Maura Nevel Thomas - Work Without Walls: An Executive’s Guide to Attention Management, Productivity, and the Future of Work

C ORPORATE America has been experiencing a shift. In some ways it seems like the business environment is changing quickly, but in reality this shift has been gradual. In fact, Peter Drucker, widely recognized as the founder of modern management, predicted this shift as early as the 1950s, but the realization of his predictions has taken decades to manifest. The shift is both endlessly discussed and almost completely ignored. The shift to which Im referring is the shift from industrial work to knowledge work.

In the Industrial Age, work happened within the walls of a factory. Today, knowledge work is the product of our brains. Increasingly, that work has left the confines of an office. Companies have moved to cubicle environments and open floor plans. Often the work is done outside the company walls entirely because technology advancements allow knowledge workers to do their work anywhere, at any time. Traditional work relationships are changing, with freelance and contract workers making up over 40 percent of the workforce, and more work happening outside the office than ever before. In addition to the loss of so many physical walls, the metaphorical walls between work time and personal timeand between work spaces and personal spacesare crumbling.

While technologists have been capitalizing on this shift for years, individuals are struggling to adapt their lives at work, and corporations are struggling to adapt their policies and practices, to this shift. The phrase I use to sum up the issues and challenges inherent in this shift to knowledge work is Work Without Walls. While the phrase knowledge work is common vernacular, the implications for workers and the impact on company culture is a problem vexing companies of all sizes throughout the United States.

Knowledge work, for the purposes of this book, is defined as work for which thinking is the raw material. The products of knowledge work are communications, information, and complex decisions. In technology development, much thought has been given to automating processes and imposing structure to create more efficiency in knowledge work, and larger companies are slowly beginning to exhibit some changes, making news for their nonconformity. However, little attention has been given in smaller companies to adapt to this monumental change, or to help individuals navigate the new realities of work, the new tools available to them, and the increasingly blurred lines between business and personal and work and downtime.

Although institutional productivity is important, the worker as a human being is a critical piece of the equation. If thinking is a raw material of knowledge work, then the biases in which that thinking is framed are relevant. These biases are formed by how individual knowledge workers feel about their tasks and their jobs overall and by how well the tool they use to produce the thinkingtheir brainis performing. These two things mean that the workers personal well-being should be attended to. In fact, studies show that a key skill among high-performing executives is the ability to cultivate successful relationships, where leaders are seen as genuinely caring about the well-being of their colleagues.

However, there is a particular kind of company that seems to operate with the assumption that workers are disposable and a grueling work environment where people regularly cry at their desks are requirements to stay competitive and increase profits. If this is the type of company youre running, then this bookwhich is based on the belief that healthy, happy, and productive employees are better for individuals, companies, and society at largeis not for you.