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Independents and the Future of Work


2 February 2010

I had a transformative experience in my late twenties when I got a job that totally changed my notion of work.

In other places I had worked, I had been drearily aware of needing to look busy, be careful about who was allowed to be told what, never be seen leaving early and so on. It was made clear who you had to salute and who you could look down on.

At the new job, I was amazed early on when I mentioned to the boss's secretary that I needed a filing cabinet, imagining this to be the start of a drawn out campaign. She handed me a brochure and asked which one I wanted. Gradually I came to realise that I had come to work in a place where trust was the norm, along with the assumption that people actually came to work with the purpose of doing something worthwhile. And, do you know, I still remember vividly the pride and sense of responsibility that were born in me at that time.

Over the years it became clearer to me what the key difference was between that company and others I had experienced. In a nutshell, it was designed to locate power with knowledge, not position. If a decision was being made, the issue was what was the right thing for the business. If you had a big job, your responsibility was to make sure that the people who had something to chip in were consulted, and make sure they argued things out where there were disagreements.

People in this environment had autonomy. As individuals they were equals, peers in terms of their right to recognition and trust. If they had a view relevant to the business, they were free to express it. Passionate conflict was part of the process, and people were expected to take their contribution to the business seriously.

This autonomy is, I think, a very different thing from today's much vaunted empowerment which sounds like a rather condescending delegation of choice in specified areas. In my company, if something was wrong and you knew it, you were expected to get it fixed, even if you had to scream your head off, and never mind who might be embarrassed or inconvenienced. It wasn't always pretty, but it was wonderfully productive.

Last week, Prime Minister Rudd was telling Australians that a rise in productivity will be needed for the nation to meet its commitments to pensioners as the population ages.

As I look at employment in Australia, it occurs to me that the knowledge of how to develop a work environment like the one I have described lies largely with independents. But independents have neither the financial resources nor the infrastructure to build it themselves on any scale, far less to have influence at the commanding heights of the economy.

On the other hand, big organisations, public and private, have money and infrastructure, but lack the knowledge of the independents' work style. I believe that independent workers could take a central role in creating the rise in productivity that the prime minister is calling for. Furthermore, were they to do so, they would bring great benefit to themselves and everybody else working in Australia.

Over the next few weeks, I'll offer some ideas of how this could be brought about.

What do you think about Dick's thoughts on this issue? If you would like to contribute your own thoughts, please e-mail your contribution to us at: dickdavies@contractworld.com.au.