I argued that the work factory is dead.
So what else could we kill off?
What about bureaucracy?
If we don’t have work factories, do we need bureaucracies to run them?
What about bosses?
If we’re organising our work – the what, where and when – what do we need managers for?
What about formal hierarchies?
In a distributed work environment, where people are networked together and working virtually for much of the time, what do we need hierarchy for? Somewhere to put the bosses we don’t need?
What about secrecy?
Everyone is connected and information flows in whatever direction it is needed, so why the need for secrecy? Transparency is key to co-ordination and collaboration over a distributed, self-organising workforce.
What about everything?
The illusion that we had about what organisations and work were has been shattered. It’s in fragments around us and we don’t need to put it back together again.
We can re-imagine what work is about.
We can re-imagine what organisations are.
We can re-imagine our lives, where work is part of life and not the other way around.
We can put purpose before profits, joy before the job.
Let’s have the courage to dream a little.