Change Agents Worldwide has just released its first ebook featuring 21 views on the future of work. I have captured some of the highlights and set them in a flow to tell a part of the story, but you will want to read them all. Most formats are free of charge, and don’t forget to check out the last page.
We believe change is coming fast to the enterprise. We believe in the principles that drive the evolving Web: chief among these are transparency, sharing/collaboration, authenticity, and trust. —@chagww
The World of Work
The typical situation in which many businesses are stuck – taming emergent bottom-up behaviors external to organizations, while trying to give rise internally to similar emergence through top-down programs. —Thierry de Baillon
As I walk the halls of too many businesses, I see zombies. They were once new employees, alive, full of excitement and vitality; they were one part optimism, one part tenacity with at least a sprinkle of ingeniousness. Now those characteristics have all but vanished. Reluctantly, they have become cogs in the machine. —Kevin Jones
The last decade has been all about the social business buzz with organizations introducing new technologies with old-world thinking. —Ayelet Baron
How to Ensure the Failure of Your Change Initiative: Engage with your legal team and allow them to make the policies for use of the new capability as restrictive as possible. —Bruce Galinsky
Generation Y: So when I make the realization that I am a shiny new cog in an old, rusty machine, you, my manager, must act quickly to help keep me engaged, productive, and happy. —Carrie Basham Young
Re-thinking Work
The possibilities for what your organization can become when you no longer think of employees as cogs in a wheel are extraordinary. —Rob Caldera
In a knowledge economy, it’s the talent and knowledge of people, and the results of their productive interactions that create value — solving complex problems, inventing new solutions, engaging with customers. —Catherine Shinners
The collapse of workplace certainty requires us to – forge new partnerships; subvert hierarchies; connect & reconnect; add our special value. —Jonathan Anthony.
Rethinking how we pay people for an era defined by networked collaboration represents an important element in the quest for ongoing improvements in performance. —Jon Husband
Sharing complex knowledge in trusted networks requires a combination of actively engaged knowledge workers, using optimal communications tools, all within a supportive organizational structure. —Harold Jarche
The best outcomes come from creating an environment where individuals can think and learn together. —Clark Quinn
In your job, whenever you have to design a project or achieve a task that supports the classical Top-Down frame, think about doing it a different way. —Céline Schillinger
An important consideration is not always focusing on “What’s in it for me right now?” but on shifting our thinking to “What will best balance satisfying immediate needs, yet still nourish future opportunity in the process?” —Bryce Williams
Setting out to “change the world of work” is an ambitious goal. It takes a raw courage to challenge the status quo, to tear down the psychological walls that have built our understanding of “work” as we know it in the 21st century. —Susan Scrupski
Changing the World of Work
The world needs each of us to hear the call in the distance and move. The people making a difference are leaping one step at a time. —Marcia Conner
Deciding to trust your own choices of talented people is the first step to the future of work. —Simon Terry
If you believe change is needed but don’t know where to start, consider a very simple approach: revisit the annual objectives. Make 50 percent of the bonus count for engagement and exploration of better ways of working. —Danny DeGrave
A good Change Agent will use his network to reach out way beyond his company — and even his industry — to find the most forward- thinking people, study their way of working, and then apply that new knowledge to his own enterprise. —Jim Worth
Forget about job titles and job descriptions. They are constraints. Tear your eyes away from the rear-view mirror and have a good long look through the windshield. —Richard Martin
Storytelling is more powerful than official, crafted messages. “Look what they did” means more than “Our strategy is to do this.” —Jane McConnell
Be ready to start a journey. Nobody will guarantee you that this journey will be successful. But to quote philosopher Georg Christoph Lichtenberg: “I cannot say whether things will get better if we change; what I can say is they must change if they are to get better.” —Rainer Gimbel
Postscript
We don’t know exactly how it happened. Our chroniclers believe it started around 2020, when networks became an invisible fabric of society. Everyone and everything was connected to everyone and everything else. —Joachim Stroh
Hi Harold, great summary. Just been reading through the book today via Richard Martin. We’re huge advocates for this new future of work at Somewhere. Stowe Boyd just wrote about us http://research.gigaom.com/2014/01/somewhere-is-linkedin-for-the-new-way-of-work. Let me know if you’d like an invite to test out :).
Looks quite different, Justin. It might be something that Change Agents Worldwide would be interested in.
The book looks interesting, but there’s a signup form barrier in front of it, so the cost of the ‘free’ book is spam. 🙁
Agree
Spam you can opt out of anytime. Including just letting us know ahead of time.
Opt out or opt in. I know my preference.