Our definitions of “work,” “career,” and “corporation” will change…

So how can we think about “work” and “career” differently? What role will traditional corporate structures have in a system that can potentially be a virtually frictionless global workforce?

We have all heard countless lectures, read countless books, listened to countless podcasts that talk to us about “chasing our dreams” and “following our passions.” It all sounds amazing and for a few of us (unfortunately the vast minority), our dreams and passions truly are our careers. Yes, there are some of us that follow our dreams, completely blur the lines between “work” and “play,” and make lots of money doing it. However, for the rest of us, this notion is more of a utopian, idealistic and unfulfilled dream, than an actual reality.

The rest of us, along with the corporations that we work for, are stuck in multi-year commitments to each other in exchange for paychecks. This can often be a burden for both parties, as employees feel like they want to try something new but cant, and corporations feel like they would like to cut ties but cannot easily do so.

Let’s take a look at the two perspectives in this situation…
From a corporate perspective:
Company X has a product that they would like to develop, mature, market and sell, but they do not have the funds to hire an entire team to do it… nor can they necessarily commit to the overhead of hiring an entire team onto payroll; they need to assemble a capable team of experts that will create this project, get it off the ground, and get out of the way.

From a contractor/employee perspective:
You are an expert in design (or sales, or industrial engineering, etc) and you are looking for work. You do not necessarily want to commit the next 5 years of your life to working for one company in one practice area; in fact, the notion that you can bounce around and try many different types of ‘jobs’ within your area of expertise, while at the same time earning a competitive income, is fascinating to you. You see that Company X has a project that needs to be done and that they have a need for your particular skill set.

My question is this: why don’t we yet have an eco-system that can facilitate this type of interaction? Is it because of trust? Liability? Privacy? Job security? Mutual commitment? Compensation? Lack of technology?

I posit that none of these questions are deal-breakers…

Re-thinking “work”

I have started this blog to explore how we as a society can potentially transform the way we think about our jobs and our careers. The core idea is simple: what if we could each truly become a “corporation of one?” Could we come together to collaborate on cross-functional projects that interest us, work in small groups to create value, and at the end of it all, get paid according to our individual contributions to the overall project?

I think that such a methodology could go a long way toward alleviating what many people have come to feel as ‘boredom’ with existing corporate career/work structures. In fact, it could re-define the way we think about ‘careers’ altogether: careers would no longer be about grinding out our years in committed 9-5 jobs. Rather, careers would evolve to become a collection of experience within numerous groups, across multiple brands, spanning many roles (within a set of constraints around our individual expertise).

Beyond a simple contractor network that looks for one specialist for a particular project/task, what’s to stop us from developing collaborative social networks that enable a much more cross-functional project-based environment? …One in which marketers could team up with project managers, industrial designers, engineers, and social media mavens to create a killer gizmo, market it and sell it.

Technology is cheap, trust can be digitally quantified, and there is an abundance of unemployed or under-employed labor (especially in our current economy). Most importantly, people are bored with their jobs. After the initial honeymoon period wears off, and people settle into a routine, most people get a bit restless, want to try something new, but still need to get paid for it.

Over the life of this blog, I would like to explore this idea in more depth. In the least, this will serve as a personal repository for me to organize my own thoughts around this notion… However, I am hoping this could turn into something bigger… in the best case scenario, maybe this can turn into an open forum wherein everybody will have a voice in shaping how we re-think the concept of “work.”