The most important dos and
don’ts in today’s “free world of work”
As I began to read this
book, I was again reminded of two previously published books: Alvin Toffler’s
Future Shock (1984) and Dan Pink’s Free Agent Nation: How America’s New
Independent Workers Are Transforming the Way We Live (2001). Curiously, neither
author nor their work is acknowledged by Marion McGovern as she explains “how
to capitalize and compete in the new world of work.”
It was Toffler who observed
in his classic, “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who
cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn” and it
was Pink who observes in his own classic, “free agents are people who are
working untethered from a large organization. This includes freelancers,
e-lancers, self-employed professionals and proprietors of very small
businesses. These are not necessarily entrepreneurs … they’re not necessarily
startups that aspire to go big. They’re people who have either been cast aside
by larger organizations or have broken away from large organizations to make
their own way.”
I cannot recall a prior
time when the “world of work” was more volatile, more uncertain, more complex,
and more ambiguous than it is today. That is why I agree with McGovern that
business leaders need to understand how and why companies now use free agents
[in the Gig Economy], something workers [also] need to understand to thrive” in
that economy.
McGovern covers a great
deal of ground:
o She compares/contrasts
traditional intermediaries and their digital counterparts.
o She also suggests each of
the major differentiators.
o With regard to personal
branding, she notes that the most successful free agents see themselves as a
brand to be developed, strengthened, and leveraged.
o She offers a “broad
discussion of building a digital voice.”
o Throughout the book, she
introduces and then delineates a framework so her readers can create their own
“mental model for how to thrive in the new world of work.”
NOTE: In their recently
published book, Business Models for Teams, Tim Clark and Bruce Hazen introduce
“The Business Model Canvas.” One of its most substantial benefits of is that it
can be used to create a “systems view” of organizations at three levels:
enterprise, team, and individual. “An enterprise business model shows how an
entire organization creates and delivers value to customers outside the
organization. A team business mode shows how a group creates and delivers
value. A personal business model shows how an individual creates and delivers
value…Think of the three levels as a stacked tier with the enterprise model on
top. Viewing an organization this way reveals workplace interdependencies and
begins imparting a sense of relatedness to people who may be accustomed to
thinking of work in terms of proscribed ‘jobs’ that rarely transcend group or
functional boundaries. This is where people begin discovering how an
organization really works – and how they fit in.”
This is precisely what
McGovern has in mind when rigorously examining the dynamics of all manner of
worker/employer relationships in the new world of work.”
Earlier, I included Pink’s
comments about free agents. Here’s what McGovern suggests: “Let’s agree that a
gig is a job of uncertain duration in any field, whether it’s a driver, a
freelance artist, or an interim CEO. ‘Gigs’ are what has historically been
called contingent work, whether it is secured by the worker, through a staffing
company, through a human capital company, or through a digital talent platform.
The Gig Economy, then, refers to the companies and business systems that have
evolved to support his independent work.”
Who will derive substantial
value from the abundance of information, insights, and counsel that Marion Mc
Govern provides. In my opinion, they will probably be within three major
categories: those who retain free agents directly, those who retain them via an
intermediary (e.g. Adecco, Allegis Group, Robert Half International, Manpower
Group Inc., and Randstad Holding), and those who are retained directly or
indirectly.
Estimates vary but it seems
probable that at least 40 million free agents are now in circulation and they
comprise about a third of the private U.S. workforce. My guess is that these
statistics will rapidly increase, as will the value of the material in this
book.
