You’ve probably already seen this on Maddie’s blog. And if not, you can also see it on Charlie Judy’s HR Fishbowl site. And now I’m putting it here. What is it?
It’s a “manifesto” about the future of work. Maddie is the one who wrote it up, but it was the result of a weekend retreat last fall of twelve people (including me, Maddie and Charlie; Maddie lists them all in her post) in, of all places, Omaha, Nebraska. These are some exceptionally awesome people I got to hang out with that weekend, and I think the awesomeness of this manifesto is a reflection of that. I think we pulled together some very important thoughts in a very powerful way.
The purpose of a manifesto like this, of course, is to spark conversation. Go look at Maddie’s post, because it has 24 comments. And then look at Charlie’s post, because it has 25 comments too. And I’m sure the comments are going to continue to roll in. Let’s keep talking about this, because it’s really important.
And if you’ve read Humanize, you’re going to see some familiar thoughts and ideas. I know we get a lot of coverage of Humanize in the context of social media, since we apply the lessons of social media to how we run our organizations. But Humanize is fundamentally a book about management innovation. It’s a new view on leadership. It is ultimately about creating better organizations, more powerful organizations, organizations where people WANT to come to work–human organizations. We’re talking about the kind of organizations where work doesn’t suck.
So read the manifesto. Embrace this Manifesto’s challenge to make work suck less. Participate in the conversations, either here or on Maddie’s or Charlie’s sites, or wherever else they pop up. This manifesto is the beginning, not the end. “The future of work starts right here, right now.”
The Future of Work: A Manifesto
The future of work starts right here, right now.
This manifesto is about the future of work in a post-Cluetrain world. This manifesto is also about an emerging ideology of business, where people are at the center of a human ecosystem instead of boxed into a mechanical system.
If markets are conversations, then the people who are doing the talking and the listening and the sharing are the most important asset we have. The groundswell exists and is powerful–we’re part of the groundswell and we can make the future of work happen right now, in lots of little ways.
Heard the phrase, “the future is already here – it’s just unevenly distributed”? We all have the social capital to help fix that.
Let’s talk about the things that human beings bring to the table in a work environment. Let’s leverage our human attributes and make people and all of their whole selves the fuel that makes organizations and businesses grow and flourish. Let’s unleash our power as networked individuals. Let’s make Dilbert cartoons and The Office something we can enjoy as the relics of a past industrial, mechanical age. Let’s stop work from sucking. Let’s empower ourselves and each other to make our lives better, and thereby make our societies better.
******************
Some truths we hold to be self-evident:
- Work matters. We want work to suck less – for everyone, not just the few lucky ones.
- The distinction between “work” and “life” is artificial and a barrier to leveraging both the power of the individual and that of the organization.
- Work is the expending of effort for the creation of value. If there’s no effort, but it’s still considered work, it should be automated; if there’s no value, the work is pointless and wasteful.
- Work is the process of creating something for the purpose of human flourishing. Let’s get rid of what doesn’t do that. Work has meaning for every individual. Work involves identity.
- Work involves a sense of belonging. Work has meaning for the networks each individual is connected to. Work has meaning for the local community and for the global community. Work involves social responsibility.
***************
Therefore:
I. Human beings are the most important asset we have.
- We need to bring our whole true selves to work. Human-ness has value for the organization.
- Our best work is at the intersection of what we like doing, what we are good at doing, and what we get paid for. Our goal is for those three things to blend more. Flow has value for the organization.
- Work is about learning. Learning is never complete and we have a responsibility as individuals to make sure we’re always learning. We also have a responsibility as organizations to provide resources and environments for learning. This is not a choice, it’s an imperative. Learning has value for the organization.
- Work involves collaboration with others. Work doesn’t happen in a vaccuum. Collaboration – both internal and external – has value for the organization.
- We have a need to communicate and share what we do and how we each do it differently. We work better in the open. Transparency has value for the organization.
- We are able to do more than one thing. Our individual skills, whatever they are, have value and that value is marketable.
- The formula for marketability is the same for everyone but the weight of each component is different and may change over time. Agility, defined as the capability to evolve with our networks, has value for the organization.
- We are connected and we bring networks with us to work. Our connectedness has value for the organization.
- We will feel a sense of belonging and purpose if we’re involved in the direction and purpose of the system. Ownership has value for the organization.
- We build relationships. Relationships – and the human emotions involved in nurturing them – have value for the organization.
- We need to give as well as receive constructive feedback. Truth has value for the organization.
- We will trust our employers if our employers trust us. Trust has value for the organization.
- We have intuition as well as intellect. Intuition has value for the organization.
- We all aspire to love what we do. To love where we work and who we work with. Love has value for the organization.
***************
II. Organizations that flourish are systems that maximize the value of their human assets.
The blurring of boundaries between the “I” (individual human beings) and the “we” (organizations and systems) creates value that is both shallow and deep.
- Markets are conversations and organizations can harness conversations in order to create value.
- The pace of change is accelerating. The only way an organization will keep up is through its people, who have a natural ability to pay attention.
- Individuals represent nodes and networks. Organizations need to recognize the value of building relationships with networks.
- Proximity is no longer a prerequisite for relationships and networks. Let’s make the technologies that enable virtual communication invisible and ubiquitous, so we can just get on with it.
- Organizations need to better understand individual talent, and they need to better understand how to communicate the requirements for needs-based work.
- Individual talent means individual customization; which means an exponentially longer tail of marketable and monetizable skills.
- Individual talent means hyperlocal talent; invisible technology means that hyperlocal talent has global reach.
- Individuals have a wealth of so-called “soft” attributes that provide organizational value and are therefore marketable and monetizable. Let’s start paying for skills like the ability to:
- build relationships
- act as a bridge
- distill information
- focus deeply
- debate
- influence
- facilitate
- see the bigger picture
- tell a story
- manage complexity
- draw meaning
- write persuasively
- manage group dynamics
- solve open-ended problems
9. Strategic transparency is the only way to achieve trust; trust is the only way to maximize the value of the people in a system.
10. Trust provides structure and predictability in a much more powerful way than hierarchies and organizational charts do.
11. Strategic transparency enables clarity over control, also known as scalable simplicity – the capacity for all parts of the system to work towards the common goal of the system.
12. Decentralized leadership requires less middle management, but more middle level thinking.
- The role of management is to be the “keeper of the story”. To make sure there is transparency flowing from top echelon to front line.
- The role of management is to facilitate difficult conversations and manage conflict.
- The role of management is to facilitate the finding of solutions; not to dictate them.
- The role of management is to be the “connector”, to match people with the right skills and abilities to projects where those skills are most needed.
- The role of management is to be the “bridger”, to protect and ensure inclusion – to ensure that different voices and perspectives are heard and involved in the work of the organization at all levels.
- The role of management is to eradicate the fallacy of “best practices” – to ensure there is constant learning and agility in business processes.
- The role of management is to be the “space-maker”, to ensure learning can happen on a continuous basis by providing containers where experimentation is encouraged.
- The role of management is to remove hurdles to engagement.
- The role of management is to release the flow of information and data and to get it to the right people at the right time. The new workplace is data-driven; but information is not wisdom. It’s the human analysis of the data that drives value.
- Data is the start of experimentation and learning, not the end.
- The role of management is to hire talent that is agile enough to shift and flow based on market need.
- The role of management is to get out of the way.
13. Leadership is the systems’ capacity to shape its future. Leadership comes out of the group and participates at every level of the system.
14. The new human workplace has a responsibility for the sustainability of all the resources it uses, including human beings. The new human workplace therefore has a responsibility for social good.