Hitting the half-century

I'm Still Standing

50 Sent

This the 50th one of these Not-Newsletters so I thought I would take a moment to celebrate (because I tell people that is a good thing to do and I am really crap at doing it) and to reflect on what I’ve learnt.

The first of these sort-of weekly Not-newsletters came out  just over a year ago on Feb 5th. ‘Sort-of weekly’ because I didn’t want to make it a burden, turn it into a job and suck all the joy out of it (oh yes, I’m very good at THAT. The celebrating thing? Not so much).

Originally, it was going to be a podcast but I quickly realised that a) doing a podcast is quite hard and b) I have a voice for writing. I figured out writing is my thing and I wanted to get on with it quickly, to work out what I think and also to express my anger at the state of work today.

Has it worked? Well, I have covered a wide range of topics and what seemed before like a seething morass of ideas, concepts, bugbears and howls of anger now looks a bit more discernible and connected. Themes have emerged. Thoughts have clarified. And I’m not so angry.

Actually, I am still angry but I have channeled the raging into more effective salvos against the miscreants. And I’ve found some new ones of those, like McKinseys (thanks, Geoff!).

For my readers? You’re the judges of that but at least some of you have said some kind and encouraging things and I’m really grateful for those. And if you don’t like it, why are you still reading it?

But thanks for hanging in there.

It’s Been So Long

I’ve been on the path of making work better for some time. I went to an open space event called ‘Why aren’t organisations shifting?’ back in 2015 and we were sure we were on the cusp of change. Later that year, I heard Frederick Laloux speak at the RSA about ‘Reinventing Organisations’ and met lots of others who were looking for change and felt we now had the language to make it happen. I went to several meetings and workshops with these like-minded individuals over the ensuing years.

We were convinced that the pressure on the system to change would cause that seismic shift that we believed was necessary, like the earthquake that happens when the forces of two tectonic plates overcome the friction. But despite our enthusiasm, conviction and heart-felt desire, the status quo remained fairly impervious to change.

We’d probably still be bashing our heads against that brick wall if it wasn’t for the pandemic. It seems we were looking for the wrong type of natural disaster - and it wasn’t a metaphorical one but an actual one. Who’d have guessed?

COVID delivered the pattern interrupt that we needed. It’s made change much more possible, it’s shaken the system and loosened the ties. There’s been a clear shift already from the norm being 5 days in the office to it more flexible patterns but that’s not enough on it’s own. It’s not a done deal that we will move to better, more human ways of working, we have to keep pushing.

COVID has opened the door and we’re half-way through. Now we need to take it off its hinges.

Show Me The Way

Working from home and the adoption of ‘hybrid’ working (or whatever you call this more flexible approach) has mitigated some of the crappier aspects of work for many. It’s forced organisations to place more trust in their people, give them more autonomy over their work, do more to acknowledge and accommodate their personal lives, provide better mental health and wellness support.

People have loved having to commute less, not having to get dressed up every day, not having to compromise their health and diet, spending more time with family, friends and pets. It’s put work and life into a better balance for many. They are happier and more productive as a result.

But the back sliding is already happening. Flexibility is being constrained, attempts are being made to re-assert control. These wins are having to be defended.

And there’s still a hell of lot else that needs fixing. There’s plenty of crap left to be removed.

What we’ve seen are personal gains, which are very welcome but are unevenly distributed (a significant minority are worse off) and not guaranteed (as we’ve already seen with Return to Office mandates and the like). What we need are systemic changes. Whilst organisations still reward psychopathic behaviours and treat employees as replaceable cogs, there’ll still be plenty of crappy behaviour, bad bosses and toxic cultures.

System change is notoriously hard but as Buckminster Fuller said,

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

There are already models out there that decrapify work and could replace what we have today. There’s plenty of evidence of things that work, today, and outperform the old models on almost every criteria. These are the possible futures that we need to bring to everyone’s attention.

There isn’t going to be ‘one model’ for the future anymore than there is actually one model today. Each organisation is going to need to craft its own future but it can be a variant on a theme. They can take practical lessons as well as inspiration from the organisations that are pioneering new approaches.

We need to publicise these alternatives and make it clear, a different way of working is not only possible but desirable, and it’s now within our reach.

Heaven Is A Place On Earth

So what do I think the future organisation looks like? Well, I’ve already written about ‘The Decrapified Workplace’ but there’s a few trends that I think will become increasingly important.

I think that organisations will increasingly become networks of self-organising teams, connected by digital platforms, operating within an ecosystem. Existing power hierarchies will dissolve, bureaucracies will shrink. The organisational boundaries will become quite porous and people and organisations will have fluid relationships with the core entity and each other.

What will bring people together are a set of ethics, an agreed purpose and a sense of community. This will evolve over time, shaped collectively through continuing dialogue.

The teams will often be distributed and mostly work asynchronously (I think this is the next big change to how the majority of people work and asynchronous tools will see lots of innovation and development), meeting synchronously for short, intense bursts to develop relationships, share and learn from each other and have fun.

I don’t expect every organisation to become like this. In fact, given that most predictions don’t come true, probably none will!

You might think I am being ridiculous panglossian and you might be right (I am a naturally optimistic person, albeit with a well-developed sense of irony!). However, this model delivers such a wide range of benefits that it will enable organisations to outperform their competitors. The market will do the rest.

If ‘leaders’ don’t do this because it’s the right thing to do (to treat people well and realise their potential), they’ll do it because it’s the smart thing to do. I’d prefer the former but I’ll take the latter.

Holiday

I’m taking a break for a couple of weeks as I’m going on a couple of trips (including going skiing and I’m desperate to get back on the slopes after missing two years due to COVID), so I won’t be so active on LinkedIn or sending this out.

I shall be reflecting and pondering a bit whist I’m away, so I might change this up a bit when I resume. Or I might not, it depends what wisdom the mountains share with me.

But rest assured, I will be on the piste again.