Let Freedom Ring.
Freedom,
expressed as time and place – where I want
to be when I want to be there – has to do with: flexible
time to take care of other life chores as needed; experiencing
more of the joys of family, friends and new challenges; the
flexibility to work from virtually any place at any time; and
to be connected to families and communities more than ever
before.
We can have that flexibility now, because technology finally
allows us to sever the tether from our offices and desks, yet
stay in touch with our teammates.
Professional
service people often are thinking about their work challenges
in the shower, on the freeway
and, too often,
when they should be listening to their spouse and children.
They’re working, or have the potential to work around
the clock. This is a far cry from the “leave it all at
work when the whistle blows” mentality of the factory
workers and, to a great extent, many of the white-collar workers
of modern day bureaucracies.
The combination
of this desire for freedom, the flexibility made possible
by communications technology
and the “always
on my mind” mental work calls for an organizational system
that’s at the other end of the spectrum. The departmentalized, “always
in your face” pyramidal hierarchies invented for factory
work are simply outdated.
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