There is this website @canva I use pretty often. For my work and for fun. It allows me to create, modify, try again, over and over. Endless possibilities, colors, designs and suggestions. This time, I managed a new year card for work 🤗 Got it printed even! So it makes me happy. I hope all of you have a nice day! 😜 . Y'a ce site que j'utilise assez souvent, Canva. Pour le boulot ou juste pour m'amuser. Je peux créer, modifier, essayer encore et encore. Des possibilités infinies, de couleurs, de designs et de suggestions. Cette fois-ci j'ai pu créer des cartes de bonne année 🤗 j'ai meme pu les imprimer! Ca me fait plaisir. J'espère que vous passez tous une bonne journée 😜 . #canvaprint #designforwork #creation #happy #edit #newyear https://www.instagram.com/p/CJGdFCKFgrM/?igshid=v7i6piwzcp0w
You may have noticed that I haven’t posted much of anything new in a couple of weeks. The final days of school, thesis, and graduation took over, and now I’m enjoying just a bit of a breather before returning to the work of work. I’ll be back soon, scout’s honor.
In the meantime, if you have the time and interest, please visit this link to take a 5-10 minute, 28-question survey on what work means to you. Thanks so much.
Mark Curtis, Fjord co-founder and chief client officer, tells us how design thinking can help forge the future of work.
This line, used here in terms of organizations, makes me think of the same on a personal level: “You need to take stock of what we at Fjord call the ‘vital signs’ – personality, instinct, craft and relationships – and think of your organisation as a living organism.”
In designing our individual work futures, where do we place and value personality, instinct, craft and relationships? How elemental is each? How do our unique personalities, instincts, crafts and relationships shape our respective narratives?
A word about 'culture' versus morale: Culture is a series of shared attitudes, values and beliefs manifested in behavior. You can 'feel' culture when you walk into an office. Culture can be bad if it’s founded on toxic beliefs, unethical attitudes and sketchy values. In that way, culture can be strong and morale can be low. Culture leads to high morale when it is intentionally shaped and bought into and lived by all employees.
Unhealthy organizations often have low morale — which contributes to high turnover and low rates of retention, and has been directly linked to a company’s ability to attract (and keep) top talent.
Sara Stowe, president and founder of Reel Culture, spoke with impactmania about how a company's cultural purpose can go awry and what is required to build a solid employer brand.
h/t to Herman for this link, in particular the following two exchanges:
Q: According to Forbes, 50 percent of our workforce will be free agents by 2020. What do you think work is going to look like in the future?
[Stowe]: That’s really an interesting question, because it’s something that I’ve been thinking about myself. I moved from being a full-time employee to being a consultant. One thing I have noticed and missed is my sense of belonging — feeling a part of something.
With the workforce going to 50 percent contingent labor by 2020, how do they get that sense of belonging? We’re seeing that in collaborative workspaces — the piece that you did with Great Space and Jody Turner. We’re seeing quite a few of the co-working spaces pop up here in Portland. WeWork has had tremendous success because it gives workers a sense of community.
I’m curious to see as that develops, what new dimension that’s going to bring to the workforce, and how all the consultants, freelancers, and contractors are going to network and maybe create a new way of working. I believe what will drive it is the very human need to feel like you belong and that you are part of something bigger than yourself and the work.
and,
Q: I interviewed economist Tomáš Sedláček; he said that in 20 to 30 years work and leisure will be interchangeable. What do you think of that?
[Stowe]: I’ve seen similar things where we shouldn’t be calling it “work life balance” but more “work life integration.” Certainly technology has primed the ability for me to get out of the office for a personal commitment, but not have to worry about missing an email or call.
It’s going be more incumbent upon the individual to manage that. Managers are going to need to build their emotional intelligence and their empathy to make sure that if somebody’s earlier in their career and maybe doesn’t know how to make that integration a healthy one, that they can help coach the way.
We look at managers more as coaches than delegators and reporters these days.
Today, all the chatter in leadership development is about millennials and retiring boomers. Let's be honest: for most organizations, no millennial is going to be tapped for a top job, yet many of these organizations are spending money on understanding their millennials and helping boomers feel good as they retire.
First off, disregard the silly, hyperbolic “Gen X Will Save The Workplace” clickbait.
Cut to the chase and go straight to this white paper called “The Marcia Moment: The Death of the Manage-Me Workplace,” which makes up for its unrelenting cheesiness with lots of generationally-relevant data and some insightful, values-based questioning to guide the conversation.
(Try to ignore that eye roll-inducing “Marcia Moment,” also.)
It's not just about automating the work people do, but about amplifying human potential. It's not about eliminating people, but elevating them. Technologies like Artificial Intelligence will liberate people from process-oriented tasks to concentrate on more human, creative and judgment-based work.
Regarding the importance of leadership in organizational change and preparation for the future of work, this bit of information:
For example, to combat their lack of experience in cloud computing, coding and data science, American multinational telecommunications conglomerate AT&T launched Workforce 2020 aimed at reskilling 140,000 workers for new roles (with the expectation they'd change roles again every four years.) In four months, employees who had taken the training filled half of the technology management roles and received 47 per cent of promotions.
To repeat the parenthetical aside buried there, “with the expectation they’d change roles again every four years.”
