21st century business model?

GilmoreVisuals

GilmoreVisuals

Active Member
So I watched this ted talk by Dan Pink (which I am sure some of you have watched before) - its about 15 min long but definitely worth the watch.
The guy proposes to move to a new and different business model, compared to what businesses had in the 20th century... that is to let people work when/how they want, as long as the job gets done. This is, of course, only applicable to certain jobs, as the video explains.
I personally feel (working for a design firm) I would get more creative solutions to the adverts/logos I create, as long as I had deadlines to work to, similar to how I did when freelancing I guess.
What do you think of this?
http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html
 
I already work like that.... I have the '9 to 5' phone calls sort of thing but I don't work 9 to 5, I work when I'm 'in the mood' or more often as not later in the day/night as I'm just more productive then.
 
and.... the point is the same.
Creativity doesn't work 9 to 5, look at your day and you'll notice you have a period of the day where you just don't get as much done. Every designer (actually everyone) has a period of the day when we're more 'in the mood' and I would bet that 90% of the people who do design will find it does not fall in a 9 to 5 period.
Hell I have paper besides my bed and as daft as it sounds in the bathroom for those moments of inspiration....yeah yeah I know but we all have them there's no point denying it :p
 
I haven't watched it as our servers gasping for air.
I do agree with Levi though as I've worked on both sides of the fence.
Thing is there are employers who understand this and most that don't.
My current on and previous ones would choke on their tea at the suggestion of working from home or flexitime
 
I will watch this on my lunch break... which I should take soon really.
 
Hi Alex,
I watched your interesting video. I have to say that the ideas introduced by the host as "new" are already part of many companies' culture in the United States. This is especially evident in the creative field (design/development). This video is from 2009, but way before that year Google and Pixar already had atypical work environments and organization. By now, also many medium-weigth companies and start-ups have a more unconventional work structure in terms of shift and management. You can easily ask and obtain to work from home if you want to do so for a period of time.
Where this system cannot apply is in the deadline management. If you are Google, your client is the world itself, so you can release a product when you feel it is ready. But if you are a regular-sized company, you have to deliver to a client within a certain date. In this case you can't offer an employee to work at their own pace and will. What you can do, instead, is do thorough planning so that you can set comfortable deadlines. Unfortunately, this is not always possible as clients often want everything and they want it yesterday. But I absolutely believe in giving people freedom as long as they get the job done. They tendentially are more productive this way.
 
I have actually seen this video, last year I think, but it's a very good one. The good thing about working for myself is that I get to develop my work flow around what actually works best, and not what company policy tells me works best. There are companies out there that do things well, but I'm still willing to bet that there are a lot that don't. Probably the same companies that still don't have a website, of which there is a surprisingly large percentage.
I think a lot of it boils down to a lack of trust in professional relationships. Do your bosses trust you to work when no one is watching? Do they trust that you have the skills and abilities to do your job without supervision. Does they trust you to not to make them look bad by doing amazing work without any of their help or supervision whatsoever... The truth is a lot of people wouldn't succeed under this type of structure, because too many people simply don't care about their job!
I believe that with the right systems in place you can work with deadlines. It would only require a shared virtual space to distribute deadline information to employees which really wouldn't be hard to do. The problem is that a lot of people aren't in business to make people happy. The sad fact of life is that most people in business are in it to make money; They don't want to take risks, or deviate from the industry norms and values, and they want to do everything as cheaply and quickly as possible. Humans are generally very selfish and this is just one of the many reasons why there is such a large disconnect between what science knows and what businesses practice.
This sort of falls into the realms of Maslo's Hierarchy of Needs, which covers a lot of this stuff and more.
 
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