I seem to have set off quite the storm of discussion, and not a little dissent in my commentary on Anne Zelenka’s Busyness vs. Burst: Why Corporate Web Workers Look Unproductive.
My colleagues Matthew Hodgson and Andrew Boyd (here, here and here) have both posted on the same notion, although I feel that Matthew has let his organistional psychology background get the better of him and gone all Peter Drucker on us. He’s underwhelmed by Anne’s arguments. I wish Matthew had read Anne’s related post at her personal blog.
In doing so, he’d see Anne’s and his notions are actually a lot closer together than you think. She’s trying to encourage Kuhnian paradigm shift. Matthew’s OrgPsych, and organisational management, basis is a little different. Anne also links to Dr McAfee’s recent article on busyness. They’re both, to my mind, arguing the same point but from a different position of expertise - Matthew’s OrgPsych and Anne’s economics/problogger/fulltime web worker position. I guess my nearest match is to Anne, as unlike Matthew and Andrew, I wouldn’t know Drucker if I tripped on him. Perhaps I should be raiding Matthew’s book case?
While Matthew’s not wrong (never, in my experience), I think his approach takes the conversation, which started as a discussion on work styles, to a whole new level; one that’s significantly more intellectual and academically focussed than Anne’s original article.
That said, over the course of several readings and re-readings, I think that all of us are all talking about the same thing:
- knowledge workers do what they do in different ways, although burst working has a greater prevalence in the group than in other identifiable classes of worker;
- the shift to recognition in the workplace that burst working has value, both from the worldview of management and other workers, particularly those used to busy work, is yet to occur consistently, and;
- a shift needs to take place in workplaces everywhere to accommodate the new way of work that is embraced by knowledge workers.
I think the third point is the greatest battle, and Matthew’s post and Andrew’s second make some inroads into discussion of appropriate approaches to the battle that is getting management and coworker recognition of the value inherent in and approaches taken in doing knowledge work.
Presently, the push back from businesses used to busy work against the increasingly emergent burst worker (even my wife, Alli, acknowledges that a significant portion of her work in HR is knowledge-based burst work) is predicated on a lack of understanding of the nature of burst-produced knowledge work. Andrew argues for a softly-softly approach. Matthew argues for adoption in practice of much of Drucker’s theory. My position is less subtle - I live out Gilmore’s Law and route around the issue by using my own tools at work where needed.
Regardless of individual approach to advocating understanding and acceptance of knowledge workers and burst work, what is accepted by all of us is a need for change. In order to remain at the top of their game, businesses need to be adaptable, open to new thinking and far less risk averse than they have ever been. Trust rather than distrust of workers needs to become the norm as opposed to the exception - it’s a fact that people are happier and work better if they are treated like adults. As a part of that shif, businesses need to open up access to tools and approaches that not so long ago (and even now) would otherwise be blocked or restricted to a very few.
I think too, that many of the management types Matthew, Andrew and I deal with in our work in Canberra are unfamiliar with current thought on knowledge workers and the knowledge economy. Those managers need to be introduced to the way we work and the work we do in a justifiable, strongly argued and non-threatening way so that minds can be changed and the shift in acceptance and openness can be effected.
What can I say, Drucker is cool
I’d like to see a greater awareness by managers, particularly in government, that the old-economy way of dealing with staff, hierarchies, fixed working hours, and a specific rate of flow of paper, just won’t get anyone ahead in this emerging 21st century information age.
We all need to be more flexible in the way we work and that means more flexible everything, including technology support. We need ways of working flexibly and sharing knowledge flexibly.
Do the so called web-workers though need more support than others? Are web-workers more enlightened than others? Are they all burst rather than busy? Probably not. I would even go so far as to say that the notion of a web-worker is more a product of the in-group vs. the out-group, in the same way that “I’m more cool than you” or “I’m more creative than you” or even the “I’m Mac and you’re Windows”.
Rather than fight the busy v. burst war let’s just all work toward helping old-school managers realise that their way just won’t work in this New Age (just as Stephen rightly points out here).
.. and of course I’m sometimes wrong! M
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the phrase “significantly more intellectual” could easily be taken as being patronising. taking the conversation to “a whole new level”. wtf? Anne has started a great conversation, with lots of threads and her framework works rather well so far imho.
@James - my intent is not at all to be patronising of Anne. Indeed, she and I have been emailing privately about my initial post and she doesn’t seem bothered.
My use of “intellectual” and “whole new level” are used in a pure sense. Matthew’s response, which I didn’t entirely agree with (I love what Anne has written), has moved the conversation literally into the academic space by opening with Drucker’s definition of a knowledge economy and in that framework, discussing the need for appropriate management response to knowledge worker needs. This, BTW is right up his alley; he’s an organisational psychologist who works for a major Australian management consultancy giving (at times) just this sort of high-level advice.
Anne’s post, on the other hand, is a real-world, practical look at the nature of burst work and how it differs from burst work in actual manifestation. No theoretical, academic discussion here, just real, practical advice.