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Work 2.0: Rewriting the Contract by Bill Jensen Recommendation: •
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Cancel This Contract Morbid curiosity is the only thing that saved Work 2.0: Rewriting the Contract from receiving the lowest rating: DNR (do not read). Jensen’s premise is that the relationship of work and life has changed, and the people an employer cares most about care deeply about new rules for the contract between employers and employees. Here’s what Jensen proposes: “1. Embrace the Asset Revolution. Employees are seeking daily/weekly/monthly returns on the assets they invest in your company – namely, their time attention, ideas, passion, energy, and social networks. The new war for talent will be fought over who provides the best returns on these investments. 2. Build My Work My Way. Business must focus on personal, not just organizational, productivity. The future of work is customized, personalized, and tailored to each individual. 3. Deliver Peer-to-Peer Value. Your employees are setting new standards for collaboration without you. Leaders must do more than get out of the way of those exchanges; you must add increasingly greater value. That means bottom-up criteria will drive more and more of your collaboration budgets and strategies. 4. Develop Extreme Leaders. The future of leadership includes greater accountability for performance through greater willingness to be challenged on, and address, work-level details.” If you think you’ve heard these concepts before, you’re right. Most are presented in better form in other places. Jensen preaches at a high decibel level on “what,” but is missing in action on how, despite some quotes and stories. I found his writing style annoying and distracting to the points he was trying to make. Typefaces and graphics added no value. Here’s an excerpt from the beginning of Chapter 6 exploring rule 3: deliver peer-to-peer value, and a random example of the writing to expect: “First, let’s all pay homage to the gods of Great Culture, Teamwork, and Shared Values. Now, permission to move on? Good. Because, while these disciplines are supercritical, as currently practiced, they’ll only get you to the ground floor in Work 2.0. Managers are W-A-Y behind on how to add value to employee collaboration. Why? New standards are being daily set for what is valued in those exchanges. Like: What content is most valuable, and what social connections, timing, tips, and tools are needed; how to achieve the right balance between context, setting and detail; and what type of coaching would be most helpful. Who sets those standards? Employees do, when they’re connecting with each other – without your involvement. Your centralized, top-down approach to planning simply isn’t keeping up with the rate of new devices, new ways to connect, and new ways to share information. If you are going to add value to peer-to-peer exchanges, you must be willing to design budgets and strategies around what the people doing the work find most valuable. That means a lot more listening before you plan. To get more form collaboration, you’ve got to put more into it: more understanding of how employees want to share with each other, and more attention to what they need to collaborate effectively.” I suggest you take a pass on Work 2.0, unless you are morbidly curious about this topic and how some corporate speakers and workshop leaders are yelling about it nationwide. I’ve never heard Jensen speak, and after reading this book, I don’t want to. Steve Hopkins, May 8, 2002
ã 2002 Hopkins and Company, LLC The recommendation rating for this book appeared in the July 2002 issue of Executive Times Hopkins & Company, LLC • 723 North Kenilworth Avenue • Oak Park, IL 60302 Phone: 708-466-4650 • Fax: 708-386-8687 E-mail: books@hopkinsandcompany.com www.hopkinsandcompany.com