There are many factors that impact how effective and sure-footed you feel at work. One of the most impactful of these is agency.
When we have high agency, we have a sense of control and confidence that we can make decisions to determine future outcomes. When we have low agency, we don’t feel that sense of control – we feel like some ‘agents’ outside of our control are determining the future. As a result, we might look to others for decisions, feel apathetic about outcomes, or feel powerless in relation to the decisions happening around us.
This plays out personally and professionally. Because a big part of our identity is meshed with our career, a loss of agency in one area will impact the other. Considering the current uncertainties in technology-based industries like ours, some experts are noticing that people are struggling to find agency more than ever.
Many people’s sense of agency at work is shifting, and not always in the same direction. AI, economic pressure, and accelerated change are reshaping how much control people feel they have, where they believe decisions are made, and what “ownership” even means in their roles.
Just when we want to be ramping up experimentation and innovation, there are pressures to deliver on short-term performance goals and a lower tolerance for failure (which may feel very real for people worried about their jobs).
Agency, autonomy, and trust
Agency is not purely a personal choice or a personal mindset, as Kavindu Narathota notes. You can’t fix it all on your own, especially at work, where agency is affected by leadership, culture, structural barriers, external pressures, and so on. If these other factors are particularly “oppressive,” even very capable people may become complacent or express the opinion that everything is out of their control. This is low agency.
The key elements of high agency are:
- Intentionality: The ability to define goals and identify the steps and actions needed to achieve them.
- Power: Having the resources, capabilities, and knowledge to act on your goals.
- Rationality: Being able to understand the circumstances of your situation and keep track of the outcomes of your actions.
- Forethought: The ability to choose the best likely actions to achieve your goals and anticipate the outcomes based on learned experience.
- Self-regulation: The capacity to monitor your emotions, behaviors, and motivations to help achieve your goals.
- Self-efficacy: A steadfast belief in your ability to succeed.
At work, agency is powered by autonomy and trust.
People want to know that their judgement, contributions, and ideas matter. They need to know that they can make decisions that will carry their team/organization forward in meaningful ways. Lots of organizations will say they do this, but it’s a case of actions speaking louder than words.
AI is affecting our sense of agency
In this new AI era, as we all adjust our operational practices, the impact to our sense of agency might be divergent: lower agency for some roles/practices and higher agency for others.
Some of the impacts of AI that can lower a person’s sense of agency are:
- They aren’t clearly “in control” of decisions or how decisions are made. For example, AI may be used to influence priorities, evaluate performance, or make decisions that used to be made by people.
- There is anxiety about capabilities or skills if there is a belief that the system knows better than them, or that it becomes a source of solutions that they used to provide.
- They feel pressure to move and commit faster, with less time to think through a problem or reflect on their work.
Altogether, it feels like there is less choice and that they deliver outputs but not strategic inputs.
Some of the impacts of AI that can elevate a person’s sense of agency are:
- They can set up, direct, and challenge AI outputs. Potentially in areas of strategic interest where they had not been directly involved before.
- They have renewed interest and investment in developing new capabilities or skills, and AI becomes a sounding board/tutor in self-directed learning.
- They trust AI enough for automated tasks and have confidence that their contributions outside of those tasks are still valued.
They believe they have broader reach and judgment, boosting their strategic mindset.
What makes the difference?
Some of it is related to the type of work someone does; how much can be automated, for example. Some of it is related to how involved they are in their team’s strategic plan for AI; do they get to shape the questions/agenda or just implement the tasks?
Attitude may also hinder or help, but I think it’s important to acknowledge that many people are renegotiating their role with themselves in an environment that is uncertain and changing.
The consequences are impactful
If we hold back or disengage from decision-making, problems and threats can get bigger. We lose momentum and we probably miss out on some opportunities.
Leaders can also feel low agency. They may be fighting to believe that their effort still matters when so much of what is impacting their business is not within their scope of control. They feel the weight of having to inspire and support their teams, while being unsure about the future themselves.
Merete Wedell-Wedellsborg has done a lot of work in extreme contexts of sustained threat and uncertainty. In these conditions, there are common adaptive responses. Leaders become more rigid, she says, and they may go back and forth between being overwhelmed (“I can’t deal with this now”) and trying to control things (“We need tighter rules, more discipline, less debate”).
As their responses are unpredictable and they are less certain about their own agency, it is harder for employees to feel aligned and motivated.
As Wedell-Wedellsborg comments, “What they are describing is not burnout as we traditionally understand it. It’s something quieter and more disorienting.” I think this likely applies to all levels in a typical organization.
Building agency for individuals
- Give people time. Tools that remove the painful stuff and make room for more engaging and high value tasks also contribute to autonomy/agency. Crucially, though, deploying tools “upon” people will not have the same effect as giving people time and resources to figure out efficiencies for themselves.
- Invest in learning, experimentation, and give permission to fail. Personalized learning paths that people can tailor to their needs help with autonomy. Experimentation allows people to make small bet hypotheses that they can test themselves, aligned with top-line goals, to explore opportunities or challenges.
- Keep decisions as local as possible. While it can make sense to choose standard tools (for continuity and discounts, for example), letting people choose the tools and methods to deliver on outcomes helps them have agency in their work.
- Acknowledge people who are trying to find solutions, even if they aren’t the right ones. People who are trying to find ways forward will make extra effort when they feel that their agency is a positive trait.
- Focus on ownership and accountability at every level. People need to feel like they own their processes and outcomes. They need to trust that they can control at least some aspects of the work that they do.
Building agency into your culture
- Be clear about what has changed and what has not. Leaders need to communicate frequently and as transparently as possible. Since most organizations work on refining what they already know “works well,” messaging will need to encourage change in some cultural assumptions. But those changes need to be framed as discrete and manageable. Providing anchors, such as trust and autonomy, can support agency and keep people grounded. Leaders need to acknowledge change is happening and that we aren’t going back to the “normal” we knew.
- Foster an “us” culture that respects accountability and autonomy within it. Leaders can’t be outside of the work that their teams are expected to do, but they can’t micro-control it either. Problem-solving with uncertainties and risks means people need to feel that those challenges are shared and that they have people who can help them to make better decisions.
- Seek out diverse perspectives. Now is not the time to lock in on a small circle of people who think the same way. Listening to new and “outside” voices can help to rejuvenate thinking and expose tactics and strategies that need to be challenged.
- Embrace playful curiosity. It’s a natural response to stress or feeling a loss of agency to get serious about things. Leaders and teams might try to maintain tighter controls against uncertainties. However, playful curiosity can jumpstart belonging, creativity, and exploration.
- Get rid of bureaucracy as much as possible. If there are barriers that prevent people from making decisions and getting things done, get rid of them. This doesn’t mean there are no guiderails, but using process rigidity and control to try to remove uncertainty will also remove agency.
