The New World of Work

The New World of Work

Derived from…
Seth Godin, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable

Previously
Book Rapper Book Review: Linchpin

RAP1 : The New World of Work
PROFIT : Work has changed. The old system relied on average people turning up and completing average work to create average products. In our global hyper-competitive digital online world, average is invisible. Today we need to be remarkable to be noticed and talked about: Remarkable products made by remarkable people doing remarkable work.

Factories & Cubicles
The Industrial Revolution was built upon the premise that production could be broken down into tiny, simple and straightforward tasks.
Simple work meant you could employ low-paid, low-educated people who didn’t have to think much to get things done.
The lower the pay and the higher their output, the more money the factory owner made.
Cheap efficiency ruled.
Workers were an easily replaced commodity in this equation – mere cogs in the machine.

Previously, a business gained an advantage if they could do it cheaper.

This usually meant automation and stripping away the features of a product to make it more ordinary.
More recently, this has also meant outsourcing and going offshore to seek cheaper labour.
Today, things have become about as cheap as they’re going to get.
The margin to improve here is so slim it’s not worth playing for anymore.

Instead, today’s advantage is gained if the company can be faster, more remarkable and more human.
And that’s why our work has changed.

Today, there are no great jobs where someone tells you precisely what to do.
Instead, to forward our careers we need to be, as Seth Godin calls them, Linchpins.
These are people who care, are willing to lead, risk, create, connect, think and get things done.
These are the people you can build a team around.
These are the people who are the key players in your organization.
This is your new career path whether you are employed or self-employed.
You need to make yourself indispensable.