Focus on Outcomes, Not Origin: The Secret to Marco Polo Team Success
Mar 09, 2025
Marcus slouched in his chair, staring at the message on his screen. His top performer, Elena, had just given notice. The reason? Another company offered her full remote flexibility, while Marcus's team required three days in the office.
"But she was here last Tuesday," he muttered. "I saw her working at her desk." Elena delivered exceptional results consistently regardless of where she sat.
That's when it hit him: he measured the wrong thing.
Have you experienced this in your organization? A talented team member walks away because you valued their origin more than their outcomes?
The O in the C.O.N.N.E.C.T. framework for creating a positive culture in distributed teams is for Outcomes over Origin: Focus on Results Rather than Where Marco Lives.
I thought about Marcus' story during my Work Positive Podcast conversation with Kevin Eikenberry, author of The Long-Distance Team. Kevin shared something profound about location: "The work should define it. The context and the situation should define it. And it might not even need to be the same for everyone in the organization."
We all fall into the location trap. The notion that presence equals productivity, that visibility equals value, is deeply ingrained in our work culture's DNA. It's a holdover from the industrial age when workers had to be physically present to operate machinery or work an assembly line.
Today's knowledge work is different. Results happen regardless of where they're created.
BetterWorks mastered this principle. When I interviewed their CEO, Doug Dennerline, for the Work Positive Podcast, he described their approach to performance management. They have regular conversations about progress, obstacles, and opportunities instead of annual reviews focused on time spent and where.
The result? Their turnover rates stay below 5% in an industry averaging 25-35%.
This simple shift in thinking—from origin to outcomes—transforms work culture to embrace how Marco Polo teams best function.
Research from Stanford's Future of Work Initiative supports this shift. Companies that focus on outcomes rather than origin see an average 22% increase in productivity. Freed from "where" to focus entirely on "what" turbocharges outcomes over origin. Eighty-three percent of workers are more productive when they choose their work location.
Marco Polo teams with outcome-based metrics show 27% higher engagement than those with origin-based ones.
Please understand this about-face consists of more than just telling Marco, "You can work from anywhere." A complete reimagining of how you measure success is necessary. That's a roadblock many leaders stumble on. They talk "outcomes," but their systems and habits still orbit around the gravity of physical presence.
Marjorie Hook from Openly shared with me during our Work Positive Podcast conversation how they navigated this transformation. "Trust is the currency of remote work," she explained. They started by examining every performance metric they used. Any measure that relied on physical presence got scrutinized. Could they replace it with an outcome-based metric? If not, did they really need it?
The metamorphosis happened as they focused conversations on impact instead of activity. Managers replaced, "I noticed you weren't online yesterday morning" with "How are you progressing toward your quarterly goals?" They tracked problems solved and value delivered rather than hours logged.
Marjorie will tell you this shift requires courage. It requires releasing the illusion of control that comes with seeing people at their desks. It means trusting your team to deliver without constant supervision.
Take Elena's story. Marcus had an epiphany after her resignation. He looked at his team's metrics and realized something striking: His remote workers actually delivered more consistent results than those physically in one space. Impromptu meetings and office noise no longer distracted them.
Marcus went to his leadership team with a proposal: Let's pilot a fully flexible work arrangement without origin expectations that focuses on crystal-clear outcomes.
They started the pilot Marco Polo team. Within three months, productivity increased by 34%, while collaboration improved regardless of location. Marco became more intentional about connecting and communicating without the assumption of physical proximity.
What could your team achieve if you shifted from asking:
- "Where are you working?" to "What are you achieving?"
- "How many hours did you put in?" to "What impact did you create?"
- "Why was your camera off?" to "How may I help you succeed?"
An emphasis on outcomes over origins can transform your work culture so Marco and the entire Polo team grows themselves and your company's profits.
Taken from Dr. Joey's soon-to-be-released book, Marco Polo Culture: C.O.N.N.E.C.T. with Distributed Teams.
What's your question about creating a positive work culture with distributed teams? Ask Dr. Joey here.
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