The Future of Work

The Future Of Work

View more documents from Jeff Brenman.

Another thought provoking look at the future of work.  This seventy-two (72) slide presentation makes a strong case that knowledge-based workers will increasingly find a workplace that’s transparent (performance more tightly measureable), flat (work will no longer be considered a place), competitive (no one is going to pay you for having a degree), and on-demand (work will become more of a contractual relationship characterized by its fluidity).

Humor: The Social Lubricant

With tension levels in many work settings running at unprecedented levels due to the current economic conditions spanning the globe, the critical role of humor as an organizational relaxant can not be overstated.  Yes, there’s no better time than now for keeping the ‘stuffed shirts’ at bay. The ability of humor to defuse tense situations is well documented – and needs very little proof for the reasonably informed.  What’s often overlooked, however, is the role that humor can play in advancing a host of various organizational outcomes, including boosting productivity, workplace satisfaction, creativity, and innovation.  Certainly Southwest Airlines and Ben and Jerry’s understand the inherent power of humor in the workplace, and have made it one of their core values.

 A recent article by Eric Romero that appeared in the Tavistock Institute’s journal, Human Relations, highlighted the ability of humor to promote psychological safety, which is the “shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking.”  Groups having a higher level of psychological safety have less defensiveness among members, and have a higher ability to make decisions based on data as opposed to politics.  We also know that the most charismatic leaders are very skilled at using humor to coalesce groups, and typically have no hesitation in using humor of the self-deprecating variety.  The bottom line: most workers spend a significant portion of their lifespan in the workplace.  Work can and should be fun. 

More on Aging Societies

The National Intelligence Agency, a center of strategic thinking within the US Government, reporting to the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and providing the President and senior policymakers with analyses of foreign policy issues, published a really interesting report nearly a year ago that predicts key global trends over the next 15 years that might shape world events.  The document is a really interesting read overall, and paints a pretty sobering picture of the future.

 One section related to the “pensioner boom,” and how aging societies in the US, Western Europe and Japan will place a heavy burden on their respective economies.  Provides further corroboration of the notion that seismic-level forces in our economy will delay retirement for many Boomers.

Personal Kanban

Nifty concept here that ties one of the key techniques found in Lean to personal organization and time management.  Two key themes are emphasized – one, limit WIP (work in progress), and two, visualize your work.  The originator of Personal Kanban, Jim Benson, uses this tag line at his website:  “It’s hip to limit your WIP.”

An Evangelist of the Big Picture

Russell Ackoff, one of the great systems thinkers of the 20^th century, recently passed away at the age of 90.   Many do not know that Russ was a very active advisor to August Busch in the 1960’s and heavily influenced the firm’s strategy – and subsequent prominence as a brewer. 

I recall attending a workshop led by Russ while working in Seattle in 1989.  His only prop was a set of clear overhead transparencies and a few different colored making pens.  He held the audience at the edge of their seats for nearly 8 hours!

 Few management thinkers, past and current, can match his wit and ability to reframe complex ideas in a simple manner. Here is a great article on the right approach to using mistakes for learning value.

A Follow-Up to Shift Happens

An earlier post featured Shift Happens, a very entertaining look at the major demographical forces at play in our global community.

Today I stumbled across a couple of You Tube videos with similar messages.  One of the videos was co-produced by Nitin Nohria of the Harvard Business School.

Enjoy!

Rocket Fuel for Effective Leadership

Mark Salter, John McCain’s alter ego, co-author, campaign advisor and personal confidant, is a former college roommate. If John McCain should win the presidential election, most political observers agree that Mark will occupy a significant post in his administration.

I recently found myself reminiscing on how far he’s progressed in his career. Being a student of talent identification, I locked into thinking about those personal attributes that he displayed 28 years ago that may have contributed to his success in politics and publishing. While a wide assortment of behavioral traits are surely at play, including his first-rate intellectual and communication abilities, he was known to many as a person with a bottomless reservoir of energy and endurance. Mark was clearly driven, and pursued personal goals with unbridled zeal and a single-minded focus. A sure signpost for his energy and endurance levels was a rare ability to function on five to six hours of sleep for extended periods of time (caffeine-free I might add) – and still pull perfect grades with plenty “fire in the belly” left over.

That recollection of Mark prompted me to reach a very obvious conclusion – one that probably many of us have forgotten, or surely take for granted. Successful leaders tend to have levels of energy and endurance, which allow them to persevere despite significant obstacles, hassles and opposition. Like Mark, the amount of time, energy and endurance that these leaders expend on their work is largely irrelevant, or at least not burdensome. To use a hackneyed phrase, their effort and toil is a “natural high,” or using the words of Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, they’ve achieved flow.

Energy and endurance seem increasingly important in today’s hyper-competitive global economy, yet very little research has been undertaken on the topic. Yes, the omnipresent Jack Welch has long touted the virtue of high energy in leaders, but its centrality in the workplace seems overlooked or forgotten. Is it time that it takes a more prominent place on the stage?

The Library Corner - Volume 1

Some new releases that deserve a place on the bookshelf….

Effective Executive Compensation (Michael Dennis Graham, Thomas Roth and Dawn Dugan)

Kudos to the authors for penning a very readable book dealing with a topic that’s traditionally been drier than a cheap box of cabernet sauvignon. Virtually no area of executive compensation is left untouched. Case studies are included – and more interestingly – they detail a number of executive compensation practices that increasingly are being frowned upon, or sure to invite shareholder discord at the annual meeting.

Strategic Staffing (Thomas P. Bechet)

This volume volume presents unparalleled insights into the world of strategic staffing. While geared more for the practitioner in a large enterprise, anyone who wades through this second edition will come away with some new techniques for more strongly linking staffing to business imperatives and direction.  Purchasers of the book gain access to online templates and other nifty resources.  Hats off to Mr. Bechet.

Warming Up the Workplace (Frank and Susan Pastizzo)

This book is largely based on the completely engaging presentations that Frank delivers to roughly 150 audiences annually. Frank offers a variety of tips, in easy to read short chapters, that would benefit many individuals in our Type A, greed-driven, “what about me?” society. An added bonus is a set of instructions on how to juggle three plastic shopping bags.

Note: These reviews have been written voluntarily by the author – and are not paid endorsements.

Generational Differences Revisited

The so-called “generational divide” in the workplace between Boomers and Millennials continues to draw fatique-level copy in the popular business press. It’s significance grossly over-spun, (see earlier Cenek Report post), some refreshing balance has been injected into the ongoing dialogue by two reputable business organizations.

The highly esteemed Gallup organization published survey findings in its March 2008 edition of Management Journal strongly indicating that all workers want the same things from their work. Similarly, Robert Half International issued a press release reporting that Millennials, like Boomers, share similar concerns, such as saving for retirement, having decent medical insurance, and achieving work-life balance. According to Half, they also expect lots from their leaders – and see them as partners in success and job satisfaction.

Pitching the notion of generational differences is a killer revenue generator for the most enterprising authors and consulting organizations. As Harry Levinson, formerly of the Levinson Institute and Harvard University, often remarked, many people in the world of work yearn for simplistic (but inherently incomplete) prescriptions for dealing with complicated behavior in the workplace. They believe, but mistakenly so, that it provides order and explanation to the unpredictable patterns of human behavior that swirl in all work environments. Nothing else more powerfully explains the large commercial success of the One Minute Manager – or the fabulously entertaining Morris Massey tapes that all training and development departments in the 1970’s could count on to salvage reactionaire scores.

By the way, one of the better articles on the topic was penned by Frank Giancola, and appeared in a past issue of Human Resource Planning.

More scholarly research is needed on the topic. To date, most of the discussion about generational differences is based on speculation, weak polling, and anecdotal evidence.

Dumb and Dumber

Lloyd Christmas ( Jim Carrey) of Dumb and Dumber fame could clearly be a target in Susan Jacoby’s “The Age of American Unreason.”

Ms. Jacoby, without apology, bemoans the state of American culture, specifically the lack of knowledge and a bias against intellectualism that pervades our society. According to a passage in the International Herald Tribune, she decided to write the book after overhearing two slackers in a Manhattan bar confuse Pearl Harbor with the Gulf of Tonkin incident. Her book is primed to set off debate and criticism, but it contains a theme that hits one of our cultural maladies with ICBM-like accuracy.

Her newly published book covers society in general, but many of our workplaces could be her sole target.

Just consider these questions:

• How many times have you heard the statement, “We need to bring this down to their level?”

• How many of your co-workers read more than 3 business related books per year (who are not students)?

• How often do you hear co-workers yelling “eureka!” when selected to attend a 5-day training program?

• How many consultants have been labeled as “too academic,” and passed over in favor of pop psychologists ( “Five and Dime” consultants) adept at entertaining and “talking the talk,” but who tout non-evidence based theories – or describe human behavior in terms that are so fuzzy that they could not repeat their comments if so asked?

• How many employee communications get rewritten to a 5^th grade reading level because they contain too many multi-syllabic words?

What do you think?