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The Future of Work

Robert Pye

1 December 2014

www.ethosvo.org

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Experiment – have you seen this before?

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Could one perceive many such models?

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Escher’s art often portrays infinite loops

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Agenda

• The map is not the territory1: Many ways to view the World

• The medium is the message2: What Media? What messages?

• Drinking ones own champagne3 : Experimenting on ourselves

1 - The expression "the map is not the territory" first appeared in print in a paper that Alfred Korzybski gave at a meeting of the American

Association for the Advancement of Science in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1931:[1] In Science and Sanity, Korzybski acknowledges his debt

to mathematician Eric Temple Bell, whose epigram "the map is not the thing mapped" was published in Numerology2 - Marshall McLuhan - Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, published in 19643 - CEO of Pegasystems in relation to testing their own BPM software on themselves

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Situating this talk..

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1. The map is not the territory:

What maps / models? What territory?

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Thoughts, Context, Questions

• There are lots of models (including Ethos’) Right tools for the right job

• New ways (models) to approach complex multi-stakeholder problems?

• Understanding and challenging the innate biases of industrial society

• Understanding and challenging the innate biases of media (& money & brands)

• Understand biases at all levels: Social, economic, environmental, nation state,

government , business, civil society, individual and community.

• How are we really improving lives? This must keep us honest.

If we don’t do these things, we could well end up

“solving the wrong problem very well” (is Uber?).

So perhaps the best adage is “seek first to understand then to be understood”

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The new world

Advertisers $$$$

The Networked Society:

Our operating system is

the Internet/Web

The innate Internet/Web culture (I would suggest is):

open, integrative, data-rich, distributed, networked,

P2P, collaborative, knowledge based, tacit, power

laws, new forms of org.

By understanding these innate biases and capabilities

we can build new models that are neither good nor

bad (whatever that means). There are issues:

• Externalities (Uber, Bitcoin, Etherium)

• Old world biases (IPO, IP based value, proprietary)

• Legitimacy (trans national advocacy. Avaaz)

• Responsibility (who goes to jail when a reckless

algorithm mows down 20 pedestrians: driverless

cars)

• Defence-against-the-dark-arts. How to protect

against extractive biases and the tragedy of the

commons?

• Sociology / Identity and myriad other human issues

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Global Solutions Networks

http://gsnetworks.org/ten-types-of-global-solution-network/

Will emerging structures offer hope for solving the most

complex multi-stakeholder problems? (like climate change,

poverty, food, education)

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Industrial Maps

Advertisers $$$$

Closed: siloed, functional,

protected property, efficiency

based, competitive,

individualistic, broadcast,

explicit skills and experience.

Largely hierarchically

implemented, extractive and

organisationally as well as

individually self-interested.

Resistant to change. Set up to

protect, expand and enhance

power and assets.

Are there intermediate models

that can bridge the gap

between the old and the new?

The Industrial Society:

Running on Nation States

and Organisations as

operating systems

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2. The medium is the message:

What media? What messages?

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What biases do these media promote?

Money: http://www.moneyasdebt.net

A Nation State

A Brand

The Media

Work

Watch-out! These gotchas can set you on a path

you may not have intended

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Brief Summary of biases at systemic level.

Present at all levels (including work)

• Individualism

• Efficiency

• Hierarchy

• Self-interest

• intermediation between people and produced goods and services

• Increasing intermediation between power, money and labour

• Reductionist

• Process oriented / linear / Time based

• Vertically integrated and global

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The race to the bottom: What happens when free-

market economics works very well on stuff?

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What happens to work when free-market

economics works very?

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Important conclusions…

• Many frames we use today and their embedded

biases can produce poor outcomes when applied to

complex muli-stakeholder problems.

• For certain types of problems (common to a

networked society in fact) new frames, media, tools

and cultures must be piloted and developed.

• This need becomes urgent the closer we get to

Rifkin’s vision of a “(near) zero marginal cost society”

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New Frame 1 (Rifkin): The Collaborative

Commons. A possible new societal narrative?

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Frame 2 The Cynefin Framework (Dave Snowden)

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A radically different philosophy (is actually as easy as 1, 2, 3)

1. Define the problem well (how will solving improve lives?)

2. Assemble a people around a common culture who are

passionate about solving the problem* Go back to 1,

Iterate, experiment

3. Build a sustainable ecosystem (covering, financial,

social & environmental). For the people first. Include

existing orgs and create new types of orgs to serve the

solution.

*Problem. Forget about ‘organisations’ for a while. Problem = opportunity,

Idea, value proposition. Must have a unifying purpose. We strive to deliver

positive social, economic and environmental impact from our work

Networked

Organisation

Problem*

People

Networked Approach

=

Industrial Approach

• Products

• Services

• Self interest

• Shareholder Value

Self-interests dominate

1. Approach is top-down, command and control.

Hierarchical. Silos.

2. What product/servicer are we selling to whom.

3. Which segments?

4. Broadcast

5. Shareholder value

6. Race to the bottom (zero-marginal cost economy)

7. etc.

New frame 3: A new problem solving philosophy

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New Frame 4: The Shift (wirearchy)

Traditional Hierarchy

• Discrete events

• Time to adjust & absorb

• Relatively predictable outcomes

• Sense of the future as a continuation of

the present (orderly)

Size

Stability

Functional specialization

Position & role clarity

Status

Prescribed authority

Globally vertically integrated

Wirearchy (Jon husband)

• Continuous process

• Adjust “on the fly”

• Almost impossible to predict

outcomes

• The future as highly complex and

uncertain (chaotic)

Speed

Flexibility

Innovation

Integration

Expertise & knowledge

Intuitive authority

Locally, horizontally integrated

“In the past, change was a periodic event in organizations … now, organization is a periodic event.”

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3. Drinking our own champagne:

Some experiments

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Team Army

• Problem: British Army Sport (best described as “welfare through sport”)

• 100,000 soldiers in need of more funds for their sports (addl to gov money)

• Co-venture between Ethos and the Army board (no gov money, license, prior IP or competition)

• £2.6m of new cash delivered to 80 Forces sports (most donated from Ethos business)

• New brand identity (Team Army) created and owned by Ethos

• A symbiotic “ecosystem” involving the support of about 100 organisations to create a sustainable

solution.

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New Frame 5a: A Commercial ecosystem (symbiotic)

The flows of cash.

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New Frame 5b: Distributed Governance.

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New Frame 6: Local Authority Public / Private Partnership

• Problem: Integrated innovation and delivery at a city level.

• Scope: very ambitions

• Realities: no new money! Cost saving agenda

• Solution. Conceive three new core capabilities:

• Innovate (Value proposition Dev)

• Operate (marketing & PR services)

• Align (spontaneously around opps)

• Wholly owned public / priv partnership

• Lessons:

• It’s all about people

• Seeing the wood from the trees

Destination Management

Sector Support

City Centre Management

Cultural Commissioning

Inward Investment

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New Frame 7: LOD as an enabler to these models

• Linked Open data

• Philosophically aligned

• Not without issues (commercial, IP, people)

• Personal data – hot issues on IP and governance

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Publish real-time asset availability via LOD

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Re-imaging the high-street personal offers via

anon pers data)

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An Avatar (with AI) to capture personal data

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• Collaboration

• Alignment of interests (each other and with clients)

• Mutual support

• Trust

• Adult-Adult culture (not parent-child as in hierarchy)

• Working towards outcomes, not being told ‘how’ to work

• Moderation

• Responsibility to work ‘with the grain of society’

• Aspiring to be the reverse of the ‘greedy banker’

• Projects aim to do “well” for individuals and their communities as well as “good”

for Ethos

New Fame 8a: Ethos’ approach to work. Leadership by

culture not command

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At Ethos, we share a vision about the future of work which is better for individuals,

better for organisations and better for the World we live in.

Organisations need to serve real people and their communities inside and outside

of their organisations. They need to solve problems. If they get in the way of either

then it’s time for a radical re-think.

Rewarding people for collective, collaborative over individual, competitive

behaviour.

Building a shared asset with Short, Medium and Long-term value and rewards.

Working back from this outcome

New Fame 8b: Beware individualism and self-interest!

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New Fame 8c: Ethos’ approach to work

Firstly, a value exchange document (VED) is agreed. Depending on the interest/needs of

Ethos and the individual. This does what is says on the tin – describes how value is

exchanged in both directions and it can change as often as either side wants.

Each partner gets

• Shares in Ethos (Long-term high risk) – accumulated according to

value added. No value until 1 Dec 2018 but then a potentially big

upside. Eliminates the divide between owners/workers

• Cash (short-term) – Monthly and via bi-annual dividends. Most cash

distributed according to Ethos success rather than individual or

project success

• “Ethos Partner Account*” (Ethos coins – mid-term) Private

commitment (off balance sheet) by the partners to pay you cash via

EthosVO Ltd. Allows future value to be recognised or non monetary

value recognised. Breaks the input based wage-slavery proposition.

* Partner Accounts represent the value you have accrued but have not yet been paid

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New Fame 8d: Value Exchange Agreement

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Further reading• Acemoglu, Daron, and James A. Robinson. Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty. New York: Crown, 2012. Print

• Aronson, Elliot. The Social Animal. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman, 1972. Print.

• Berkun, Scott. The Year without Pants: WordPress.com and the Future of Work. Print.

• Botsman, Rachel, and Roo Rogers. What's Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption. New York: Harper Business, 2010. Print

• Christensen, Clayton M., and James Allworth. How Will You Measure Your Life? New York, NY: Harper Business :, 2012. Print.

• Collins, James C. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap--and Others Don't. New York, NY: HarperBusiness, 2001. Print.

• Covey, Stephen R. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Restoring the Character Ethic. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989. Print.

• Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: The Story of Success. Print.

• Godin, Seth. The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly? New York: Portfolio/Penguin, 2012. Print.

• Gratton, Lynda. The Key: How Corporations Succeed by Solving the World's Toughest Problems. Print.

• Gratton, Lynda. The Shift: How the Future of Work Is Already Here. London: Collins, 2011. Print.

• Isaacson, Walter. Steve Jobs. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011. Print.

• Kauffman, Stuart A. At Home in the Universe: The Search for Laws of Self-organization and Complexity. New York: Oxford UP, 1995. Print.

• Keay, John. The Honourable Company: A History of the English East India Company. New York: Macmillan Co ;, 1994. Print.

• Kelly, Kevin. What Technology Wants. New York: Viking, 2010. Print.

• Kurzweil, Ray. The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. New York: Viking, 2005. Print.

• Levitt, Steven D., and Stephen J. Dubner. Think like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain. Toronto: HarperCollins, 2014. Print.

• Nowak, M. A., and Roger Highfield. Super Cooperators: Evolution, Altruism and Human Behaviour or Why We Need Each Other to Succeed. Edinburgh:

Canongate, 2011. Print.

• Osterwalder, Alexander, and Yves Pigneur. Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2010.

• Owen, David. In Sickness and in Power: Illness in Heads of Government during the Last 100 Years. English Language ed. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2008. Print.

• Piketty, Thomas, and Arthur Goldhammer. Capital in the Twenty-first Century. Print.

• Rifkin, Jeremy. The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism. Print.

• Rushkoff, Douglas. Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now. Print.

• Rushkoff, Douglas. Life Inc.: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take It Back. New York: Random House, 2009. Print.

• Schmidt, Eric, and Jared Cohen. The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business. Print.

• Senor, Dan, and Saul Singer. Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle. New York: Twelve, 2009. Print.

• Shirky, Clay. Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations. New York: Penguin, 2008. Print.

• Tapscott, Don, and Anthony D. Williams. MacroWikinomics: Rebooting Business and the World. New York, N.Y.: Portfolio Penguin, 2010. Print.

• Toffler, Alvin. Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth, and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century. New York: Bantam, 1990. Print.

• Tter, Frank. Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962. New York: Walker, 2010. Print.

• Vaidhyanathan, Siva. The Googlization of Everything: (and Why We Should Worry). Berkeley: U of California, 2011. Print.

• Vogt, A. E. The World of Null-A,. London: Dobson, 1969. Print.

• Wenger, Etienne. Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge UP, 1998. Print.

• Wolin, Sheldon S. Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2008. Print.

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The Future of Work

Robert Pye

www.ethosvo.org

robert.pye@ethosvo.org

Ethos VO Website ethosvo.org

Ethos Community epp.ethosvo.org

Ethos Smart ethossmart.com

Team Army teamarmy.org