The Great Separation/Reaggregation of Work.

In the distant past, if one wanted to listen to music one had to go to where the musicians and the musical instruments were. The music, the musician, the musical instruments and the listeners were in the same place at the same time.

With recorded music the first separation occurred with music being able to be listened to where the phonograph was located and could be listened to at any time as long one had the disc. This was usually in the home since the equipment was heavy.

As time moved on the listening device got smaller and more mobile, first with radio and then the breakthrough technology of the Sony Walkman.

The final separation occurred when the device and the music were separated as well as every song was separated from the song next to it on an album

The individual song or piece of music was a digital file in a cloud but we now re-aggregate these songs into playlists based on our preference, mood, genre and many other ways.

Today music is streamed and listened to via a playlist either curated by us or by an algorithm.

This also is true for most media with linear television increasingly be replaced by streaming on demand television, the magazine being replaced by articles discovered via search and streams, and much knowledge and content made free and re-aggregated by the Chat GPT’s and Gemini’s of the world.

This process of music and other media separating from physical space, from device and from the content next to it is also well underway in the world of work.

We are moving to a world where a majority of work in white collar industries will be separated from physical space, and from “jobs”.

Companies will separate the components of a “job” into tasks and then allocate these tasks to a portfolio of resources that can get these tasks completed.

Some tasks will be allocated to full time employees, some to fractionalized employees, some to free-lancers, some to other companies and some to AI. These resources will be distributed everywhere in the world.

This has been happening for many decades but until recently for most industries has been a minority of the way work was allocated.

But now with a) nearly a third of work being done remotely, b) demographic change of declining populations and aging populations placing pressure on access to talent, c) two thirds of Gen-Z wanting to work for themselves, d) the continued rise and access of marketplaces (AWS, Shopify, Deel, Etsy, Uber) that allows access to buyers, producers and sellers and e) the rise of side hustles and gigs, a majority of work will be separated from full time jobs by the end of the decade.

And of course the great separation of tasks from jobs and for people working full time for an employer will turbocharged by AI which is driving the greatest efficiency and effectiveness drive that the world has ever seen. Just look at Meta’s growing revenue and rapidly declining head count as an early indication of what is underway.

This new world will allow companies to be deeply agile, manage costs, access expertise on demand, become global at launch and in most industries scale coverage and delivery with limited need for full time employees. Companies that fixate on expensive real estate, five days a week in the office, limit talent pools to certain geographies and insist on a zone of control over talent will be left in the dust by the new companies just like a swarm of drones and other technologies leaves the large lumbering aircraft carrier less and less relevant.

These trends will create many billion dollar revenue companies with fewer than 100 full time employees and will create significant opportunities but also many challenges to individuals, companies and societies.

Looking ahead we can expect:

a) Most companies having far fewer full time employees.

b) There will be more opportunities to work be far more companies and employment as more new businesses are created to serve the new needs and new industries AI and other technologies will make possible.

c) However much of this employment will be people being paid to do tasks, projects and gigs versus a full time job.

Many companies with full time employees will replace a large portion of jobs with tasks by leveraging platforms and systems to allocate their talent to wherever in the world they may be. Bosses will be augmented by ongoing mentors and shorter term project leaders.

This movement will create great challenges when it comes to societies where healthcare has been tied to full time jobs and also for the variation in income when most peoples costs are fixed and not variable.

It will also however create great opportunities for people to work in ways that fit their life and skills and allow them to diversify income streams versus being dependent on one job and a firm especially now the social contract between employee and firm is diminishing and mostly gone.

Everybody needs to think of themselves as a company of one by honing expertise, continuous learning, building a reputation and being a great collaborator and connector.

For companies and leaders it will require significant rethinking of everything from what how one leads today to organizational design and even the strategy of the firm.

Consulting companies like McKinsey and BCG and the Entertainment Industry operate in this way to a large degree. Consultants build particular expertise and are reaggregated with other consultants to execute assignments for Clients. Artists, writers, directors, caterers, gaffers, all work from gig to gig ( movie, show, event).

This new world of work is well underway but many are struggling with what the future will hold.

But the future is here and we will have to adapt to it because it will not adapt to us.

The decline of full time jobs and the rise of careers built around reaggregating tasks is what we should all prepare for.

Its time to rethink work both as talent and as leaders.

Last week two leaders of Fortune 500 companies having just finished Rethinking Work reached out to me via LinkedIn saying they had ordered hundreds of copies for their teams noting not just the clear-eyed data filled analysis and insights, but particularly the frameworks and approaches that allow each individual and company to build their own blue print. The book is not a screed but a customized operating manual to help individuals, teams and companies thrive in ways that fit their realities. Look below to see the components of the book and download the first section to see if it is for you and your firm at Rethinkingwork.io

For 25 copies deep discounts starting at 40 percent here: https://bulkbooks.com/products/rethinking-work-seismic-changes-in-the-where-when-and-why

The book is available in India for Rs 400 in book stores, Amazon India and Flipkart. HarperCollins India also has been providing discounted bulk sales.

Also available in Audible, Kindle and electronic book.

Old School Cool.

Earlier this month I recorded a conversation with Jack Klues whom I directly reported to for over 15 years and the podcast titled “Collaborative Leadership in the Age of Churn” resonated far and wide. Many appreciated in the very simple and human lessons he conveys about the importance of talent, humility, integrity, trust, and sensitivity to the different perspectives/ backgrounds as keys to winning and excellence.

I then re-listened to a podcast from the other person I reported to for many years, Maurice Levy in his episode Levy on the Level and found some of the same themes and beliefs from a person with a very different background than Jack but aligned like him in a quest for excellence with a deep reservoir of humanity.

Then I listened to other folks who are amazingly successful leaders who I worked alongside from Renetta McCann (It is about growth) to Michael Conrad ( Creativity and 7+) to even the most recent guest Jack Myers speaking about the Tao of Leadership and found that again and again they re-iterate their belief in values and qualities that are clearly evergreen but sometimes today feel “old school”.

Today amidst significant transformation driven by technology, politics, globalization and social shifts it may behoove us to focus on things that do not change.

They may go out of fashion but like a second heart they beat within us whether we wish to listen to them or not.

They endure.

Like something crafted and sculpted with care over time.

An underlying design and approach that keeps on working.

In fact these values and behaviors maybe critical to help us navigate and lead change since the leaders I have named have successfully transformed and disrupted models and driven great economic value creation using these principles.

The best leaders and companies seem to be adept at adapting the latest tools and techniques to ensure their firms are state of the art but also fuse these with the old traditions, values and beliefs to craft unique formulas that combine roots and wings to both soar and remain grounded.

Here are half a dozen characteristics we may want to think about as we face and navigate the world we live in. They endure and can help us endure.

1. Integrity: Integrity is when we say, what we believe and what we do are aligned. Among the best compliments one can get is that one is a person of their word. Children do not listen to what their parents say but watch what they do both in public and private. Integrity is a diamond that cuts through BS and like the Pink Floyd song suggests it shines on and on. It is an internal balance and harmony with external change.

2. Trust: Trust is speed because it removes friction and accelerates decision making and risk taking. If we trust our leader, our colleagues, our partners, and our investors it allows us to innovate, take risks, move fast, speak our mind, accept feedback and continuously improve. Outside of a few cases you should give trust to those you work with till they prove you wrong rather than get them to earn trust. Trust is often earned by showing the data one is using, be clear about one’s intent and goals and being transparent about the decision making process.

3. Patience:While Keynes reminded us that in the long run we will be dead hopefully many of us will be able to have a long run. In fact as Seth Green reminded us we will have 50 year careers and thinking long term and in the long run means we align with the weapon and power of time. Jeff Bezos of Amazon used longer time frames to invest and build and was not focussed on quarterly or annual earnings.

4. Diversity: Humans prevailed because of diversity. Portfolios that endure are diverse portfolios. Regardless of who we are and which country or race or mindset or perspectives we believe, in most cases there are multiples more of people not like us then those like us. Hanging out with our own type gives birth to still born ideas. It is the reason many societies do not allow people to marry cousins. To be agile in mind and flexible in construction one must be able to adjust, adapt and incorporate difference and the different. Those who lose end up not being defeated but self defeating themselves by not being open to the often opposing ideas and perspectives of people around them.

5. Principles: The point of principles is that they may cost us. Sometimes our job. Often money. Staying true to principles will cost a lot except we will keep something critical called “reputation”. Let us not build a personal brand. Stand for something. Build a reputation. It is like our shadow. It will follow us wherever we go. Long after the heat of the moment, the coolness of time will remember what we did when we were in the crucible of pressure.

6. Respectful Humility: Recently, a friend , Joseph Jaffe in a conversation with me mentioned something he had learned. First comes confidence. Then comes humility. While not true for everybody, the majority of people with great expertise and achievements are highly approachable and do not take themselves too seriously. They know they are so good that they do not have to say so. So they focus on other people and try to understand other perspectives. They look for the outliers and those who need help to achieve their potential. Respectful humility.

These traits may or may not make us successful in the world of business but will help us be better humans.

And in the long run being able to say we did the right thing and being known for integrity, trust, staying true to principles, respect and humility might be the biggest payoff of all.

Rishad Tobaccowala recently published Rethinking Work. to help prepare individuals, leaders and companies to thrive amidst the seismic changes under way.

4 Keys to Leading Today.

Illustration by Lemmywinks via Midjourney

We have entered an age of de-Bossification.

In many industries, particularly “White-collar” ones, the era of “bosses” is in decline.

Less of a clamoring for boss like traits of controlling, managing, measuring, allocating, evaluating and checking in.

There is a rise in the need for leaders and their traits of being guides, coaches, mentors, role-models, creators, pioneers and builders.

This shift has been driven by changing demographics, the spread of technology, the rise of unbundled and distributed work, new behavior expectations, and a re-definition of what “work” is including the rise of fractionalized and free-agent talent who work for themselves or at multiple jobs and are expected to comprise most of the workforce in the US by the end of the decade.

Here are four core traits and how we can all build them.

1. A Passion for Excellence.

To be a leader in any field, at any level one must build proficiency.

One needs to learn a craft, hone skills, continuously improve, and remain relevant and up to date.

Experience while it will matter will matter less while expertise will matter more.

Too many “leaders” slip into irrelevance by letting their skills atrophy. Today due to the rapid change in demography and technology the half-life of whatever one has learned rapidly decays and the fuel tank of competence needs to be continuously filled.

Leaders set high standards for quality of product and service delivered, financial results and what they expect of people around them

Excellence is what attracts customers, talent and financial results.

And helps create world class cultures.

The best leaders never stop growing.

They are continuously learning and honing and upgrading their craft.

They do and do not just manage.

They seek not to blame but to understand, to learn versus believing they know it all.

They realize that only if they grow and the people around them grow in skills, reputation and knowledge will the company and its customers and clients grow.

They invest in learning, taking bets on the future, challenging existing business models, looking outside their categories for inspiration and potential disruption.

2. Face and Accept Reality.

A key to leadership is to solve challenges and address problems.

This requires confronting issues versus looking away or hoping some form of magical thinking will make them go away.

One cannot hope to get people to follow if they suspect one is not addressing real issues and challenges however difficult they may be.

Leaders embrace data and know math matters.

They accept that facts are stubborn things.

And while it may be forestalled for a while truth has a habit of breaking in.

Facing hard facts and addressing reality does not mean defeat or pessimism. But it is the first step in making things better.

To have a solution one must understand the problem.

This often requires creating an environment where people feel free to call out the problem and note that the brown moist thing that everybody is staring at around the conference table or on the Zoom screen is not a brownie but a turd.

Great leaders acknowledge mistakes. They know they do not have all the answers. This means they are open to criticism and correction, and they surround themselves with skill sets that offset and balance their areas of weakness.

3. Empathy combined with Vulnerability

Leaders bring about change and achieve goals by bringing other people along with them.

To do so it is key to understand where people are coming from. What their fears, concerns, challenges as well as hopes, desires and dreams are.

A simple way is to ask four questions.

a) What is on your mind?

b) What else?

c) If you were not doing this, what would you be doing or how could things be better?

d) How can I help?

Vulnerability is strength and not a weakness.

By speaking about things, one worries about, one reveals humanity and comes off as believable.

It makes other people step up to try to help and offset a person’s concerns or lack of competence with their or other people’s complimentary skills.

4. Continuous Improvement.

One improves leadership skills slowly over time and it is a constant effort.

Some days one improves and other days there are setbacks that one learns from. A practice of continuous improvement is what drives not just success for athletes but for all people.

The day we stop learning we stop growing and we begin dying.

By being accountable for our own feedback and by being comfortable helping others with feedback to unleash their growth is a sign of not just successful businesspeople but people who find success in every component of life.

Feedback is a key to growth and the journey forward.

1. Scan for signals: People are constantly providing feedback even if they are not vocalizing it. In some instances, you may gauge it in numerical signals from how well your writing is read, reacted to, or shared or whether you are invited to key meetings. Other times it is to watch facial and body language. You learn a lot by reading a room or a Zoom gallery.

2. Ask for feedback on a regular basis: One can do this with three simple questions which by the way they are framed ensure people are comfortable helping you since they are positive in tone:

a. What worked well?

b. If/when I do this next time what could be better?

c. Who do you think does what I need to do well and where can I learn more?

3. End of Day/Week Self Review: Most people know in their gut what worked or went well and what did not. Many successful individuals end the day or week with some variation of a quick review:

a. The Work: What went well with my work product that I feel proud signing it and what could have gone better.

b. The Team: What felt good and productive in the way I interacted with people and where could I have been better in some ways in handling my or someone else’s emotions.

c. The Improvement: What little improvement did I manage to make today or this week? A new habit. Learning a new approach. Strengthening a relationship.

Everyone can be a leader. We must sculpt at the block of marble we are to let the leader out just as Michelangelo did to let David emerge.

A new era of work requires a new era of leadership.

Rethinking Work: https://rethinking-work.io/

What Next? Fifty Year Careers.

Image by Sebdunedin using Midjourney

If we are lucky enough to live long lives, we all will age.

In 1900 life expectancy was 46 years.

Today in most countries the average life expectancy is around 78 years and with advances in technology this could soon be closer to 90 years.

Careers that lasted 30 years now could last 50 or even 60 years.

If one retires from a full-time job or primary career at 60 one still may have 30 years ahead of them which is why today many institutions and firms are rethinking careers and helping guide next acts.

Recently I had Seth Green who is the Dean at the University of Chicago Graham School on What Next? the podcast. The Graham School is a cognitive boot camp for continuing learning wherever you are in the world. The University of Chicago has also recently launched the Leadership in Society Initiative and the Imagine Pathways program for executives exploring their next chapter.

Seth Green’s insights and perspectives are not just for people in their fifties and sixties but for those in their twenties and thirties. Everybody who listens to my forty minute conversation will come away thinking very differently about their future and their careers.

After all, as Ann Dillard says ….how we spend our time is how we spend our lives.

Here are just a few of the discussion points to give you a flavor of the conversation.

1. Aging is a “prejudice against our future selves”. Avoiding thinking about or thinking negatively about aging or our future selves is a form of self-discrimination.

2. Many of us will “fail” retirement. A lot of retirement planning is about making sure one has the financial means to retire and how to remain healthy but that is not enough. Most people who can stop working soon find themselves without purpose or meaning or even identity since work is so central to identity, community, purpose and growth. The question of “Why am I waking up in the morning?” is rarely answered day after day after day with “To play golf” or “To travel”.

3. AI, Time and the rapidly declining half-life of Knowledge: Just as careers are getting longer the half-life of knowledge is declining faster and faster. Even if we are 30 our skills may lead to a forced retirement at 35 or 40 unless we upgrade and reinvent our skills.

The chart above is how AI has impacted the demand for software engineers. Remember how we were told to learn code and Mandarin was the future? Well AI enables software engineers to be far more productive than ever before and in many cases, replaces most of their tasks. And if you have the latest Samsung phone it does real time translation between languages.

Without continuous learning we are all becoming rapidly obsolete. Transformation no longer waits for retirement but is happening to us all the time.

4. To anticipate the future and to understand meaning we can learn from the past including when previous technology shifts happened.

Big ideas and approaches and insights are not only what we invent today but what have stood the test of time and trial. Too many of us believe we are discovering answers for the first time when they have been discovered and explained many times before.

Find what endures to endure.

Connect to what was to ensure one can connect to what will be.

It is important to learn what is important before it is too late.

5. Extrinsic Vs Intrinsic Purpose: In the first parts of our careers, we are driven by extrinsic goals such as money, fame, power, honing craft and seeking promotions. But later in our career or our second careers these extrinsic goals once achieved do not pull and tug or motivate as much as before and we need to know what drives us, what makes us happy and what is meaning. While the first mountain was driven by extrinsic purpose in later career one is driven by intrinsic meaning. Most successful people in their first careers find ways to discover their meaning and inner compass and align their careers to it and so easily make the shift to the second mountain.

What brought us and made us happy at the apex of our first careers are unlikely to carry over to our next act. How can we take what we are today and the best of yesterday but reinvent ourselves for the future? Often by revisiting vision, mission and purpose.

6. Cult vs Culture: If one does not know what one believes in and which way our compass points we can easily be magnetized in the direction of the crowd, the trend and to which ever our firm bends. Too many companies who believe “this is the way” and “our way or the highway” are not really cultures but cults.

7. Learning to travel lightly: Too many successful people cannot let go of the trappings of their first careers later in life. The retinue of handlers, the first-class flights, the genuflecting of minions and being the center of attention.

Seth shares the case of a legendary marketing professor and dean, Harry Davis who at the end of his deanship had to move to a smaller office and could only take a section of his library. He decided to leave behind all the marketing books even though he had built his career in the craft of marketing and only take the leadership books because that is what his career was going to be.

One must learn to travel lightly and let go parts of the luggage of the past every new stage of a career.

8. Do not live in other people’s minds: Too often we select careers and jobs because of what other people think vs what we are good at or find meaning in. We live in other people’s minds and give them the remote control of our lives.

9. The numbers that matter are not the numbers one thinks matter: For the lucky and privileged the size of the 401K beyond a certain point matter less and less. Adding resources has significantly declining returns. What matters are the numbers in the medical chart (health), the numbers of friends, the numbers of healthy relationships and the number of people one has helped. If one knew early on when we rightly focus on financial goals and building wealth that there were far more important goals, we would manage our careers and relationships differently earlier in our careers.

10. We should not price ourselves out of our dreams: Too many people find themselves doing a job they do not truly enjoy or love, much longer than they need to because the job creates the ability to fund a certain lifestyle. One’s lifestyle is rarely the dream. Funding the lifestyle often prices us out of the careers and vocations that truly resonate with us, but we now cannot afford to pursue.

Listen to Seth and dozens of the world’s most amazing leaders on What Next? This week we have Kass and Michael Lazerow who sold their company to Salesforce for 850 million dollars and are investors in companies like Liquid Death talk about the coming era of Entrepreneur, other recent episodes include Andrew Essex now of TCS and formerly a leader at Tribeca and the founding CEO of Droga 5 on AI and creativity and Peter Naylor of Snap, Netflix and NBC pedigree speak of the future of sports and much more. Wide ranging topics, global perspectives, amazingly distinguished and diverse guests sharing their best thinking and distilled insights on what next to help us all grow and transform…

For more about how to understand and navigate the future of work check out Rethinkingwork.io

Soft is the New Hard.

The Walk through Life Howard Walker

These days everywhere the mood seems to be war like and belligerent.

We hear about getting into “Founder Mode”, committing to “ Hardcore” and the need for more “Masculine Energy”.

We are told its time to go to battle, get into the trenches, defeat and crush all that comes in the way.

The end justifies the means.

Outcome is all.

Too bad any collateral damage that may result.

Maybe.

Or maybe not.

When two rocks hit each other both rocks lose parts of themselves in the battle. Its loud and hard but even the winning rock is bruised and chipped.

But water flows over rock.

In time it erodes the rock to nothing and keeps flowing.

Maybe soft overcomes hard by understanding the importance of grace, flow and connection.

Reflection Jiabin Zhu

Grace.

Grace is a fusion of demeanor and deportment.

The graceful combine a generosity of spirit, a sense of respect for others and a humility regardless of their level of excellence and skill.

Generosity of spirit in understanding that much of what is meaningful is not a zero-sum game.

Respecting others by being aware of them and their needs and backgrounds.

Humble in not losing one’s sense of perspective that everybody’s achievement while significant are due to a combination of many factors including luck, opportunity, inheritance, and the specific time and not just due to skill and hard work.

I Climbed a Mountain Steve Walls

Flow.

When in a state of flow an individual is inside and outside time.

Deeply immersed in something while extracted from the ordinary.

It can come in many ways including working on something which is challenging to stretch one but not so difficult that one cannot achieve positive outcomes.

It can come from being immersed in making things, building things, and creating things.

And from helping people grow, learn and flourish.

And it comes from learning and seeking wisdom.

In being able to connect the dots and see and understand things in ways that give one joy.

A Ganges Tale Thibault Gerbaldi

Connection.

Successful and happy people seems to have strong relationships to other people and to a higher cause or purpose.

Humans are social beings and most need some form of connection. The ability to invest and grow connections tends to be associated with joy.

We are living in an inter-connected and multi-polar world of 8 billion people with countries proud of their history and hopeful for tomorrow that all want a place and voice in the future.

Connection turns data into intelligence in AI, a series of words into stories that move us and connection works via genetics into progress across centuries.

Generosity. Respect. Humility engender Grace.

Creating, Learning, Building enable Flow.

Relationships. Purpose. Spirituality elicit Connection.

Intriguingly these are human and not specific to an industry, a gender, a race or a country.

They sometimes result in fame, power, and money but they are rewards in themselves.

Wherever you go, wherever you are and across the time they will give you strength and joy and often bring joy to those around you.

Soft is the new Hard.

My new book Rethinking Work is out this Tuesday (4 February 2025). Writing and ideas that will lift you, your company and your career. More here: Rethinkingwork.io