Rethink Work With These Books
Times of turbulence make for great catalysts for change. If we ever had the chance to truly re-think work it is now. Everything is possible. Here are some books to inspire you.
by Sebastian Mueller, Chief Operating Officer at MING Labs
The intervention going on in our daily lives right now is unprecedented. We are living through the biggest work-from-home experiment ever conducted. Many of the accepted truths of work have been shaken to their core, and right now everything can be questioned.
No traditional wisdom has prepared us for what is happening today, and it won’t prepare us for the time after.
We need to rethink everything — from how we structure our personal routines, to how we define our jobs and how we collaborate with colleagues, all the way to our organizational structures and boundaries. There are many success stories from the last decades of companies that have gone new paths, yet everyone was too busy saying “that won’t work here” to really listen.
Now we are all listening. We don’t have a choice. What used to work has stopped working, and it won’t magically work again after the situation is finished.
Every manager who has clung frantically to keeping people in the office for “productivity” reasons will now be labeled a micro manager. People have actually never been more productive and less distracted!
We also need to think about purpose. An increasingly remote workforce needs to be marching into the same direction without painstaking coordination. That can only happen through shared purpose. Companies can no longer give lip service to their place in society and internally continue to follow decisions making maxims from the profit motive. We need to change what our organizations are here for and how we fire people up for their jobs.
So let’s have these conversations now. Let’s strike while the iron is hot. Here are a few great books to inspire your thoughts, and hopefully our actions:
1 — Brave New Work
This book challenges everything we used to know about the workplace. From authority and structure to workflow and information, all aspects of the modern work operating system are being challenged. While clearly, not every piece of advice will work for every company, it is very well worth picking up and challenging your assumptions about work.
We need a completely new operating system for our organizations, to prepare them for the times to come. Traditional systems are failing and a reboot is direly needed. This is a must-read for anyone with organizational decision making and structuring power, as it gives plenty of food for thought.
2 — Deep Work
Especially when working from home, there are more distractions than ever.
In addition to the constant lure of social media (professional or personal), you are now in an environment not set up for work routines. The author deeply explores how we can focus better and work more efficiently — with many practical tips and insights you can use right now.
The concrete examples and routines suggested can be quickly implemented and lead to surprisingly significant gains. Lowering distractions on all fronts, chunking work, finding routines and automating work are all great levers to work better and enter a flow state.
3 — Great At Work
“Work smart not harder,” or so the saying goes. That does not seem to work for the majority, as the average workweek for most people is now longer than it was two decades ago. “Great At Work” challenges many ingrained assumptions and challenges the reader to modify their routines to get more done with less time and effort invested.
Especially now that your standard routines and default habits have been disrupted forcefully, you can really leverage the clean slate and try purposefully establish some of these new habits in your own work life. You’ll be surprised how effective they are.
4 — It Doesn’t Have To Be Crazy At Work
The founders of Basecamp are known for being critical about common work culture. They have purposefully eschewed many conventional paths (including not raising funding) and designed their company to their beliefs. In this book, they share their beliefs and how they translate into company policies — inspiration for rethinking why and how we operate.
They have been work-from-home advocates for a long time, and have implemented very effective routines in their own business that enable any employee to work from wherever they wish. They also have a whole different view on busy work, deadlines and other dreaded corporate bloats.
5 — Leaders Eat Last
In times of challenge and crisis on a global scale, leadership is more in demand than ever. We expect our leaders to set an example worth following.
How leaders communicate and act right now will determine the fate of their enterprise during turbulence. It is not only closely observed by their own teams, but customers are watching alike. Now is the time to step up.
While Simon Sinek is a new management staple in any case, “Leaders Eat Last” is praise of and call to servant leadership, which we need to see more of — especially today.
6 — Making Every Meeting Matter
Few things are as hated in the corporate world as meetings. They waste time. They don’t accomplish anything. They are boring. They feel forced.
Most meetings are horrible. Seize the chance, being now remote, to change how you run meetings. This collection of HBR articles provides very clear and actionable guidelines, which you can immediately apply.
You can start suggesting small changes and gradually see how the effectiveness improves to a surprising degree. With so many hours we spend every day in meetings with other people, those should be leveraged much better, for the advantage and progress of everyone.
7 — When
The timing of activities and events can make a significant difference to their effectiveness and outcomes. Different times of the day lend themselves more readily to specific activities. Different times of the week might be more suitable than others. Timing is something we barely think about, yet it can have a significant impact. “When” lays out the scientific foundations and implications for the art of perfect timing.
8 — The Daily Stoic
With major global events determining our situations, we can quickly feel at the whim of larger forces. That can leave us feeling helpless or desperate.
Yet while we don’t have control of the larger situation, we always have control of how we respond to it. “The Daily Stoic” includes some beautiful pieces from ancient philosophers on dealing calmly and rationally with moments of crisis and desperation. Recommended reading — just one page per day to reflect on and help you free your mind.
Sebastian Mueller is Chief Operating Officer at MING Labs.
MING Labs is a leading digital business builder located in Berlin, Munich, New York City, Shanghai, Suzhou, and Singapore. We guide clients in designing their businesses for the future, ensuring they are leaders in the field of innovation.
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Related Reading: How To Collaborate While Working From Home
