Humanize Work: The Ninth Day (VIDEO)
It truly is a new day.
One where the old management model is breaking down and being replaced by a new model. One that is much more flexible and agile.
But to achieve this, we need to Humanize Work. We can’t keep working the same way we always have and think that we will be able to keep up. Employee engagement is at an all time low. Traditional companies are throwing traditional solutions at the problem and coming up with traditional outcomes: not much.
Our organizational problems are new. And they require new approaches. The old methods will land us right back where we are sitting, which is exactly where we don’t want to be.
But under the bleak assessment of a current state is a bright future. There is more in front of us than there is behind us.
And, personally, I can’t wait to see what is in store.
This video is a call-to-arms for those who are on the fence; for those who are wondering if they should take their company with them on a leap of faith.
Not only can it be done, but it must be done to thrive.
And on the eighth day, the industrial age looked over its creations and said, “I need people to help me.” So it created the employee.
It said, ‘I need someone to arrive at the office early, keep track of money, answer the phone, field floods of emails, serve the customer, attend the boring meetings, and call me boss.”
So it created the employee.
This machine age said, “I need someone to give up evenings and weekends with the family at the last minute in favor of and stay up late to work on a PowerPoint presentation, only to have it scrapped for a new direction. Someone who will then temper his frustration, go to sleep, and show up early to work the next morning ready to take on the next challenge. Someone who will say, ‘Maybe next time’ and then keep working.
“I need someone who will be available on their cell phone at any moment, spend hours writing reports that no one will read, exhaust themselves until late in the night and be willing to return the next day, on time, to do it again, and never think about WHY they are working. Someone who will keep their opinions to themselves, will take direction and be obedient and diligent and too afraid to talk to management for fear that they may lose their job.”
So the the industrial revolution created the employee.
And at the end of the eighth day the machine age grew old, tired, and it died.
On the morning of the ninth day, a new economy was born. And it said, “The employee has been stripped of being human. To move forward we need to Humanize Work again.”
“What we really need is a group of connected individuals who are bold enough to stand up to the status quo yet not be toxic. Inspiring, but not autocratic. We need a group who is willing learn every day, to be disruptive when necessary, and work transparently. Who want to work because they love what they do, not just because they need a paycheck. Who will give trust as a default, not as an earned bonus. Those who will disrupt, rather than be disrupted.”
The new economy said, “We need people who will keep politics and policies to a minimum so bureaucracy and pride won’t get in the way of doing what is right. Those who will shed our old management model in favor of an environment of true collaboration and full engagement. For one that is flexible and agile – where innovation is not only in its outputs, but also in its operations. We need those who will create an environment that will allow for both diversity and unity; standardization and disruption; success and failure. We need those willing to pour their whole selves into their passion and to humanize work again.”
And on the ninth day, the organization was transformed.
This is your ninth day.