The ReFormation of Work by Dr. Charles Grantham
Students of organizational development and futurism have
been blessed with the ability to witness the Future of Work happening before our
very eyes and in a relatively short period of time.
With the rise of the Internet, greater cost pressures on
companies and the disaster of September 11th, coupled with changing
attitudes towards work, greater numbers of workers have been working from
locations other than the traditional work environment. While some may see this
as a temporary phenomenon, others see it as the end of a beginning and the start
of something new that will change the way we work forever.
About 50% of the workforce will work in numerous locations
depending on hand task at hand, tools available and the requirements of the
customer. The industrial model of
everyone at the same place, same time (which was build on an ‘economy of scale
principle’) will begin to disappear. Work
activities will be distributed across central offices (40% of time), remote
locations (40% of time) and transient community locations (20% of time).
The normal (sic) 8 hour workday will be spread across a 14
hour window to accommodate collaboration across continents, quality of life
needs and for workers families to be in sync with community and educational
activities.
|
Here’s
how much time you
have you have |
.
. . to |
|
2
minutes |
..take action on
immediate requests for your attention.
If
you can’t handle it that quickly, then to needs to go to someone, or
someplace else! |
|
2
hours |
.
. . hold face-to-face meetings. If
it takes longer than that, you’re not planning!! |
|
2
days |
.
. . .respond to electronic requests If
you can’t get to it by then, you’re wasting your time and
everyone else’s. |
|
2
weeks |
.
. . assemble a work team and
commit to a plan If
you can’t find the right people and
the right plan by then, the project will fail |
|
2
months |
.
. . identify a business opportunity and test it with customers If
you can’t do it by then, your competition can |
|
2
years |
.
. . nothing at all If
your static plans reach out years into the future, the world will have
passed you by long before you get them done. |
People will shift their work activities to their core
competencies for approximately 80% of their time.
Everything else will be handed off to someone with complimentary
competencies. People themselves
will become less ‘vertically integrated’ and grow loosely coupled
collaborative networks. No more
‘jack of all trades’. The
remaining time will be devoted to learning new skills and competencies.
People will become highly networked for the duration of
individual projects. They will form
up into molecules of several people; stay together for a project, break apart
and then into new molecular forms. The
As the Internet speeds up our social processes, projects
take on new meaning and last only a brief time.
The average project length will be one year, with a rarity of a multiple
year project. The richness and
variety of work available will motivate people toward a constant mix and re-mix
of activities. Most knowledge
workers will find themselves ‘employed’ on several projects simultaneously.
Modern corporations are an artificial legal structure
created within the past 100 years to minimize the risk associated with control
of large asset bases. As Peter
Drucker so aptly notes, they have out lived their usefulness.
The assumptions, upon which they were built, are not longer valid.
Primary among these is that large organizations were required to
capitalize the investments required in the ownership of the means of production,
such as factories. With a shift to
knowledge work, factories may not be needed and employee’s more often owns the
means of production (their knowledge and experience).
Confederations of business clusters will instead move to
the forefront. They will be held together by strategy; not ownership of assets.
As the move towards individualism (i.e., free agency) approaches 20% of the workforce, the need for different workforce support structures will emerge as a business opportunity in itself. Organizations will emerge that provide marketing, administrative services, retirement plan membership and group health insurance to this group of workers.
These companies will grow out of existing human resource
service outsourcing companies
The revelations of corporate greed and failed governance
which came to light in 2002 has leading to a decrease in worker respect for
business leaders. The ‘cult of
the CEO’, which characterized the late 1990’s, will quickly wane.
This will be replaced by a new category that emphasizes a small unit
leader, a person whose major competency is the ability to build teams.
They will be the bridge between idea and bringing product to market.
These executives will eschew the traditional trappings of corporate power
and will focus on status among their team members as a prime motivator.
The era of Jack Welch as cultural icon has eclipsed.
For the majority of the 21st century two basic
forms of worker/company relationship existed in the
There was recently a story on National Public Radio (
As we move from a commodity production base (in the First
world) to a service and knowledge economy creative talent will be compensated
for their efforts based on how effective they make their customers in their own
lives. Doctors get paid to keep
people well; professors based on incomes of former students; accountants on
wealth created; executives on five plus years return on investor’s money.
The question will be “what did I do to make your life easier, longer,
more satisfying?”, not “how long did it take me to do it?”
We no longer live in a world of certainty—as if we ever
did. The illusion that Homo sapiens
controlled their fate has crumbled with the evolution of the industrial,
mechanical age. This, coupled with
the increasing velocity of nearly all human activity will create a constant
state of change.
Work projects will begin with some goals and vision, but
will continuously morph as the projects rolls on, being responsive to external
influences. This means that project
budgets will be moving targets, deadlines somewhat arbitrary and final design
impossible to predict. Managers of
certainty will evolve into leaders of ambiguity.
The work world of the future will look more like a
basketball game than a baseball game. Baseball
is a methodical game with defined roles and a metered pace. Basketball players
have defined positions but there are very few requirements that they stay in one
place. In fact, a successful basketball team constantly moves, shifts and
rotates the ball. Constantly shifting roles, responsibilities and required
competencies will be the hallmark of the new employee.
Brute force will be replaced by stealth.
This implies the demise of the logic of ‘economies of scale’, which
characterized the industrial age.
Bigger isn’t better; and nimble becomes a good thing.
Social interaction in the workplace will move from highly scripted,
stable interactions such as those found in a baseball game to the shifting,
fluid patterns of a basketball game.
A key value added by any individual (their brand equity) to
a work effort will be the amount of social capital they bring to bear on the
tasks at hand. Their social capital
will be the extent and strength of social bonds which exist within their social
network. These networks are now
morphing from a village, office model to one of a ‘work unit’ to a
completely networked individual. Status
will be individually defined; social control will be more internalized.
Organizations will need to recognize that value in an
individual will be through their social capital and the company will need to
develop thee relationships with the employee also.
People will adopt a more singular,
‘I’m responsible for myself’ attitude in their work relations.
Instead of having implicit rules of behavior and action
coming from commonly accepted social values, business molecules will generate
their own rationality. The texture
of a work organization will come from its connectedness in action.
Just like a crossword puzzle, the work unit will take on more meaning
‘as it is filled in’ by action.