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August 5, 2003

Work 2.0: Principles for modern manager-employee relationships

Work 2.0: Building the Future, One Employee at a Time

It's probably universal, that non-management employees usually think management doesn't get it, and most managers probably think the same about employees. It's especially true in knowledge-worker jobs, where employees are highly-skilled, highly-intelligent, and often managers are people who aren't hands-on anymore (or never were).

Work 2.0 proposes that that the greatest opportunities for dramatic, lasting bottom-line and top-line business improvements can only be achieved by finding a better way for managers and knowledge employees to work together for their customers.

Bill Jensen argues that the workers who have grown up with the Internet, and work in knowledge-based companies, have significantly greater potential than ever to improve the companies they work for, but only if they are managed in the right way.

He suggests four principles in the book:

  • Embrace the Asset Revolution: Employees are looking for greater returns on the investments they make in the companies they work for: companies must take personal responsibility for wise use of employees' time, attention, ideas, knowledge, passion, energy and social networks. Observe how they work. Measure what they need and how the company meets those needs. Discuss the things that matter.
  • Build My Work My Way: Job satisfaction isn't just good benefits, vacations, and compensation plans. Companies need to focus on personal productivity as well as organizational productivity. "By focusing on increased personal productivity and effectiveness, companies get faster bottom-line results at cheaper cost."
  • Deliver Peer-to-Peer Value: "Creating a collaborative culture is no longer enough. Nobody needs companies anymore to help them collaborate, share or create. People can now self-organize amazingly well. The future of great places to work will be determined by the ways in which a company delivers value to those interactions."
  • Develop Extreme Leaders: Work 2.0 employees want to follow leaders who truly understand what it takes to get everything done, who get their hands dirty, who frequently work in the trenches so they know first-hand the company frontline. Leaders are responsible not only for organizational results, but for the personal productivity of the employees, in making sure they have everything they need (including your active involvement) to succeed. Leaders take personal responsibility for the wise use of the employees' time, attention, ideas, passion, etc.

    Jensen acknowledges that the way we do things now (or used to do them at a few companies) overlooks (and doesn't benefit from) the most valuable asset at any company: the knowledge, ideas, energy and attention of the employees. Many employee-manager relationships today are based on practices from factories, when employees were trained in almost robotic procedures. Knowledge-workers are not button-pushers, order-fillers or cogs in the wheel; companies that learn to extract the most from their knowledge workers by encouraging, supporting and embracing their personal contributions, will be the most successful in the future.

    So how do we fix this? Work 2.0 is difficult for companies to embrace. It's contradictory to many management assumptions and perspectives. But it's exactly what employees want, and exactly the thing that will result in more productive employees and a more productive organization.

    Work 2.0 is primarily targetted at managers and executives, but one thing I like is that it's also directed at the knowledge worker. In fact, there are many things that the employee is expected to do to make Work 2.0 successful.

    The principle document, The New Contract, is available on-line (http://www.work2.com) and is a good overview from the employees perspective what they expect from their employers, and what they bring to the table.

    Bill Jensen also wrote Simplicity: The New Competitive Advantage in a World of More, Better, Faster, which is a companion to Work 2.0. I highly recommend both for managers, executives and employees.

    Posted by pete at August 5, 2003 9:32 PM