New Shape of Work
Work Here Now: Think like a human and build a powerhouse workplace
July 14, 2023 | Episode 36 | 32:14
The New Shape of Work interview series addresses the challenges and uncertainty in the current business environment with a focus on how to transition to a more agile workforce for the future.
In this episode we talk with Melissa Swift, Mercer’s North America Transformation Leader, about her new book Work Here Now: Think like a human and build a powerhouse workplace. Melissa shares a practical look at how to fix some of the basic things that are wrong with work so the future of work can be done differently.
Interesting moments:
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Activity over results?I talk about the work anxiety monster, the little voice in your head that says people are slow, people are lazy. You're lazy. You're slow. And that's gotten a lot of traction because it provides an explanatory model for why we sometimes over-index on activity over results in the modern organization. You know, what's making us keep doing all these things that don't necessarily accomplish anything? And what can we do instead.
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The lived employee experience of workIn today's world, we do so much employee listening. But not enough of it really digs into kind of the gritty day to day what it's like to perform my job. And that piece is absolutely critical. And that piece you can get through conversations. And it's interesting, because especially with certain populations, we've been a little scared to hear about it.
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The value in doing lessThere's one recommendation that I was so passionate about it's actually in the book twice, which is - Do less. There's a fundamental thing of if you can cull down your priorities so much goodness and ways of working just flows from that. It requires courage to do less because you're saying I think these things are important, and I’m willing to have the argument about the things I just de-prioritized.
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AI and the talent squeezeDon’t be afraid to deconstruct roles that are in a real talent crisis. There's a lot of discussion right now around whether ChatGPT is going to completely reshape the early career roles where a lot of professional services firms are having more and more trouble hiring. So the question is, do you need to rewrite some of those junior roles and really deconstruct them accommodating the both the impacts of automation and accounting for the fact that there's a squeeze on the talent for those role.
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Work Here Now: Think like a human and build a powerhouse workplace
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