think the weapon to accomplish things is sales skills for me, and programming for Mr. Kuranuki.
For all occupations it could be same: Grow your skills towards a goal, expand the range if necessary and follow through.

Kuranuki

Furthermore, for the future, people who do not move their hands are no longer necessary, I think that they cannot survive without having specialty.

Keiji

At Colorkrew it’s the same.
Since we are delegating powers completely and making decisions at the work site, our concept sounds like; “We do not need anyone who only manages people like middle-level managers!”

The worst is “middle management-wise work”!?

Kuranuki

How about the people who review numbers? If I mention this, some people may get angry, but at an ordinary company someone must act as “necessary evil” to look at figures, right?

Keiji

In the first place, I think that “middle management-wise work” is the problem, instead of “middle management positions”.
In many companies, persons who refine their abilities in their own fields and produce results are chosen as middle managers.
But in many cases, middle management-wise work does not contribute to the growth of that person. It rather degenerates them when only managing people.
As a result, his personnel value in the market drops, becoming a person who can live only in that company.

That’s a terrible story. What a pity for the person!

Kuranuki

Normally, for the middle manager role, there are various things to do. For example, to report numbers altogether, to convey the message from the top, and to soak up voices from the bottom. If you have no middle level managements, how do you tell messages and how will you share everyone's voices?

Keiji

For communication, we use our company's internal SNS “Goalous”. For ordinary in-house SNS, you will set up a topic and the communication is done by posting such like “I had this kind of thing”, “I will do this” and so on.
Goalous is slightly different. First, all employees will set goals and disclose their goals.

For example, as for me, there is a business goal as the leader of Colorkrew. At the same time, I have goals as a salesperson of Goalous.
As a salesperson of Goalous, for example, we have set the goal of “introducing to 100 companies during the current term.”

As the next step, actions towards the goal can be made. For example, “Make Sonic Garden use Goalous! Today, I presented it to Mr. Kuranuki!" This is also one of my sales activities.
Then I will post my own activities as a photo action.

If you are using Goalous, you do not need to report, as you know what others are targeting and what they are doing about their goals.
It is faster to see Goalous and check “What's going on?” rather than a regular interview. Communication is done in a timely manner.

Kuranuki

Are you reviewing the goal regularly?

Keiji

In Colorkrew, we divide things in 2 halves of the fiscal year, and we set goals every 6 months, but we will make a new goal anytime we have a new target.
For example, even in the middle of the second half (October to March), if a new goal called “This is it!” is made on March 1, then a new goal will be set at that time and activities will start.
It is the same way of working itself.

People won't grow fast with conventional goal setting

Keiji

In the first place, I noticed that the conventional way of setting targets is not good enough.
A company aims to achieve something with its “Vision”.
Teams and individuals then have a goal to make that vision come true. And actions towards the goal become your daily work.

Many companies do Management by Objectives (MBO), but I feel that “what they are doing for” deviates from their original purpose.

Kuranuki

A company stands there, with different departments. Then each department assigns given budgets and missions to individuals, and evaluate their performances after half a year, that's how it works, right?
But instead of deciding them by the boss, everyone can make their own goals.

Keiji

It's almost like that.
And, it is an evaluation of how much you achieved for this goal.
So, if you will get evaluated, how do you think individuals will make goals?

Kuranuki

You will make it comfortable, won’t you? (laughing)

Keiji

Oh, yes. (Laughing)
For example, if you are a salesperson, you will hold all the trump cards and set your goals lower on purpose. After a while, you will use your cards and assert that you reached more than your first goal.

Kuranuki

Moreover, if you use too many trump cards, you will be asked to put out more next time. So, you will take care not to do your best. It happens very often. What a nonsense!

Keiji

You should have a vision, set a goal to make it come true, and go ahead with it. But if you make this goal ambitious, you become painful.
There is a big conflict.
Therefore, Colorkrew abandoned the idea of evaluation by goal setting.

Kuranuki

The goal and the evaluation are not linked, are they?

Goal, action, salaries are open

Keiji

Although we do personnel evaluation for salary decision, we do not evaluate the degree of goal achievement.
Recently I often think of what “personnel value” is: (1) the role of that person, (2) the goal set for it, and (3) the action for the goal.

Kuranuki

After making their roles and goals open, are those people who make a lot of actions be well evaluated?

Keiji

It is not a matter of amount, but everyone can see what kind of activity they are doing for that goal and whether it is a useful activity.
All activities are displayed in Goalous feed as actions. For example, if someone has a novel challenging goal and posts “I got the first order!!”, we become so excited and cerebrate them.

In terms of the personnel system in our company, Colorkrew thinks that it represents the personnel value of an employee if his role, goal, and action are visible.

In a capitalism world, what corresponds to value is salary.
There are other reward and remuneration, but it is salary that corresponds to the value in a visible way. It is not good to give low salary to people who have high values, and vice versa.

So, we made it all open. Salaries, actions and goals, all of them.
Then, what will happen? For people who want to raise their value, they have to set demanding goals and make actions to achieve them. Otherwise nobody will admire you.

Colorkrew has also a unique way of personnel evaluation. You can nominate the person who evaluate you by yourself.

Kuranuki

Really? Don’t you take bribes? (Laughing)

Keiji

The keyword “open” comes into play here.
For example, you have a good relationship with Mr. A, Ms. B and Mr. C and would like to ask them for your evaluation, but you won’t ask Ms. D since you don’t get along with her. If the others around you see it, they will think “Oh, that's how you do it?”.

Kuranuki

I see.
If everything is open, you are not monitored, but you will regulate yourself. Since our company is basically open as well, I can understand it very much.

In our case, we don't have bosses, so you have no need to apply for expenses. You can spend so much as you like.
However, all the information is open, everyone can see the amounts used by employees, including myself. If it’s all open, I cannot afford to abuse them.

Keiji

Understood. (Laughing)
As for Colorkrew, expenses are made public throughout the company via Power BI.

Kuranuki

Everyone is a civilized person, so if you do bad things you know that there is a risk.
So, I am not watched, nobody is seeing me, but I will try not to do bad things. A small benefit could cause a huge damage.

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