From WorkPlace to WorkSpace

The nature of work has changed over the last twenty years (Gartner, 2010).   Creating a workforce that is creatively driven by passion and innovation and not through need and what was once called the rat race.  Work for some is no longer considered a four-letter word; rather it is something that calls to their inner strengths, and these individuals can develop careers around their goals.   The nature of work has been decentralized; it focuses on activity, collectiveness and productivity whenever and wherever it can take place (Gartner, 2010).

As the nature of work shifts so changes the nature of leadership.  In my current position, the leadership is considered remote leadership which is a way of effectively using wirechary (Husband, 2016).  I have a Director that I currently "report to", however, both of us report to the Senior Vice President (SVP) of Operations (there is more to her title, but we can stop at this).  The SVP travels about 80% of the month, but her home-base is Marathon, FL. My Director is based out of Dublin, Ireland, and I am here in Boca Raton, Florida.  Two more Project Mangers "report" to me, one is located in Chicago, and one is located in Houston.  I use the word report very loosely.  In reality, the way our team works is very much the ideal of wirechary because each one of us has tasks to do, however sometimes it is in partnership with others (Husband, 2016).  We each work on our share of work and does what needs to be done to accomplish the task regardless of whose responsibility it is, ultimately the success or failure of each project is ours a team if it fails we all fail if it succeeds we all succeed (Husband, 2016).  Sometimes I am doing things that I know would not be asked of me at my "level" of leadership. However, I do them just as in other times I have had to do “grunt” work because the tasks need to accomplish team work is team work.  Remote leadership is the way in which the future workforce is heading.  With various locations and more and more people decentralized people are going to be task oriented, and this is based on quality (Gartner, 2010; Husband, 2016).  During the industrial age, the value of one’s work was on the quantity you produced.  Quantity is no longer the focus of individuals; machines have taken that load. In my organization; the theory is if you are producing quality work, the volume will follow.  The focus of working collectively and collaboratively together to constructively complete vast quantities of work in varying amounts of time over hundreds and even thousands of miles are the useful model of what the nature of work has evolved into along with a prime example of wireachry (Gartner, 2010; Husband, 2016). 

One of the most important things that Weinberger (2014) mentioned in his talk about understanding the future was filtering.  In filtering, we no longer need not filter things out, or through them away as we had in the past. We as leaders need to find the place to put these things (Weinberger, 2014).  He talked about how the old way to look at the future was anticipation, and this isn’t how we should look at the future (Weinberger, 2014).  But I think I disagree.  I believe that we can blend both the of these characteristics he pointed out (Weinberger, 2014).  If we blend the anticipation of what can happen or what we need in the future with what we have by using a filter to place the items in the appropriate locations, then we can be more productive than we would be otherwise. 

This past week, I had to travel, while we were gone, we decided to stop and visit the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) with my nine-year-old daughter, as she had never been there.  Walking onto the campus brought back years and years of memories watching the space shuttle launch, reaching every science magazine I could and even attending space camp once at KSC.   I watched my daughter as she interacted with varies equipment and machines.  There was even an Astronaut (a guy that was dressed up in a robot suit that rode around on a hover-board), kind of cool effects.  However, I digress from my point and my story.  We decided to do a Behind the Scenes type of tour; there we learned about different experiments, new rockets and all kinds of things they are working on at the center.  One gentleman asked about artificial intelligence (AI). The engineer that was answering our questions just laughed and asked him about what he thought about them.  The man said something about it would be nice to have someone to drive on long trips other than he or his wife, and then chuckled.  The engineer gave the best explanation I have ever heard from a particular expert (so to say).  He stated that as with any technology it is only as good as its usefulness.  However the second humans can no longer understand it or figure out how to control the AI that is when humans have lost, he further said that AI is a touchy subject, it sounds great, but once it gets out of control there is no going back from it, just like going to Mars.  Once that rocket is launched, there is no turning back.   I realized what he was saying that AI is great in theory. However, we cannot understand the software or control of AI entirely, and the point is to allow the machines to think and act on its own, with that there is no control. With no power, humans are creating a new species.  With that, I fully agree with Elon Musk and Bill Gates (Holly, 2015).   However, we can use the concept of AI and the processes in which computers process data to help to create better technology (Holly, 2015).  Such technologies are currently being tested at the International Space Station to improve life here on Earth better.

As a side note:  I grew up as a shuttle kid.  Meaning I was a child of the 70’s and 80’s that raced to the TV or even outside to watch the shuttle take off.  When I was 8 I begged my mom to sign me up for a program through my school district that focused on science and technology (I am sure today it would be a STEM program). In January of 1986, I was chosen to go to space camp.  On January 26, 1986, I got to ride a launch simulator; it was the coolest thing in my young life.  Two days later I was finally going to see the shuttle launch, in person.  I did.  I watched the Space Shuttle Challenger take off, and 72 seconds into flight explode.  It has been one of those moments in my life that will forever be engrained in my life. I can’t remember everything that happened that day; it happened so fast.  But I know this, yes the shuttle program cost way more money than anyone ever imagined, yes, it was a risky yet amazing adventure, yes, it did serve its purpose by building an International Space Station, and yes it did not live up to the several hundreds of expectations initially set forth by Congress and NASA.   However, what it did accomplish was so much more that NASA and Congress never realized it would, the number of spinoff technology that was created because of the shuttle program – cell phones, micro-computers, Hubble-lens (eye glasses), artificial limbs, joints, and so much more.  All this technology was created jointly and collaboratively over throughout geography and space (Gartner, 2010; Husband, 2016).  Another thing that the space shuttle program did was the help to foster the love of science and technology in me and now in my daughter, I know others have had the same experience too.  For more information about what technologist NASA has created that are a spinoff of space technology and such go here https://spinoff.nasa.gov 


Reference

Gartner (2010, August 4).  Gartner says the world of work will witness 10 changes during the next 10 years.   Retrieved from http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/1416513

Holly, P. (2015, January 29). Bill Gates on dangers of artificial intelligence: ‘I don’t understand why some people are not concerned.’ The Switch. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2015/01/28/bill-gates-on-dangers-of-artificial-intelligence-dont-understand-why-some-people-are-not-concerned/

Husband, J. (2016). What is wirearchy? Retrieved from http://wirearchy.com/what-is-wirearchy/

Weinberger, D. (2011). Too big to know. New York, NY: Basic Books. 

Weinberger, D. [speakers.com]. (2014,  October 22).  David Weinberger on the power of the internet. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPXmEh24KXA&feature=youtu.be