Future of Work Agenda Newsletter: January 2010

This is the January 2010 issue of our free monthly newsletter, Future of Work Agenda. We welcome comments on any of these articles. You can also access the newsletter directly on our website, at this link.

Welcome to 2010. We are dispensing with our usual list of predictions for the coming year, as we’ve done in years past. As we suggest below, 2010 is going to be a year of massive change for just about every sector of the economy and every business. Predicting those changes with any degree of certainty takes more nerve than we can muster at the moment.

However, in 2010 we are going to create change of our own by abandoning several of our basic traditions.

First of all, we are morphing our business model to become more focused on fewer issues. In this light, as we announced last month (Special Announcement, at this link) we are re-casting our Future of Work community into a private client network. There are more details about the new program at the end of this newsletter. In parallel with that move, over the next few months we will also be simplifying and renovating our website.

But more importantly we are taking this newsletter into what we are calling a “Web 3.0 model.” This will be the last issue in which we publish complete articles. Going forward this newsletter will serve more as an invitation for those who are interested to explore a series of issues we believe are compelling, immediately relevant, and often neglected by other futurists and think tanks.

You will see headlines here, and occasional links to relevant pieces by others as well as ourselves. Data, detailed analysis, and action recommendations will be reserved for members of our private network and actively engaged clients. We hope you will find enough value in our work to join the network and to participate with us in our continuing exploration of the future of work.

This month we’ve produced the fifth of six planned articles on Business Community Centers™, along with a short continuation of our perspectives on change management and a look back at our most popular articles over the last year.

One final note: we are going to press (there’s an outdated concept!) just a few days after the earthquake that struck Port au Prince in Haiti on January 12. Our hearts go out to the victims, their families, and the entire country, while our admiration for the thousands of volunteers and the millions of citizens around the world who are reaching out to help is unbounded. There’s little we can say or do as individuals, but as a world community we’re making a dramatic difference.

Enjoy.

Charlie and Jim

Click on any Headline below to access the full story.

Feature Article: Experience The Design

Business Community Centers™ must be designed to maximize the positive social experience of using them as a place to work. We propose using a design process based on stagecraft—where work in the future is seen as theatre. We propose six principles: community, learning, work/life integration, diversity of work styles, resource accessibility and egalitarianism.

Compass: Igniting The Burning Platform

There’s one thing we do know about the future: 2010 will be full of change. And the survivors will be the firms (and the individuals) who know how to “ride the tide” and turn a crisis into an opportunity. Effective leaders generate a strong and widespread sense of urgency about the need for change.

Notes from the Field: Our Very Own Top Ten List

To keep pace with all the professional pundits, we revisit our 2009 newsletters and report the ten most-read articles from among the thirty-plus we offered up last year.

What’s Happened/Happening?

Brief announcements and notes about where Jim and Charlie have been, are, and will be, holding forth in public conversations and other activities.

As usual, your comments and reactions to any of these articles are more than welcome. Please send your thoughts to us at any time.

This issue of Future of Work Agenda was produced by Jim Ware and Charlie Grantham of the Work Design Collaborative, LLC. We encourage your comments, suggestions, and submission of materials for possible future publication.

Please contact us anytime: Charlie Grantham or Jim Ware.

To subscribe to Future of Work Agenda, click here and register on our web site. Please pass this newsletter on to other interested individuals and encourage them to subscribe as well. The newsletter is free, and will remain free as long as possible.

To end your subscription, send a message to newsletter@thefutureofwork.net and write Unsubscribe in the Subject line.

For republication rights, contact Jim Ware.