Musings Report #41 10-9-15 The Future of Work and the Work Place
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The Future of Work and the Work Place
In Musings #33 (8-14-15), I recounted my tour of Facebook's new headquarters in Menlo Park CA, and took the building's design as the starting point to discuss the difficulties in recreating Silicon Valley.
I also suggested that making the work place fun was part of the Future of Work.
Another monument to corporate innovation in service of increasing productivity was recently surveyed in BusinessWeek, The Smartest Building in the World, Deloitte's HQ in Amsterdam.
The video tour of the building (4:26) is well worth watching.
Clearly, both buildings are impressive displays of wealth and architecture. These are not cheap buildings.
Setting aside the design for a moment, let's ask: are these fun places to work? Would you like the "hot-desking" arrangement at Deloitte, or would you miss your cubicle/office?
I am guessing "hot-desking," small conference rooms, shared public spaces that are also work spaces--all concepts that are visible in the Facebook HQ as well--reflect the top tier of global corporations aiming to boost the productivity of their highest-paid, highest-value employees via innovating both the way they work and the work space.
Clearly, if you change the workplace radically enough, you also change the way people work.
After touring Facebook, I concluded that top global corporations are realizing that the highest-value employees will be more productive if they're having fun at work, if their hours are limited and they have the freedom to self-organize at least some of their work.
The Deloitte and Facebook HQs are architectural expressions of these ideas.
Will they succeed in producing more value for Deloitte and Facebook than competitors still in the hierarchical/cubicle/killing work hours model? I am guessing the new model is very likely to be more productive than the old model.
The importance of melding new self-organizing ways of working with a work space that encourages this (or eliminates the hierarchical layout of the old model) is highlighted in this long study of Zappos upending its old managerial hierarchy.
The road has not been smooth, as it turns out autonomy that lacks an easy-to-identify structure can be disconcerting to many people: A radical experiment at Zappos to end the office workplace as we know it.
After watching the video tour of the Deloitte HQ, I was left wondering: how many of these innovations could be incorporated into an old factory or warehouse space, for a lot less money?
If the goal is to make work more fun by making collaboration and self-organizing work teams easy, then how much of this could be brought to life in a big old abandoned space?
Insulation and heating/cooling are expensive in many locales, and so there are limits on re-using drafty, uninsulated spaces. But the designs certainly open up the possibilities for remaking existing work places and the way work is organized and managed.
Summary of the Blog This Past Week
I'm 61 and Took the Army Physical Fitness Test: Here's My Score 10/10/15
One Part of the Economy Is Booming: The Underground/Cash-Only Sector 10/9/15
When the Aristocracy Leaves the Commoners in the Dust, The Empire Is Doomed 10/8/15
What Happens to our Economy as Millions of People Lose the Habits of Hard Work? 10/7/15
One True Measure of Stagnation: Not in the Labor Force 10/6/15
Welcome to the Future: Downward Mobility and Social Depression 10/5/15
Best Thing That Happened To Me This Week
My little essay "The Fading American Dream of Working for Yourself" reached a wider audience this week... being self-employed is something I believe needs to be easier, not harder, if we are to progress...
Market Musings: Rally at a Critical Juncture
The SPX rallied as per technical expectations outlined in the previous Musings, and is now at the top of the trading range of the past month or so.
We all know there are lots of fundamental headwinds for global markets, yet we can't ignore the bullish upward thrust of the MACD and the attraction of the 200-day moving average above at 2,060.
The stochastics are getting a bit toppy, so perhaps the SPX will noodle around to relieve the overbought conditions before attempting another surge to the 200-day MA.
Yes, this rally is suspect and yes, it could be mostly short-covering and Fed-driven speculation. If it continues higher, it may eventually set up an attractive shorting opportunity, just as the decline back below 1,900 set up an attractive long opportunity.
This continues to be a trader's market, not an investor's market, at least in my view.
From Left Field
The world economy as we know it is about to be turned on its head The demographic 'sweet spot' is vanishing. We are on the cusp of a complete reversal, spelling the end of corporate hegemony -- interesting, but I'm not convinced; what I see is stagnation and hundreds of millions of elderly who need care...
Homeless souls: Addiction as adaptation to psychosocial dislocation
Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) Cycle -- civilian version of the OODA loop...?
What's missing in college philosophy classes? Chinese philosophers -- amen. I was lucky that the University of Hawaii had a strong Asian studies/language department back in the 1970s... many Chinese professors on the Philosophy Dept. staff....
A Toxic Work World: The firm’s key human resources problem was not gender, as management believed, but rather a culture of overwork. -- why are we not surprised?
The Delinquent Borrowers Leading a Student Loans Revolt (via Joel M.) -- about time...
Global Rich List -- plug in your income/wealth and see how rich you are in a global context...
Societies With Little Coercion Have Little Mental Illness -- not sure this is universally true, but worth considering...
These 4 Visionaries Saw Far Into The Future. Here's How They Did It.
More than half of psychology papers are not reproducible -- yikes--junk science....
The Real Estate Crisis in North Dakota's Man Camps (via Joel M.) -- the oil bust....
This Perfect Fried Chicken Recipe Took 100 Attempts to Develop -- haven't tried it... let me know if you do....
"Quality is not an act, it is a habit." Aristotle
Thanks for reading--
charles |
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