Defining the future of work

I recently attended the First World Congress on the Future of Work  in San Francisco, a gathering of senior execs and government, education and nonprofit leaders, all with some stake - whether competitive, sociological, professional, spiritual or some mix — in the transformation of the American workplace.

The mission isn’t to transform anything; those wheels are in motion. It’s more to shepherd it, to help ensure it strengthens the U.S. competitively without excluding, exploiting or creating inequities.

But even the name of the conference gave many trouble right off the bat. The Future of Work? It’s not up amongst the stars, it’s right here, at your keyboard, around your dinner table, in your garden, in your kids’ music. And what is the future anyway, and while we’re at it, does linear time really even exist?

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I recently attended the First World Congress on the Future of Work  in San Francisco, a gathering of senior execs and government, education and nonprofit leaders, all with some stake - whether competitive, sociological, professional, spiritual or some mix — in the transformation of the American workplace.

The mission isn’t to transform anything; those wheels are in motion. It’s more to shepherd it, to help ensure it strengthens the U.S. competitively without excluding, exploiting or creating inequities.

But even the name of the conference gave many trouble right off the bat. The Future of Work? It’s not up amongst the stars, it’s right here, at your keyboard, around your dinner table, in your garden, in your kids’ music. And what is the future anyway, and while we’re at it, does linear time really even exist?

See what happens when you’re holed up drinking lots of coffee with some of the nation’s biggest brains? You can’t stop asking questions. And that’s what we did for two straight days. (I always try to tell my kids, the smarter you are, the more questions bubble around inside you. The more you know, the less you know, and all that.)

OK, here are some particulars, then we’ll pose more questions.

The event was sponsored by The Future of Work, an organization “focused on reducing the cost of workforce support while enhancing both individual and organizational productivity,” and brainchild of two “recovering academics”, Charlie Grantham and Jim Ware. Held at San Francisco City Hall, in an enormous skylit meeting room, the conference was run as a series of “café conversations ,” meaning they followed the conventions of The World Café, an organization that developed a style of group meetings that involves several components.

First, participants -– there were about 85 of us, book authors, professors, Cisco and Sun folks, social psychologists, researchers, San Francisco government people —- organized into tables of four. Not five, not three - four. Round tables were 3 feet in diameter. Herman Miller provided Aeron chairs, but I bet any would do. The groups spent 20 to 30 minutes discussing a question, such as: What does the future of work look like already? Everyone took notes and doodles with Magic Markers on “tablecloths” (more like paper placemats).

At the end of a session, everyone but one group member moved musical-chair-fashion to a new table. The one left behind is the “host” of the new round. At the next session, the newly formed group took turns summarizing the thinkings of their previous group, then tackled the question in its own right. The third round was followed by group discussion, where the artist assistant of the moderator — David Isaacs, who jointly developed this method — illustrated, capturing the ideas, concepts and moods of the group on big sheets of paper.

Sound like an “only in California” kind of thing? Try to keep an open mind. We found this to be an extremely effective and exciting method for brainstorming, one you might consider taking to your own companies.