Redefine Work - The Art of Living on Your Own Freelance Terms
Redesigning jobs or automating work processes can boost efficiencies and cost savings. But to compete for the long term, companies need to do more than that. They need to redefine work to shift the objective from executing tasks to creating value by identifying and addressing unseen problems and opportunities. It’s the latter effort that generates greater returns in a virtuous cycle than optimizing or automating.
Unfortunately, many managers have been misguided in their approach to this strategic imperative, focusing mainly on redesigning jobs rather than redefining work. These efforts may deliver near-term gains, but they narrow future outcomes and restrict the opportunity to create new sources of value.
Ideally, organizations should pursue both approaches simultaneously. However, in practice this is often impossible. The lag between making a big investment in job redesign and seeing results, or even achieving scale, is too long for most leaders to tolerate, so they prematurely kill the initiative, sometimes through overt means and other times by default.
In addition, redesigning and redefining work require different skills, mindsets, and organizational structures. This disconnect has led some to relegate redefining work to a “never-achieved” status, while others prioritize it but are frustrated that progress is slow and largely limited to redesigning existing jobs.
So how can executives better plan for and execute the shift to redefined work? This article explores some strategies.
The most effective strategy begins with a proof-of-concept pilot to learn what redefined work looks like in the organization. Choosing a small group to pilot is important, ideally one that’s self-contained. Groups that interact with other groups or functions face a bigger risk of being pulled away from redefining work by competing initiatives.
To get the most out of the proof-of-concept, leadership should communicate a clear vision of what redefining work will look like for the organization. Then, they should sponsor a demonstration project that aims to address an operational pain point. Directing job redesign and automation at areas where redefining work will have the greatest impact can accelerate the pace of change.
Next, it’s important to set expectations for the frontline supervisors who are part of the pilot group. They must be open-minded, risk-tolerant, and committed to improving their teams’ ability to serve customers—internal or external. They should also be assured that the pilot will not negatively impact their performance metrics, so they can focus on the work rather than worrying about it.
Finally, it’s critical to engage these supervisors as leaders and coaches of the workgroups they lead. They are key to ensuring that the pilot group is motivated, focused, and productive. They must help the workgroups develop a growth mindset and coach them in navigating challenges. They must also model the iterative process of seeking data and context, taking action, reflecting and learning, and refining and adapting. This will support the creation of new capabilities in the group and, ultimately, the wider organization.
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Alfie Viner is an online marketer who makes his living through the promotion of online services he uses himself to build his own business.
With Alfie Viner’s childhood passion of working in the expensive music industry, he carved his own future by making the money he needs to accomplish this goal. By working in construction, Alfie Viner managed to obtain the funds he needed to invest into his future and move into the online world.
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