Knowledge Worker

I have been hit recently by how recently things have changed. It is a modern concept to have so many freedoms, and abilities. I am sure I am not the first to see this trend, but I would like to comment on it, if you will allow me (given my new sense of freedom!!!).

Stephen Covey, in his book entitled "The Eighth Habit, from Greatness to Significance", talks about the "knowledge worker". From my understanding of his idea, there will be opportunity in this decade to recognize and reward the individual contribution workers give while at work. This recognition and rewarding thing is not that special, it is why they will be recognized and rewarded.

I have many interests. How on earth could one company take into account all of my skills and abilities, and pay me the sum of what I am worth? (in December this will start to be a valid question when I graduate from College). This equation of worth must add up a workers creative abilities, side hobbies that lend to understanding in diverse fields, basically, workers that continually learn and grow, and apply that knowledge and passion back into work.

What does this look like? I have no clue. I have ideas, dreams, plans for what I would want it to be, but lets face it, I can not see the future (not yet anyways! I may or may not let you know when and if I ever can).

So that disclaimer aside, what might it look like, from my/our current standpoint? An example may be open source software. If you have ever used software written by people not paid to do it, it feels different. More dynamic, more alive, granted more buggy since sometimes adding a new feature is more exciting than fixing those pesky phylum (bugs).

Another example? Lets go hypothetical. Lets say you hire Leonardo DaVinchi. At first you say to me "Awesome!!! I get this highly creative guy on my team, made all those cool things, painted, drew, other stuff....." I have to interrupt you after several minuets because you keep blabering.

He writes backwards and has his own code, no good at sharing notes. He had the most unfinished works of any master (came from a book, will cite this sometime, believe me till then). Juggled in his spare time, and always scribbling in his journals. He would have been awful to have in the office. Like MacGuyver always pulling out his pocket knife to fix the broken fax machine, Leonardo would have ditched his assignments and done flight experiments with his attempt at a wooden helicopter.

Ok, so he might not have been that bad, but he would not have fit in. He had too many talents. How can companies fit this type of character into their companies, and keep them interested?
Lets use some corporate lingo-
1. Break the walls of interdepartmental knowledge barriers
2. Allow creative problem solvers to solve creative problems wherever they arise
3. Find a way to encourage learning and creativity, even if it is not directly related (ie juggling, art, ambidexterity...... you can get a little creative here, it is ok by me).
4. Pay people according to the value added activities they provide the company (figure out how to measure(better yet, let them tell the company how to measure) their value added activities, and pay people proportionate to how much of it they get done).
5. Build in time to allow people to increase their capacity to learn/work/increase creativity/give back/whatever.

Some companies get some of these concepts, but there is a ways to go. People like Google, Apple, Ideo, and others are starting to understand work sucks if you feel like a cog in a wheel in a machine. Work can be fun if you can contribute, add personal touches, do what interests you. Lets hope more get the point by the time I graduate! (otherwise consider this public notice that I will be starting a business that does as many of these things as possible, and we will take over the world!)

(For those of you who care to continue reading this gargantuan post, I do not think Leonardo would have done that badly, just not used to his full potential. Imagine Einstein at McDonalds, he would have been awful, staring off into space imagining gravity and light and singularities. Or more likely, the inefficiencies he saw around him, how he should write to corporate to speed this up, change this, do that. Corporate would have hated him! Unless they brought him up to a level where he could have seen the problems from a broader perspective, then he would have been a Genius!)