How Would We (I) Function in This Employment World

A guest blog post on CNBC by Julie Clow, author of The Work Revolution: Freedom and Excellence for All, caught my eye this morning.

Since I write about the world of work, any article that starts this way would do so:

Maybe we have it exactly wrong.

Maybe we should all be wildly different from each other in every way, down to the way in which we get our work done.  

She envisions a much more decentralized world of employment, explained (briefly in the article) around these four principles:

• It’s about individual strengths, not job slots.
• The more diverse we are, the better the wisdom of the crowds. 
• If we accept our diversity as a given, then schedules are anathema to progress.
• It’s about impact, not activities.

I will take a look at her book, but while her ideas provoke, my initial reaction is what a nightmare for the HR folks.  Its hard enough to manage hr and employment law issues when we have people herded together; the more separate and independent,  the more difficult the task.

But maybe the only way to really take on the future is to blow up the way things have always been done, and of necessity that includes the HR function as well. It may actually be happening more than is readily apparent.

Anything that makes it more difficult for HR probably means more business for my types.Which, with all due consideration to my partners, is not really a good thing.