Smarter Work

“By 2011 Social Networking will be more popular than face-to-face collaboration“. I am not sure whether that sentence has, finally, become a reality for most knowledge workers out there, probably so, specially those working in a global, distributed environment, but it surely has been for me for the last 8 years, and counting… And, up to not so long ago, that same phrase was one of my favourite ones coming out from IBM’s Smarter Planet initiative. Till just recently, when I bumped into another one of those wonderfully crafted and really funny YouTube videos that I surely thought was rather inspiring and provocative in setting up the stage of where we are nowadays with virtual collaboration. Welcome to Smarter Work!

I am not going to spoil it for you, but the story is just beautifully done and very close to today’s working environment, so if you can spare 2′ 41” I would highly recommend you have a look into this YouTube video on the topic of “Smarter Work“, which would fit in quite nicely with that mantra I have been following myself all along for the past 10 years, right when I first started working on Knowledge Management, and still going strong; not to mention how very relevant within today’s working environment it still is, in my opinion: “it’s all about working smarter, not necessarily harder“. If not, have a look and judge for yourselves… Here is the embedded video:

Not too bad, don’t you think? When you actually watch through the video clip you realise how smarter work is all about finding new ways of getting the job done in a much more effective and efficient manner, but at the same time with an end-result that everyone else, regardless of wherever they may well be in the world, can benefit from, reuse, apply, and continue further with their learning activities, because, at the end of the day, which is my favourite part permeating throughout the whole story, work is all about learning, learning while at work. And if you would want to read further on the topic my good friend Harold Jarche has got a superb blog post out there where he basically explains in much more detail how the sooner we all come to terms with the fact that all work is learning the much more productive we would all be in the long run, and I couldn’t help but agreeing with him quite a bit! He is just spot on!

And, if you are one of those folks who still has got the luxury of working face to face with your colleagues in the same building, on the same corridor, and on the same single project (Although multiple projects are probably welcome, too!) what I would strongly suggest you do, in case you may not have done it just yet, is basically apply some Gamestorming to the way you work …

… more than anything else, because, if anything, in 2011 “The future of work is not about dull routine… it’s about being more human“, with a clear purpose: to make a difference! And that’s what smarter work is all about, no matter what they tell you.