A management warning

Prior to the industry era mobilising people into action required leadership. The industrial era, what with the new focus on paying for time as opposed to output, resulted in workers doing as little as they could get away with in order to get the best return on energy expenditure.

This particular work ethic was labelled laziness and it in turn spawned the concept of management to address this laziness. Admittedly management was not an industrial era invention, no doubt it was a key element in the building of the pyramids and propelling ships prior to the arrival of the steam boat.

But we are entering an era where the work that people don’t want to do is becoming more automated leaving (some) people increasingly doing work that they actually want to do. Such people are artists / crafts men who seek mastery in what they do.

Why they are more motivated to do a good job than their employer / customer is because in the social economy the quality of their work is correlated to their reputation and thus their market value.

If this plays out then we will no longer need managers; other than to allocate tasks.

So if you want to remain relevant as the world of work changes you need to be either a leader or an expert in something the market values. Managers – you have been warned.