New Work – the time is ripe for a new working world
New Work – the time is ripe for a new working world
17. October 2022
With exponential change, new work cultures are also evolving. Since the Corona pandemic at the latest, home office has been a household word for everyone, but other factors such as digital transformation, connectivity, globalization as well as demographic change are also putting the status quo to the test. The term New Work describes this new way of combining work and life, but what exactly is behind the buzzword and what can we - as employers, as managers, and as employees - do to meet the demands that come along with it?
Let's start with a definition:
New Work refers to the totality of modern and flexible forms of work or work organization.
In the article, we talk about the importance of this new world of work, its core elements, as well as the threats, challenges and opportunities that come with it.
The end of the "old working world"
The main reason why New Work has become so significant is a profound economic and cultural change. New technologies, digitalization, automation and all-encompassing networking mean that all industries must rapidly adapt to new conditions or even become obsolete. For example, industrial production has changed significantly in recent decades.
Generation Z has different demands on its working environment than Generation Y or X did. This not only changes the expectations of their own employees, but also those of their customers. Owning a car, for example, is already considered less desirable than it was ten years ago. New ways of thinking, the desire for change, personal development, and technological innovations such as artificial intelligence are creating a spirit of optimism.
"Companies that cling to the old way of working instead of keeping up with the new way of working and living will not succeed in the long run."
Simon Hoefler
The importance of New Work
Cultural and economic change demands more agility, openness, efficiency and innovation from companies. The classic concept of work - in terms of time, space and organization - must be rethought. The "9-to-5 job" is already a thing of the past in some industries and will continue to lose importance. Ties to fixed work locations and standardized time and organizational structures are increasingly dissolving. The work of the future is flexible and project-based, fulfilling the need for personal development: more and more people are striving to work independently and on their own responsibility - regardless of whether they are entrepreneurs themselves or are in a permanent employment relationship. This requires old hierarchies to be dissolved, strategies to be adapted and new structures to be developed in order to survive in our fast-paced world. Digitization opens up new opportunities to do just that, whether through automation to prevent errors or through modern forms of two-way communication. This will exponentially increase the innovative power of companies as well as society.
However, this new way of working also means that the line between work and leisure can become blurred, creating unrest. This means that employers, managers and employees are challenged to find new ways of achieving a work-life balance. That, too, is New Work.
Core elements of New Work: personal responsibility, agility, flexibility & digitalization
In the complex process of change in the world of work, the question arises as to how we can define and organize work innovatively in order to make incremental contributions to corporate strategy. The answer is not a project or a process. Rather, New Work refers to an attitude, culture and a form of leadership. Modern leadership is characterized by equality and appreciation. It requires coaching instead of announcements to empower employee:s in this flexible work world.
We conclude:
New Work means creating an innovative and value-oriented work environment.
This is exactly what we live at Qudits. Through flat hierarchies, we create the necessary freedom and flexibility to work independently and encourage each individual to take on this responsibility. At Qudits, each individual is an entrepreneur in the company and is allowed to make his or her own decisions within the scope of his or her area of responsibility. This boosts morale because we all set sail and determine the path together.
Curious about what that means? Read more in our Quanifesto.
New Work requires New Leadership
Creative employees need room for personal development, growth and self-fulfillment - in other words, they should be able to manage their own thoughts, feelings, actions and energy. Companies that want to be and remain successful in the modern working world in the long term recognize this need for self-fulfillment and create an opportunity for their employees to create value within the economic mission.
Good leaders in the sense of the New Leadership approach enable their employees to discover and develop their individual strengths - because what encourages each individual to become better also promotes the company as a whole. A good approach here is the "Teal" method. It aims to help employees experience the meaning of their work.
New Leadership is such a broad topic that it requires a dedicated article. At this point, I will therefore concentrate on just a few approaches:
- Use dedicated face-to-face meetings to communicate to your employees the importance of their work and to promote efficient collaboration.
- Delegate responsibilities instead of tasks. Ensure that your employees are responsible for projects or sub-projects, even if this does not involve a formal supervisor function.
- Celebrate and praise employees for achieving goals. In this way, you encourage them to freely develop their potential in everyday business.
In short:
New Leadership means trusting employees, handing over responsibility and promoting an autonomous way of working.
A new way of collaborating
In our digital world, various topics are closely interlinked. Innovation, for example, often comes from different areas sharing their insights and working together to create an improvement.
Collaboration - that is, several people working together to solve problems together - is part of the daily work experience. An agile approach helps to achieve better results and, in particular, to cope with increasingly complex tasks. Agility requires new thought processes, business processes, a change in culture, new leadership principles and modern relationships with customers. However, it does not mean that nothing is planned anymore, but that new and well-managed structures have to be created. This means, among other things, meeting structures. For example, a meeting, whether online or offline, should last no longer than thirty minutes. This ensures that results are achieved more quickly and that the team does not go round in circles. The number of participants is also important. If too many people are involved or relevant stakeholders are excluded, efficiency is lost.
Do you know the "two-pizza rule"? Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, stipulated that only enough people may take part in a meeting to fill up on two pizzas, i.e. eight participants. I can neither prove nor disprove whether this would really fill everyone up, but Standford professor Bob Sutton also confirms the effectiveness of the methodology.
The perspective of the employees should be included in agile processes. It is a decisive factor in the efficiency of cooperation, ensures a good team spirit and promotes satisfaction, and can in turn be a decisive factor in why competent applicants choose you. All this strengthens your company.
Learn more about agile working methods in our article Agile service management – an overview.
Threats, challenges and opportunities
If you want to implement New Work, you need a basic legal framework. You need to know who has the right to issue instructions, what the consequences of instructions are, who can issue a warning, and what an effective warning looks like. This creates certainty of action. In the sense of working on one's own responsibility, a top-down approach cannot and should not be the solution here. People transformation is the relevant keyword - convince your employees to embrace the digital transformation and encourage them to contribute their own ideas about new work and help shape the modern working world.
New Work also means working from anywhere and at any time. Many companies already allow their employees to work on the move or in their home offices. This flexibility in the sense of self-determined work can promote motivation and creativity and be actively supported by appropriate work concepts. The approach of "more trust than control" can also promote appreciation of and loyalty to the company.
However, home office can also lead to rampant anonymity, which is less likely to occur in an office. Combine flexible working with virtual exchange points and face-to-face meetings. Equally important is the digital competence of your employees. Without them, New Work is hardly feasible and weakens your organization. Therefore, avoid a too fast revolution and introduce mobile working step by step and best together with your team, while you test the work with collaboration and inspiration tools. To name another advantage: With their responsive, streamlined design and cost-effective deployment, most of these digital tools are consistently well thought-out and precisely designed to make collaboration more efficient.
New Work starts with you personally
As already stated: New Work is not a process, but a culture. So it starts with everyone personally. If your own work no longer makes you happy, your performance is limited and productivity is reduced to a minimum. This is exactly where New Work comes in and builds on the fact that your employees want to advance the company out of their own intrinsic motivation.
Feedback is therefore a central component of this new work culture. Personal feedback should praise and motivate. Don't see it as criticism, but as an opportunity. And offer help, even if it doesn't fit into your schedule. With open communication and a willingness to help each other, you build the foundation for a long-term partnership and thus create the basis that the company needs to survive successfully in our digital world.
Author
Simon Hoefler
Simon's consultancy focus is on the design and documentation of IT service management processes and the recording of business requirements. In addition, he also acts as a central coordination point for stakeholders and team in support of the project management.
