Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Item #67: T.I.M.E. for a new C.

Today I am thinking about Co-Working.

Is it future or is it fad? This is the question I have considered myself and asked of others.  Let me boldly conclude that I do believe it is future. 5 constructs are shaping the emergence and the sustainable potential that co-working presents.  They come together to suggest that it is T.I.M.E. for a new C.

What makes it T.I.M.E. for a new C.

T: Technology proceeds at a warp speed pace to get better, stronger, faster, smaller, more affordable, and easier to use. Yesterday, the lease end inspection for my car took place in 20 minutes with the inspector’s car serving as his very equipped office.  He took photos, recorded data, did a diagnostic, loaded it all into a laptop, completed a data analysis, provided me with a lease end report including costs for multiple alternatives, printed me out a paper report and sent a version to me by email, all from the front seat of his car in less than 20 minutes.  That’s technology today; no office required.

I: Innovation rules.  It is the key to our future and the single most important dynamic driving the public sphere right now.  How will we re-imagine our broken systems and pave new paths for our economic system, our financial system, our global relations, our social systems, our consumer model, our politics and more? The expectation is that only through the embracing of innovative approaches and the audacious pursuit of innovative solutions can this be possible. Innovation tends to emerge from smaller pods of activity, where non-like meets non-like to produce something un-like ever before.  It is very questionable that the old organizations we have all been working in for the last fifty years can provide this environment.

M: Mobility is the mantra of the millennial generation, and increasingly of the masses.  Rampant air travel means many of us are able to be much more mobile than ever before.  The smartphone means we are only tethered to our pockets or our purses whereby powerful communication technology is merely at arm’s reach.  The world is figuratively and factually our oyster, and we are not only embracing the opportunity, but we are becoming very quickly accustomed to the ability to be mobile. To be detached and entirely attached at the same time is now an expectation and a need versus a desire or a want.

E: Entrepreneurialism is all the rage – it seems.  Steven Harper declared 2011 to be The Year of The Entrepreneur.  I think that was just recognition of what is rapidly becoming a commonplace job title.  Many of the dynamics discussed above are conspiring to make the conditions ripe for entrepreneurial activity.  The notion of exercising one’s creativity and vision in an act of enterprise is even more appealing given that the tools and the context is there to support the desire.  Technology is making it possible.  Governments are supporting the activity financially.  And the chief product of entrepreneurs – innovation – is in demand.  Entrepreneurs work different and they will need the spaces that can meet this need. 

For a new C.

The Old C: Is ‘the corporation’, the corporation as understood in traditional conceptual terms.  The place one goes in the morning and leaves at the end of the day.  The place where hierarchical systems of managers and workers are organized to plod through fairly repetitive orderly days.  The place where a paycheque is guaranteed and eyeglass purchases are covered. 

The New C: Is the collaborative workspace.  A place where entrepreneurial-minded people of multi-disciplinary interests convene. A place where inspiration, imagination and collaboration rule.  Where technology facilitates. Where mobility is championed.  A place where creativity is cultivated and innovation emerges.  A place of the future: the new office.

Co-working. 
In the collaborative workspace. 
The office of the future.
Where we will work differently and, yes, work better.
That’s what I am thinking about today.