I can hardly believe it’s been almost 3 months now since I became independent and, yet, it feels like it’s been like that for ages. Somehow I’m starting to feel like the transition period is coming to an end or, perhaps, even, it never started in the first place. Things have been moving along so fast that there hasn’t been a dull moment whatsoever. The learning experience has been par to none. The massive, and rather drastic, change from having worked for the last 17 years in one of the largest IT corporations out there (IBM) to running your own business, on your own, can be quite something. All along, I knew the uncertainty would be here to stay with me for a good while, yet, the excitement keeps trumping that very same uncertainty, specially, when all of the current work around constantly building the pipeline for new work is starting to pay off as well. But if there is anything that I have been grateful about all along, since I made the move, was joining a very special group of rather talented and very smart folks who have made it worth while for me, all along, coming to work every morning: Change Agents Worldwide. Why? Well, because we may be on the brink of witnessing our collective ninth day. And we need to be ready. Are you?
Yes, that’s right. I thought, in today’s blog entry, I would take the chance to share with you folks one, of the many!, reasons as to why, a few months back, I decided to go and join Change Agents Worldwide as a Solo Change Agent. It’s all about our common vision of humanising work, of living through, day in day out in our daily work routines, how we feel the future of work would be like, except that instead of waiting for 3 to 5 years to see it coming along, we all, collectively, gathered around to make it happen today as we continue to build an uncompany.
Essentially, it’s been about having us explore, first hand, what it would be like what we preach and talk about with much passion and dedication. In a way, we feel we are tasting our very own waters to perhaps show and demonstrate everyone, starting with ourselves!, that it is possible to define the future of work today, after all, making it more human, networked, hyperconnected, smarter, collaborative, open, transparent, engaged. That it is something that begins with each and everyone of us, knowledge (Web) workers and change agents. And that it is a journey we all decided to begin as a group effort where we may not know exactly what the final destination may well be, but we all feel that what really matters is not necessarily that very same final destination, but the journey itself.
That’s what my good friend, and fellow Change Agent, Kevin Jones, did recently when he put together this incredibly inspiring and thought provoking video clip (that lasts for a little bit over 3 minutes) under the rather suggestive heading “Humanise Work: The Ninth Day”, where he comes to reflect, and pretty accurately, too!, on the current poor (literally) state of things within the corporate world and the realisation of what the future of work should be like, and, exactly, relating, pretty well, what motivates and inspires us, Change Agents, to come to work for every day. Take a look into the embedded video clip below and see what you think. Is that the kind of world we would want to live in, the industrial world, that is, or is it time to put a stand on things, think AND do different:
So why am I posting about this today, you may be wondering, right? Well, it’s as a result of a good number of conversations I have been having with people, mostly face to face, when they bring up an issue I am pretty sure vast majority of independent freelancers / consultants / advisors / coaches / facilitators, etc. etc. may bump into, if not already, when they start to potentially do client work and the killer question comes up: How are you planning to scale?
It’s a question that doesn’t have a straight forward answer. Or maybe it does. Context and the ever growing complexity of work would probably matter now more than ever. Things are changing quite a bit. Disruption is happening all over the place at a more rampant pace that perhaps anyone out there could have had anticipated all along. Yet, the reality is that question on scalability will have to find a pretty good answer, and very soon, as we are progressing and moving forward, relentlessly and with no turning point, to that so-called Freelance Economy.
Like any economy out there though, specially, nowadays, we all know there will be a number of different issues and problems coming up over the course of time that would put the Freelance Economy to the test, yet, the potential and the opportunity for redefining the whole concept behind meaningful and purposeful work are very real and are here to stay. Never mind re-introducing a whole bunch of concepts that looked like we may have forgotten them over the course of last few decades, but that Kevin graciously reminded us all about on the second part of the video clip shared above.
Thus, again, how are we going to scale in today’s ever growing Freelance Economy then, you may be wondering, and escape that tumultuous uncertainty everyone keeps talking about? Easy. Through our networks. In my own personal case, through Change Agents Worldwide. My primary, core network to get work done in an open, collaborative and transparent manner through a common set of core values we all believe in and share dearly. We know and understand fully we can then scale even further beyond, any which way, through our very own extended networks across the world, co-building, nurturing and cultivating a whole bunch of various different partnerships, as my good friend, and fellow Change Agent, Rob Paterson, blogged about beautifully a little while ago when he explained why he joined CAWW as well.
And best part of it all? It is that for all of us, fellow Change Agents, it’s a continuous learning experience, where we have embraced and live through, day in day out, that good old mantra Harold Jarche blogged about a while ago on “Work is learning, learning is the work”. But you know what is an even better part of this whole new experience and exploration of what the future of work could look like? That you, too, could come along, today, and join us, hire us, play with us, or even start a new adventure with us and eventually help us help you humanise the way we work.
The Ninth Day is coming … Are you ready for it?
Written by Luis Suarez
Chief Emergineer, People Enabler and Charter Member of Change Agents Worldwide and a well seasoned Social / Open Business evangelist and 2.0 practitioner with over 15 years of experience on knowledge management, collaboration, learning, online communities and social networking for business; and has been living, since February 2008, a (work) life without email challenging the status quo of how knowledge workers collaborate and share their knowledge by promoting openness, transparency, trust, sustainable growth, engagement, connectedness and overall smart work. He can also be contacted over in Twitter at @elsua or Google Plus.
[Oh, before I let you all go, and if you can, come and join us on May 29th at noon EDT on a webinar that fellow Change Agents Joachim Stroh, Simon Terry and Kevin Jones will be hosting around this very exciting topic: “Creating a Vibrant Social Network Employees Will Love”. Check out this link for more information and registration details and we certainly look forward to seeing you all there!]
