Customer Reviews

Work 2.0: Building The Future, One Employee At A Time

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Bill Jensen has researched how we all work for more than a decade. I know: I participated in part of his study ten years ago.

Here's what I've learned both from his two books and his research...

* HIS SKILL is as an aggregator, simplifier, and clarifier.
I laugh at reviews that are obviously searching for the next big thing:

("Nothing new here. So-and-so said that back in...") He openly covers ideas that others cover. But he integrates them all together, and finds the patterns and overlaps between dots that we couldn't otherwise connect.

* HE IS PASSIONATE about respect for the individual.
Work 2.0 and Simplicity are not about *business* success. They are about people issues, and finding more ways for each individual to succeed.

He's holding leaders accountable for employees' time, energy, and
passion that they waste. When he wrote "It is no longer acceptable to say that there's *work* and there's *life* and it's up to employees to balance the two," he was taking a stand for all the thousands of people he's heard from during his research. Again, I was one of those he stood up for.

* HE ASKS tough questions.
Do not buy his books unless you're willing to look in the mirror. While he includes checklists and writes in a very accessible way, he is definitely not about mice-moving-cheese, or fish-throwing, or Five Steps to Eternal Bliss. He's seen our personal foibles and the stupidity in our workplaces, and he tells the truth.

* HE POKES a finger in the eye of those in power, then winks at us.

* HE RESPECTS his readers.
Sure, he gets some things wrong. I don't agree with all his findings or recommendations. But at the end of the day, he respects us to think more deeply and come up with better solutions because he played truth-teller and dots-connector. He sees his role as witness, reporter, clarifier, and provocateur. He figures we're smart enough to figure out the rest.

For me, that's more than good enough.

Jensen has done an excellent job of redefining the notion of a "Best Place to Work." Instead of focusing on perqs, he talks about what people really need to do their jobs well. And he does it with the characteristic Jensen writing style: concise, candid, and humorous.

What I particularly like about the book is that Jensen forces people at all levels in a hierarchy to take responsibility for creating effective workplaces. It's not just up to leaders and it's not just up to the people who work with them to recreate a better work environment. He gives advice and concrete tools to both groups. The quick quizzes and mini case-studies in this book are particularly useful. The work on social networks is simplified, but very accessible and practical.

Full disclosure: I had a review copy and I am a colleague of Bill's.

The dust will settle soon. Wrenching uncertainty may not go away, but we will have progressed. Or will we?

Jensen wants us to stop first, and ask new questions. Like: What returns should we expect for all that we invest into an employer? He states flat out that "for most employees, the more they invest in their company, the more they lose control of their own destiny." He details a new and different covenant. And tells the stories of a few companies who have started.

Just one page (77), his SimplerWork Index, and the instructions on how to use it, are worth the price of the book. When the Index asks us to respond to statements like, "My company is respectful of my time and attention, and is focused on using it wisely and effectively" -- Wow! It stops the platitudes, and energizes new debates about what it means to be in a "great place to work."

What makes Work 2.0 so useful and important is not that Jensen gets everything right. (I'd quibble with a few of his points.) It's that he's taken the conversation about work/life balance and the war for talent to excitingly new places. Get this book! Get lots, and give the other copies to people who need to "get it."

This sleeper hit will turn out to be one of this year's ten most
important books. Published at the very moment scandals exploded and markets imploded, Jensen saw the need for us to take more control of our own future, and shows us how.

2.0 looks at work, with in-your-face truthtelling. For example, nowhere will the CEO&Guru authors of "Execution" tell you that "the leaders of great workplaces must accept accountability for life's precious assets" (how our time gets spent/wasted every day), or that today's leaders "must be willing to be challenged on, and address, work-level details." Jensen backs up those ideas with examples, and new ways work and have a life too.

Among the ideas and tools I found most helpful:
* A chapter on how to redefine our relationship w/ our employers
* A tool, The SimplerWork Index, that provides completely
new measures for great places to work
* New examples of how to build operations to meet the needs of workers and customers
* An unheard-of-commitment to personal productivity: Corporate commitments to helping each individual, not just the business, get more done with less resources

I believe that this book is ten-best-important because, at the very moment when marketplace and corporate foundations are being shaken, 2.0 asks completely new questions of us, of our relationship with those companies, and of what it takes for us to be our best. It shapes a completely new conversation about work, life, and what we want from each.

Appealing to everyone who works for a living and wants to strive for the shear fun of it (shades of Maslow's self actualization), Work 2.0 is a concise, direct and practical fieldbook full of insights and "how to" approaches.

With a brutally frank focus on personal productivity in a global context, it will cause you to assess "as is" (your job, company or country) so that long-term fulfillment can be attained. Don't worry though- this is not one of those mysterious pop-psychology texts.

Entertaining, dynamic chapters span:
1- the asset revolution begins- work 2.0 new contract, leaders and managers, workforce
2- if you're serious rules- embrace the asset revolution, build my work my way, deliver pee-to-peer value, develop extreme leaders
3- under construction- views of work ahead, privacy matters

Full of ideas, checklists, and examples of Work 2.0, this is one of the best books in the domain. Share it at work if you want to shake the place up.

[note- based upon complimentary review copy sent by author]

A book by the title of "Management Gurus and Management Fashion" puts forth the argument that there are three master analogues or deep structures to explain how someone becomes a guru in the management field, or an idea tips and spreads like wildfire through our places at work. The three analogues are: Pragmatic analogue - grounded in expediency, efficiency, survival (a la Hammer and Champy); Righteous analogue - based on ethics, integrity, authenticity, and doing what's right (a la Stephen Covey); and the Social analogue - addressing human relations and connectedness (a la Peter Senge).

Well, if you buy into this argument then Bill Jensen is the "guru of gurus" because Work 2.0 sits squarely at the intersection of Hammer and Champy, Covey, and Senge. Jensen taps into the pragmatic by providing us all a wake-up call about how the time, attention, ideas, knowledge, passion, energy, and social networks of people will ultimately determine the success or failure of our places of work. He drills down into the righteous by challenging all of us to take on the responsibility of creating a better workplace, to speak the truth to those in power, and to quit the platitudes and go after our own unique destiny. And he brings focused attention to the social by stating that at the end of the day, the new contract is all about helping people to make an impact, to learn and grow, and to take our relationships to new levels.

Whether you are an employee and/or employer, read this book to be both challenged and inspired by the world of work, 2.0.

>From page 76: "Work 2.0 employees know that, of all the numbers that matter to you [leaders] and them, one is immutable: 1440. That's the number of minutes in a day. Whatever percentage of those minutes they spend with your company, they want more out of what they invest, with less waste."

Enron has taught all of us a lot about numbers. How companies can shape and control our future with them. 9.11.01 taught us what truly matters: that life is so precious. That day, reporter Diane Sawyer picked up a piece of paper blown out of the towers and thought: "Until a few hours ago, somebody thought _this_ was really important."

This book opened my eyes like those other events did. I realized how many ways the companies I've worked for have stolen many of my 1440 minutes. They did it unintentionally. But still, they did. I was struck when Jensen wrote: "It's no longer acceptable to say that there's _work_ and there's _life_ and it's up to employees to balance the two." I still figuring out how to change
that. But at least now I know I have to.

Bill Jensen has done it again. First- fresh, frank talk about "simplicity"; now- equally engaging insights on "work". When I picked up Work 2.0, I intended to peruse the Foreward, saving the main body for later reading. The next thing I knew, my yellow highlighting had taken me 3/4s of the way through the book. The two questions posed at the outset: "Do you waste any of your talent's time, attention, ideas, knowledge, passion, energy, or social networks?"; and "What is the daily /weekly/monthly return your talent gets for investing their assets in your firm?" hold your attention. So do the "Articles" of the New Contract. As for writing style, Jensen practices what he preaches. He has the ability to capture a thought in a "simple" phrase. This is a Think and Act book. It's time to get to Work.

The book was very well written, and very insightful.
I thought that "Rule 3. Deliver Peer-to-Peer Value" was full of a lot of jargon and buzzwords. That chapter did not get me really thinking much, nor did it help. But the others were great. Although I am no longer a manager of any sort I found myself wanting to work for managers that have read this book and agree with its founding principles.

The driving theme of maximizing your employees time and providing them with challenging work is at the core of what this book is all about.

Those who have already read Jensen's previous book, Simplicity, will not be surprised to learn that in this volume he again focuses on essentials. "This is a toughlove book for tough times. The human toll of September 11 was just the beginning. Virtually every sector is now being hit with breathtaking drops in earnings. No wonder you'll find in these pages recurring themes like productivity, assets, and ROIs." Jensen's purpose is to "take the People vs. Profits to a completely new level. To change the lens you use and change the solutions you consider even as you fight for your very survival." In essence, what is Work 2.0? Jensen advocates four "Four Forces of Creative Destruction" which enable enlightened self-interest to focus on productivity by taking respect for the individual to completely new levels:

1. :Asset Revolution: "Workforce assets include their time, attention, ideas, skills, knowledge, passion, energy, social networks, and more. How will you create better ROIs on these assets?"

2. Build My Work My Way: "The future of work is personalized and tailored. Information flows, tools, and compensation structures will be personalized so that people can have more control over their own destiny."

3. Deliver Peer-to-Peer Value: "Nobody needs companies to help them collaborate, share, understand, or create. people can self-organize and connect amazingly well, thank you. You're the middleman. What value do you add when peers connect?"

4. Develop Extreme Leaders: "The future of leadership is extreme accountability for life's precious assets. From this point forward, R-E-S-P-E-C-T includes better use of the assets the workforce brings with them."

According to Jensen, there is a "New Coin of the Realm" for a new work contract. He identifies 20 Articles which range from "Our working capital gets stuff done" to "Work 2.0 value starts with me." In the Work 2.0 world, the most effective organizations will be meritocracies. Those involved will agree upon a combination of the 20 Articles (all, most or only some) which are most relevant to their individual as well as collective needs and interests. Those in the workforce will demand an ROI acceptable to them; the nature and extent of their personal success will determine the nature and extent of producing more sooner and at less cost; motivated by enlightened self-interest, their passion will drive innovation and productivity; their peer-to-peer connections (both within and beyond the organization) will deliver personal freedom, growth, and success; they will measure only what they value; in the world of Work 2.0, there will be greater trust and clarity as well as more effective communication between and among those involved; finally, each participant will assume responsibility for -- and be held accountable to -- much higher standards because, in the world of Work 2.0, the standards are determined by those in the workforce. The ROI of each will be diminished by another's failure to meet those standards.

Gary Hamel has written a book in which he urges his readers to "lead the revolution." At one point, he observes: "This is a book about innovation -- not in the usual sense of new products and new technologies, but in the sense of radical new business models. It begins by laying out the revolutionary imperative: we've reached the end of incrementalism, and only those companies that are capable of creating industry revolutions will prosper in the new economy. It then provides a detailed blueprint of what you [italics] can do to get the revolution started in your own company. Finally, it describes in detail an agenda for making innovation as ubiquitous a capability as quality or customer service. Indeed, my central argument is that radical innovation the [italics] competitive advantage for the new millennium." His is an excellent book which I hold in very high regard. Those who share my admiration of Jensen's two books, Simplicity and Work 2.0, are urged to check out Hamel's book. Both Hamel and Jensen challenge what Jim O'Toole correctly characterizes as "the despotism of custom" and "the ideology of comfort." Anyone in any organization (regardless of size or nature) who has attempted to be a change leader is already familiar with both.

Jensen does indeed focus on essentials in Work 2.0. "The new war for talent will be fought over who provides the best returns on investments....The future of work is customized, personalized, and tailored to each individual....bottom-up criteria will drive more and more of your collaboration budgets and strategies....The future of leadership includes greater accountability for performance through greater willingness to be challenged on, and address, work-level details." Have he, Hamel, O'Toole and others come up with all the right answers? Of course not. But they have raised all the right questions and then responded to them with precision, passion, and eloquence. How will you respond? I conclude by presuming to suggest that if your response is essentially irrelevant in your current organization, find another in which the robust spirit and muscular practice of Work 2.0 principles are essential.