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.”
