Friday 11 June 2021

Moving on from working in ways that no longer work

 Listen to the podcast version of this post 

Each Friday's podcasts are always under 10 minutes.

This is episode 112. 

I wrote an ebook in May 2017 that contains my best insights, inspiration, and ideas for our times from my first decade of blogging. You can download ‘Meaningful Work and The Meaning Of Life’ here.

In the ebook I reference what I believe are four distinct ages in recent human history.

Firstly the Agricultural Age of 10-12000 years ago. At the end of this age the key roles were Landowners and Labourers. Power was in the hands of a few.

Then the Industrial Age that commenced 300 years ago. Key roles were Industrialists and Factory workers. Power was still in the hands of a few.

The third distinct age in human history, The Information Age, began 50 years ago. The key roles technology guru’s/experts/entrepreneurs and knowledge workers, a term created by Peter Drucker in 1959 that found its place in this age. Power was still however in the hands of a few.

The current and fourth age I call The Purpose Age. It began perhaps 30 years ago. The fall of the Berlin wall was certainly a sign of significant change.

I believe that this purpose age is an age for the foreseeable future. The key roles are Differencemakers and Insightspreneurs (people able to turn information into useable insight/s) and wisdom workers.

The really big change in this purpose age is that power is now in the hands of many.

At the moment this power is only used wisely that I can see in small pockets.

A revolution is on our doorstep though as differencemakers and insightpreneurs become wisdom workers, a term I will credit to the writer and CEO of Age Wave, Ken Dychtwald, Ph.D. who from what I can tell coined the term in 1989. Wisdom workers will break the digital spell that we’re currently under. HT also to Chip Conley.

For me wisdom workers are todays artisans and meaning makers. They are the role models of value delivery and of what it means to be a human being fully alive in the 21st century.

This all represents a gigantic opportunity to review and reimagine the way you work.

Fully alive human beings I describe in my writings as people who are universally aware, emotionally healthy, mentally alert, physically active and spiritually alive. Learn more here.

I recommend undertaking a 90 to 180 day project with your team members about what it means to be wisdom workers in your team.

I have capacity to work with half a dozen teams. To express your interest please call me on 0418 807 898.

I recommend your project explore and take action on the following:

Seek a shared-view (get on the same page) with your colleagues about the following


a) Your purpose as a team.


b) The expected output or results of each individuals role.


c) Your use of email, social media and how many meetings you have, their purpose and their value.


Personally I'm on a mission to eliminate workplace meetings. When you stop having meetings and start having conversations you will accelerate your purpose impact and your results overall.

d) How will you elevate your people leadership, embrace process innovation, and enhance your purpose impact. See overview of these three below.

People Leadership is seeing, sometimes unearthing, mostly magnifying and enhancing people's essence (unique personal wisdom) including your own.

Process Innovation is thinking like a rebel, radical, dissenter, disruptor, heretic, non-conformist, contrarian in always questioning the status quo (normal) and then ensuring that your processes always mean it’s simple for people to bring their essence to their work.

Processes include policies, procedures, practices, principles, philosophies, systems and structures

Purpose impact is about identifying and then pursuing your cause beyond profit.

I subscribe to Verne Harnish’s regular emails. In the one of 3rd June 2021 he references that Purpose and Process are two keys to managing a remote workforce – or any workforce! according to a new book by Spencer Stuart’s James Citrin and Darleen DeRosa called Leading at a Distance: Practical Lessons for Virtual Success.

Verne also quotes from another book How to Thrive in the Virtual Workplace by Robert Glazer, founder and CEO of Acceleration Partners:


68% of employees want to remain working remotely – and even if there is a return to the office, only 2% want to be there full-time.

These percentages tally with my own research.

Today as I was putting this podcast together I read a piece by the folk at The Ready called ‘Create an empowered organization using participatory governance’ It’s a very different approach to the norm yet another example of Moving on from working in ways that no longer work. Here's the article.

Over to you. What ways of working do you need to move on from?

Become the wise leader you want to be.

Ian

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