We are seeing more organizations every year take rewarding albeit awkward steps on their journey out of the Industrial Era of work and workplaces. They are realizing that there is no sustainable future when work is more about fear than courage, competition than belonging, compliance than purpose, defensiveness than discovery and disengagement than vitality.
This is an imperative for nothing less than changing the nature of work so people can work with courage, belonging, purpose, discovery and vitality. It requires a profound shift in how we lead and what we meausure. It is a shift to focusing more on strengths than weaknesses. It is a shift in cultural priorities to the practices of kindness, presence and showing up with integrity. These are far more demanding, and rewarding, than holding people accountable for success as the effective prevention of failure.
The nature of work in this emergent age will be about workplaces where people discover and engage their best selves in service to their deepest shared purposes. It is work where people go home feeling like they and their world are better each day for the work they do together.