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If you have visited and just as importantly READ my website (http://www.brycehealey.com/), you may already know how I recently left a well paying job in order to fulfill my destiny of becoming a world-class coach and professional speaker.
This has been BY FAR one of the most interesting journeys I have ever taken and I am just getting started! One thing I have noticed is that more and more people are following in my footsteps. This could be the same effect as when you buy a new car and all of a sudden EVERYONE seems to own the same one! ha ha
BUT... I think there is more to this. There is a storm brewing on the horizon and its not hard to see the workforce as we know it reaching a crucial tipping point. (For those of you not aware of the term 'tipping point' comes from Malcom Gladwell book "The Tipping Point" (2000) and is essentially the point when all the small things add up and WHAMMO 'sudden' massive change. Kinda like when boiling water... a whole lot of nothing and then before you know it your pot is overflowing!)
OK, time to get to the meat and potatoes of todays post (or tofu and potatoes for you vegetarians).
I will discuss two MAJOR factors which are leading us closer and closer to this Workforce Tipping Point, but first we need to ask ourselves a question... What is the company you work for?
When you strip it down to the bare bones, it is essentially a system which gives you the opportunity to add value and get paid for it. And hopefully the more value you add, the more you get paid.
Factor #1: 'Back in the good old days' this system also offered a degree of certainty in the availability of this pay. At the risk of adding to all the doom and gloom; a company can't offer something they can't even give to themselves! Regardless of the company's state of affairs, it is surprisingly easy for companies to terminate an employee without cause and little severance. I am sure all of you reading this can think of at least one friend, if not themselves personally who 'had the career options opened' in the not so distant past.
Factor #2: The internet is making it easier and easier to start your own business. Like no time ever before in history can we reach such a large potential market, with such speed, and low cost. AND!!! It is only getting bigger, faster, and cheaper.
This fact alone is what keeps most big business owners up at night. You see, chances are, the company work for was built in a different age and therefore has a lot of expensive infrastructure (things like offices, machinery, computers, etc...) all of which need to be paid for by your customers. Once paid, they then pay your salary and make sure you work hard enough to also put some in the pockets of the owners.
Also, in general, the bigger more complex the system (aka the business) the less efficient. Less efficient means more work to get the same return.
But now, you could open up a business which could directly compete with your current company at a fraction of the infrastructure costs, meaning you would not need nearly as many customers to make as much as you do now. Less customers also means you would not have to work nearly as hard or long!
BONUS FACTOR: Work more for same or less! Best explained using a real example from my life. My first corporate job I was hired at $35K a year. I was a good little worker and put in my 40 hours a week and had time to enjoy the finer things in life; which at that point was Kraft Dinner, Motocross, and Beer. Then I got my first big promotion and my salary went from $35K to $55K!!! WOO HOO! Soon Kraft Dinner will be a novelty, not a necessity! Along with the promotion came additional responsibilities, which is corporate code for longer hours; typically 60 hours and sometimes more. Which if you look at in an hourly rate meant I received a raise from $18.22/hour to $19.10/hour! And needless to say, my quality of life suffered BIG TIME.
OK... you've hung in there this long.. give yourself a pat on the back... no seriously... pat your back! DO IT!
So if a company is a system for us to get paid, but today's systems 1) offer little to no security in the continuity of this pay and 2) offer little real opportunity to increase our income based solely on the value we put in (i.e.: only way is to put in more hours), AND the cost of starting your own business is the lowest it has ever been.... why the heck are we still buying into this system!?!?!?
Simply put: our own mindsets. We have all been programmed to be workers. But as the pain and frustration around all of the above increase we will choose a new system.
Soon the WORKforce will reach its tipping point and the big business dinosaurs will become extinct. It won't be medium business who will step up to fill this void, nor small business, it will be microbusinesses! And so a new era will usher itself in... an era of empowered experts.... the Eforce!
Life's a trip. Give'r.
Your friend and Coach,
Bryce
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Hey Bryce.. interesting post.. and as a friend of mine would say, you're kinda "slammin' the "man"" a bit.. but of course, the "man" is different these days.. ;-)
ReplyDeleteThere is no doubt that the world of work is changing..and has been over the last 20 yrs if not longer. Much of what you have in your post is not new news, but the rate of change is increasing dramataically thanks in large part to the possibilities and challenges of the internet (and globalization)- some of which you've pointed out. And of course, people with a strong vested interest in the "status quo" are the strongest resisters.
Let me grab a thought thread in your post and "run with it"..
You said "So if a company is a system for us to get paid..." - not a good starting premise. IMHO that is no where near the primary purpose of a company, or other organization, which your statement implies. I don't know of too many successful business models based on that.
A company or organization's primary purpose is to deliver shareholder/stakeholder value by fulfilling its purpose/objectives. For example, in your case, your coaching business is intended to deliver "value" to you as the key shareholder in the form of compensation, and perhaps esteem and self actualization. How you derive your value is by offering services that in turn have value to your target market. Your primary purpose is certainly not to pay people you (may) hook up with (in the future).
Now as you expand your business into "Healey's Hip Coaching International" and begin to expand your services, establish physical presence in key locations, leverage the latest in technology to offer a global services right down to the PDA level etc. you will need to add people capacity. This will likely include hiring staff, associates, contractors, maybe do a bit of outsourcing, and maybe even business partners to add to your equity so you can fund the expansion (unless you IPO that is ;-) But all this activity is in aid of your primary purpose, delivering value to YOU.
And to loop back to your point about job security and opportunity, the nature of the explicit or implied contract between employer and individual is changing. In the organizations that existed and grew out of the industrial age the contract was "job security for long service." But that has been changing for well over 20 yrs. Charles Handy wrote about the "shamrock organization" in his 1989 book Age of Unreason - organizations having a mix of a small group of "full timers" for strategic direction and continuity, one time project teams, part time contractors etc. Dan Pink took a quick pulse on some of the changes in 2002 in his book Free Agent Nation: The Future of Working for Yourself.
Certainly today the hallmarks of real or implied contracts between organizations and people who work for/with/through them focus on short term, mutual value. The challenge is that the definition of "value" can differ dramatically from one individual to the other, ranging from money, learning opportunites, flexible working locations, choice and control, interesting projects and meaningful work, access to experts, perks of all types, latest gadgets etc.
But then, heck, who wouldn't want these, right?
So, the world is changing rapidly, people are looking for new and flexible work arrangements (as are organizations), the internet enables new possibilities and increases rate of change - as will demographic shifts happening in organizations where Traditionalists, Boomers and even Xers are moving on. And organizations have to get better at quickly negotiating a wide variety of highly individualized "contracts" with workers. And managers are having to shift from traditional command and control strategies to leadership.
All seems part of a natural progression, with the major difference being the increase in the rate of change.
Thank you for the GREAT comment Dale! It may be longer than my original post.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't slamming the man as much as it was an observation that 'the man' is about to have the carpet pulled out from underneath him.
I agree that the workforce has been changing for some time and will forever continue to. The revelation I am referring to however has only really started to going momentum in the last 5-10 years as technology (i.e.: the internet) drastically reduces barriers that once were.
You did a good job at sniffing out me adjusting my original comment to make a point. I do stand by my statement of a company being "a system which gives you the opportunity to add value and get paid for it."
In turn I do need to call you out on the "primary purpose is to deliver shareholder/stakeholder value by fulfilling purpose/objectives." This sounds like a definition out of my University textbooks.
Too often companies put delivering stakeholder value as a primary purpose. Much like putting the board of directors at the top of the organization charts with the client facing staff at the bottom. Try turning the org. chart upside down and you might just be getting closer.
Imagine a company whose purpose was to consistently add more value to it's customers than anybody else.
That is a company which would be truly wealthy and have more than enough money to satisfy its stakeholders. Afterall, money is a result of adding value.
Ok.. So I it looks like we agree that change is afoot, the Internet/technology is a catalyst.. and sorry if the definition was a little ... Academic for you :-) ... But from what I an tell, every organizational form has a primary "purpose," "shareholders/stakeholders" to which "value" is delivered (oh, ya, let me add "through effective leadership" ). --- whether a for profit company, NGO, government, United Way, Humane Society, Greenpeace, the local transit union, or a bunch of UPS drivers that decide to meet over flinch once week to bitch about work and figure out how to work around some of the crap management drops in their laps. The difference is in the definitions of the concepts in quotes.
ReplyDeleteA company that adds value to customers before and above anyone else .. And is sustainable... Rose coloured glasses buddy!!