More Freedom?

A lot to accomplish this summer.

Structure is something we've thought a lot about in our household recently.

This feels ironic, as summer is supposed to be the carefree and "fun" time of year.

We aspire for a more relaxed season that feels fun but also purposeful. One that doesn't feel rushed, but still ticks off each of the "Summer Fun" items we have posted in the kitchen. To get both, we realized we need a fluid structure. One we can count on, but that bends to what the day, or the moment, needs.

Say "structure," and most people hear rigidity, uniformity, and the opposite of freedom.

That's backward. Structure isn't sameness.

Structure is knowing what happens next.

It's predictability, and predictability is what makes judgment possible.

The best decisions are rarely clear-cut. They're determined by the circumstances around them. In these scenarios, judgment is paramount. But structure doesn't remove judgment. It gives judgment somewhere to stand.

It's not there to tell you what to do in every situation. It's there so you don't have to reinvent everything around it.

At home, it's a predictable bedtime routine, so our four-year-old knows what to expect. While she might not love it, at least she isn't trying to figure out what's coming next, and neither are we.

At work, it's the same tradeoff. A capable leader doesn't need a process that controls every decision. They need enough structure to know what's theirs to decide, what matters most, and where the boundaries are. Without that structure, it can look like people can't handle autonomy. Except they were never given autonomy. They were given uncertainty to manage, at the cost of doing the actual work.

The absence of structure doesn't create freedom. It creates uncertainty.

Leaders neglect structure because they don't want to be the one deciding everything.

But without enough structure, that's what ends up happening anyway.

And if the people around you have to keep coming back to you to find out what happens next, you haven't given them flexibility. You've given them dependency.

And neither of you is getting what you wanted.