Re-imagining Work

Within every unprecedented crisis - there is an opportunity, and this time is no different.

The Ancient Chinese culture calls it Yin-Yang, or dualism - when we look at events not with a lens of "good" or "bad" rather with a lens of "a bit of both".

"The philosophy of dualism describes how seemingly opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they may give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another."- Wikipedia.

In other words, the world is complex and with sufficient time and constant reflection, we might discover some unexpected lessons and new opportunities from the pandemic.

Now, I would like you to ask yourself these curious questions:

• How might we work differently, work better in the future?
• How can we rethink and redesign work - both on the personal and on the organizational level?

And if these large questions feel too overwhelming, You can take a notebook, pen and paper and start with these 3 personal questions first:

• What is work for You?
• Why do You work?
• How do you work best?

If you are wondering, my answers to these questions did change during the last 4 months. For my personal answers, read the PS. of this article :).

On the personal level, as uncertainty and unpredictability is here to stay, one things is clear - personal adaptability and agility is an essential skill we all need. The good news is, this can be developed - also otherwise termed as having a Growth mindset by Carol Dweck, American psychologist and author of the book Mindset. She explains this mindset as adopting an attitude of possibility, of "Not yet". In a community exploring these questions, we call this "Agile People". We can all become Agile People. (And if you are wondering, it is not about the tools Scrum/Kanban/etc. It is about embracing uncertainty and learning with our inner (self-)beliefs and acting on these with daily small actions.)

As we reflect on our individual motivations and aspirations for the future, it is good to then create a safe space for collective reflection. In agile companies, we often use the Open space format, or the retrospective format to frame these dialogues. Encourage storytelling, drawing, images, art - tap into your collective diversity. For the leaders of these organizations, prioritising our People and tapping into the Emergent Collective Wisdom of your people is key to be able to "rebuild" and "re-imagine" workplaces which are human-first and work for everyone. A business model that works not only shareholders but also for all stakeholders (employees, customers, supplier-partners, families) involved including the wider society.

As this process of disruption to the future of work already started before the pandemic, there is plenty of good examples and dialogue available online for reimagining how truly People-first organizations will look like. See our vision from Agile People 2019 here.

In the simplest version of a retrospective, you may ask your teams to discuss their needs, questions, reflections on the Agile People Principles in the context of your organization.

• What works, what do we want to continue doing? Why? What does good look like?
• What new ideas, experiments do we want to start doing? Why?
• What do we want to stop doing? Why? What do we want to try instead?

In the past 4 months, with 34 authors from around the world, - we performed a global retrospective on these questions. We reflected and wrote a book around our experiences with the necessary evolution of work and of business. The book - Agile People Principles - Your Call to Action for the Future of Work book is packed with stories and practices you can immediately try both on a personal and on an organisational level. But 34 of us can only go this far, to highlight key topics around which a conversation, an evolutionary thinking is needed. We need You the readers, the change makers to share your stories!

Please share with us, your pain points and your success stories - what are you doing to improve our current mid-pandemic experience and the Future of work!

We are hosting a live online conference which will create a space for dialogue on the 9-10th September 2020 - covering 48 hours in all timezones. At any time, do reach out to me and the other Agile People authors on any of the digital channels, now or later - we are curious to hear your Personal and Organizational definitions of Work.

PS. My Personal reflections about Work

For me Meaningful work is about helping to create and grow organizations that put People first - organizations that develop people, teams and communities - to tackle our big challenges of equality, sustainability, education, health. I would love to work with more clients who put the Planet and all other stakeholders front and center in their mission of why they exist. And because of my background in technology, this mission will most likely include some tech as well as people.

The Why for me has to be about making the world a little better every day. On the micro level it is about growing our personal leadership - e.g. how we gain confidence to show up authentically, relate with respect to others, appreciate and include our peers in our collective mission. On the macro level it is about closing the gaps in our society - be it about addressing health access, education opportunities or tackling financial inequalities.

The How is about facilitating co-creation, learning and co-evolution within these organizations - I love to work with a mixture of coaching, mentoring and facilitation using design thinking, agile, liberating structures and management 3.0 and many other goodies in the toolbox.