December 2021: What is Work?
During calls with clients one day this week, I "went" to Bosnia, Thailand, and England -- and Chicago in the US. I could never have imagined that work could look like that even ten years ago. It is equal parts fascinating and disorienting. Each day, week, and month I am seeing more and more how work is shifting and changing: when it happens, how it is accomplished, who I collaborate with, how we communicate, how it grows... just to name a few of the transformations I'm witnessing and experiencing.
This month's post is all about the ways I'm thinking and learning about "work." There is no order of importance or sequence here... each thing I list this month simply speaks somehow to the question of "What is work?"
🕰 The Future Of Work Is Asynchronous—And These Companies Are Leading The Way. I'm having so many conversations about this, but it requires a massive paradigm shift in the way projects are managed and work is accomplished. Once you actually start understanding and using these new, foreign words "asynchronous" and "synchronous," this article might help you jumpstart the paradigm shifting process. Go ahead -- take the leap!
🧠 Neurodiversity at Work. I have already shared this individually with several people and with a team of managers. This is a tremendous episode. We ALL work with and know neurodiverse people, even if we don't realize it... ADHD, OCD, dyslexia, autism spectrum: all fall under this grouping of neurodiversity. This podcast episode is wonderful and enlightening, including interviews with a man on the autism spectrum who worked as an intern at Procter & Gamble, a supervisor of neurodiverse employers, and a clinician. Please listen and share this with others. We all need to keep learning about this to be better colleagues, supervisors, friends, family members and citizens.
🪜 HBR Ascend. This is my new favorite Instagram account, though I've linked you to their website here. It is designed to "help young professionals find their place in the working world and realize their personal and career goals." Lots of good material on starting a career, well-being, and pursuing professional development. Everyone would benefit from the content here.
👨🏽💻 Workers of the world, stay home! I know, there are so many opinions swirling about remote work. But this interview with Anne Helen Petersen and Charlie Warzel is a discussion about the real issue: how we define, measure and accomplish work in the 21st century.
🙏🏽 Pico Iyer and Elizabeth Gilbert – The Future of Hope. Admittedly, this conversation is really about LIFE, not work. It seems to capture so much of what we have all gone through since March 2020, and I just had to include it. Listen to it in a quiet space. It is very tender and thoughtful.
🏴☠️ Random Stuff! These were all fun things I bumped into when I needed a brain break so my brain wouldn't break... (har de har har).
- Free Classic Books Online. A very clean and simple website called "Library Athena." But of course you have read these lovely works already! 🤣
- How Bowling Balls Are Made. Could. Not. Stop. Watching. This.
- Book Donkey. In case you need to be reminded of your many blessings, and of the beauty tucked into so many places in the world.
- Cool organizational tool. I received this from a client (and former student who is now a stud!). Looks so-o-o-o nice.
Aristotle (via Will Durant)
