What's up, everybody?
As the world "continues to open up", Usman and I continue to take advantage of it: we're in Dubai and Bali this week -- fully flexing our remote, digital-nomad chops!
More fluid travel; my kids playing soccer, unmasked, and getting to watch the games as parents at the field itself. It all feels a bit "pinch me, I'm dreaming." A mix of cautious optimism, combined with the recognition that even if we keep marching towards something more sane, the world -- we all -- have changed more than we can know.
Speaking of which, this week we have three different, but not unrelated, nuggets on the changing world of work:
#1 - on the meaning and purpose that we seek at work (and elsewhere)
#2 - on the imperative of positive sum growth, and environments
#3 - on senior management as bottleneck and impediment to change
Thanks for reading, and have a fantastic week!
Aki & Usman
#1
#meaning #BiggerThanUs
How easily we forget that we're so driven -- hard-wired -- to find purpose and meaning in our lives. Combine this with the fact that we spend half our waking hours at work, and it's no wonder that the organizations that "win" will be those who succeed in offering this 👆🏻 to its people.
#2
#growth #PositiveSum
Matt is an investor, who has also operated several companies. We're not sure if growth is a moral imperative, per se; that reeks of a "growth at all costs" mentality which we're not fans of. But we agree that being in high-growth environments in which the size of the pie is increasing does tend to yield players who optimize for continuing to grow that pie. Whereas with less growth in a company (team, etc.) humans tend to compete over it in a more zero-sum way. 🥧
#3
#power #management
Maybe it's the way he stacks things, but somehow the combo Gary presents of less diverse experience, a huge stake in past investments, and default respect for industrial dogma -- reads as so damning.
What's striking is that when we happened upon this quote, we instinctively applied it to the context of the ongoing tension between management that's keen to return to the office, and many (most?) employees wanting to continue to work remotely.
The kicker? The article was written in 1996.
Thanks so much for reading. 🙏🏻