Brave New Work summary

Introduction

Brave new work by Aaron Dignan. Organizations must evolve beyond outdated systems to thrive. What is stopping you from doing the best work of your life? Are you hamstrung by outdated bureaucratic processes?

Are you stifled by hierarchical structures? Do you feel forever sinking in the quicksand of mandatory meetings? Most workers share these complaints. They could probably name a few more.

That is why it is time to change. It might seem scary. It might seem impossible. If you do not want your organization to perish in the global marketplace, you must change.

You have got to rethink and reinvent the way you work. In the author's terms, that means updating your organization. It means transitioning from an old legacy operating system to a new evolutionary operating system. One that is more flexible, open, and human-centered.

These guidelines do not prescribe any one-size-fits-all change initiatives. They do not offer a single clear answer to your professional problems. But how could they? You and your organization are unique.

You can only change by finding your own path. So think of these ideas as guidelines. They are subtle nudges in the direction you need to be going. The

The Story of Organizational Sabotage

The Story of Organizational Sabotage. Let us begin with a story of sabotage. At the peak of World War II, a special field manual was commissioned. It was created by the director of the agency that later became the CIA.

In the manual were guidelines for destabilizing communities and commerce. The idea was simple. Give the manual to citizens sympathetic to the Allies. Wage a campaign of what the manual described as simple sabotage.

Near the end of the manual, there is a list of actions that interfere with organizations and production. Things like making it hard to access work resources by setting up complicated bureaucratic systems. Never allowing shortcuts that might speed up a process or decision. And adhering to all regulations, always.

When the author shows this list from the old manual to leaders, many laugh. That is exactly what people do where I work, is the general response. Here is the key message. Traditional organizations are in crisis.

What amounted to sabotage in 1944 is now just another day in the office. Let us be clear. It is not that people are trying to be saboteurs. It is that companies are structured in such a way that following protocol essentially amounts to sabotage.

This is having an unfortunate effect on companies in at least three ways. For one, company lifespan is down. Previously, a company on the S &P 500 spent about 60 years there. Now it is down to about 10.

Second, return on assets is also down. Return on assets is the amount of profit a company can generate with what it owns. In addition to being a great all-round metric of performance, it is also hard to fudge. Since 1965, U .

S. return on assets dropped from nearly 5% to just above 1%. Third, productivity growth has also leveled off. We have made incredible technological gains.

Yet, we still cannot produce more per hour than we did 20 years ago. If you were to ask an economist why companies seem to be struggling, she would probably scratch her head. Ask the workers on the ground dealing with day-to-day problems. They will give you a clear answer.

Bureaucracy