The Future of the Workplace
Insights and Advice from 31 Pioneering Business and Thought Leaders
This book is dedicated to the forward-thinking leaders who contributed their time, intellect, and wisdom to the Exploring Forward-Thinking Workplaces conversation. Thank you for being part of this journey.
The world of work is always changing. Before the 1800s, most people worked on farms and were craftsmen, with plenty of room to be creative. After the advent of the Industrial Revolution, we became more productive with the introduction of assembly lines and machinery. The unfortunate side effect of this was that the work became tedious and boring. People on the assembly line did the same tasks over and over again. Ford Motor Company had to double their workers’ wages to convince them to do this kind of dreary work. Regardless, this assembly practice made Ford the richest company in the world. Other companies followed suit and this boring work process became commonplace. Unfortunately, this system has lasted for over 100 years.
But the world of work is still changing. Instead of designing work for machines and slotting people in to work with them, a new horizon is shining, and we are finally realizing that people can be very productive as we expand their capabilities. Canon Corporation has workers that can build an entire copier with over 1000 parts in 3 hours with a 30% increase in productivity and also sustaining high quality. Honda has new assembly lines in Thailand and in Columbus, Ohio, with the worker up on the line building an entire subset of the cars, rather focus on one piece per person. In both instances work is being designed for people, not only machines. These innovative business and thought leaders have so much to teach us, if only we could keep an open mind and listen.
The Future of the Workplace is a stimulating and interesting book to read and share with others. Like Socrates, the world’s greatest teacher, Bill Fox asks some interesting questions in this book, resulting in exciting responses. As you read this valuable book, ask yourself these questions and write down and share your answers with others. Asking questions stimulates creativity!
Norman Bodek
President, PCS Inc.
The future is already here, and it’s unexpectedly and suddenly different than we’d planned or imagined—even just yesterday.
Today, we’re living in a state of constant whitewater, besieged by an avalanche of ever-increasing information, with interruptions coming at us from every corner.
New times and new challenges call for innovative forward thinking. Yet most organizations are still mired in the Industrial Age. In that bygone era, methods like best practices, working harder, and even working smarter may have served us well, but now they keep us stuck living in the past.
To step into a better future, we need to shift into more modern ways of being and working. These new ways allow us to sense changes early and to adapt swiftly and intuitively.
To do this, we must interact with each other differently: with an open mind, listening to every voice, ready to discover whatever is there for us to see. And we must give ourselves the freedom to act upon what we discover.
Advice, Experience, and Tools from 31 Experts
This book contains Forward-Thinking Age conversations with 31 pioneering leaders of tomorrow—today. These top business and thought leaders come from many different countries and industries. They span the business, psychological, and spiritual domains.
Yet they all have one thing in common: Their work demonstrates a deep understanding of how to navigate the shifts that are occurring today.
Together, these interviews illuminate how—together—we can uncover new and better solutions to our most vexing challenges.
The advice, experience, and tools shared by these experts can help us create a future in which every voice matters, everyone thrives and finds meaning, and change and innovation happen naturally.
This conversation invites and allows whole beings to show up. Like whole food, whole beings are more nutritious to the system they exist within.
In addition to questions specific to each leader, there are six core questions that I ask in each interview:
Question 1: How can we create workplaces where every voice matters, everyone thrives and finds meaning, and change and innovation happen naturally?
We do not describe the world we see, but we see the world we describe. 1
Change and innovation may be top of mind for most organizations today, but they still struggle to implement it. The 31 answers to this question reveal how organizational change and innovation can occur naturally, if we start with the inner change of the human participants.
Question 2: How do we get an employee’s full attention and best performance?
This question deals directly with one of the top priorities for today’s bottom-line focused executives, and you’ll find that the responses are practical and actionable.
Question 3: What do people really lack and long for at work?
Even in the best of companies I worked for, there was always something that would dampen my enthusiasm and my engagement. Often, it was office politics. Sometimes it was a bully. Many times, it wasn’t safe to share my true thoughts or what was really going on. Then there was the meaningless work, even in organizations with a grand purpose. And this was just the tip of the iceberg.
So I asked, “What do people really lack and long for at work?” Few people talk about this, and even fewer try to address it. But we can’t move forward if we don’t.
You’ll find that the answers to this question provide more than just increased awareness: They provide the means to do something about it.
Questions 4 and 5: What is the most important question leaders should ask employees? and What is the most important question employees should ask leaders?
Every organization I’ve ever worked with has had an “us” vs. “them” dynamic to one degree or another, at one or more levels. My intention with these two questions is to bridge the gap between levels and help people see one another’s perspective.
The answers to this question will help you see that, too often, we are still asking the same old questions—or not asking questions at all.
You’ll also discover just how important it is to create a space for questions to be asked, as well as for us to listen to each other.
Question 6: What is the most important question we should ask ourselves?
This question has been one of the most popular among readers of the interviews, and with good reason. I can’t think of anything that’s had a greater impact on my life than asking myself new questions. These 31 experts will introduce you to powerful questions that you’ve likely never heard or asked yourself before.
The energy around an unanswered question may very well be the most powerful motivating force in the universe.
Final Note
The interviews in this book were thoughtfully selected from a collection of more than 70 interviews that make up an ongoing conversation called Exploring Forward-Thinking Workplaces 2.0. In truth, all 70 of the interviews belong in this book, but we had to limit our choices due to the economic constraints of publishing and the attention spans of most readers.
I hope you will feel moved to share what you found most intriguing about this book. You can reach me by email at bill@billfox.co .
If you’d like to know the story of how this work came into existence, I invite you to read “Find Your Own Way to Go Deeper to Move Forward” 3 on my personal web site.
To your great work life and success!
I would like to thank my family, friends, colleagues, interviewees, and readers who supported, encouraged, and inspired me in this work. I would also like to thank my editors at Apress, Rita Fernando and Shivangi Ramachandran, for their patient and professional editorial help. And special thanks to Sue Elliott, who contributed her superb editing skills to helping me with the Introduction, and to Norman Bodek for writing a wonderful and thought-provoking foreword.
Contents
About the Author
In his interview series, Exploring Forward-Thinking Workplaces, he leads an ongoing twenty-first century conversation with global business and thought leaders that is uncovering exciting new solutions to our most vexing workplace challenges.
Bill is the cofounder of Forward-Thinking Workplaces 2.0 ( www.forwardthinkingworkplaces.com ). He has over three decades of experience in project management and in leading successful transformation and software development projects in the technology, financial, and manufacturing industries.
Bill is also the author of Be a Workplace of the Future NOW , 4 a series of six books that reveal the most intriguing insights from his conversations with global leaders, and the interview collection 5 Minutes to Process Improvement Success . 5
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