In 1914, Henry Ford unveiled two new inventions: The Model T and the 8-hour workweek. One hundred years ago, they both worked great. Today, not so much. We innovate and update our cars every year -- along with our phones, our homes and just about everything else in our lives -- so why does the way we work always stay the same?
I'd like to think it's because the way we work is humming along just fine, but anyone who works can tell you that isn't so. As Anne-Marie Slaughter forcefully stated in this week's viral NYT op-ed, "A Toxic Work World," we work in an "antiquated and broken system" in which "our workplaces do not fit the realities of our lives." Anne-Marie isn't the only one. Our workplace structure was built for another era, and everyone from CEOs to entry-level employees, HR managers to executives, knows that something needs to change in the way we work. There is good news though. Across this country, employees, managers, and entrepreneurs are all offering bold, inspirational ideas for redesigning how we work. That's why I'm thrilled to partner with Anne-Marie and other business and nonprofit leaders to introduce OpenWork, a platform for celebrating employees and employers who collaborate to reinvent how work is done, for the benefit of all.
When I started researching workplaces and families 30 years ago, I identified a profound structural mismatch between how work is organized in time and space and the needs of an increasingly diverse workforce. Working parents faced a time famine as they struggled to do the best job they could while being the best parents they could be. While much progress had been made on proving the business case for workplace flexibility, this time famine has in fact only grown worse, for parents and others too. As I look at the social media response to Anne-Marie's article, I am struck by the diversity of people chiming in to say "amen." Men and women, parents and non-parents, employees, managers and executives alike: everyone knows that something needs to change in the way we work.
Anne-Marie points out how the type of widespread change we need can often seem impossible. I too have been struck by the poverty of imagination that pervades the majority of American workplaces, limiting abilities in thinking about how work can be redesigned. We are launching OpenWork to celebrate and circulate the new ideas that are out there, and to inspire other ones. I know that not everyone today is still using Henry Ford's model. One of my favorite examples comes from BMW, a company that itself is almost as old as the Model T. When BWM realized that roughly half of the 18,000 workers in one of its most productive plants would soon be over age 50, it launched an initiative that led to 70 changes, including laying new floors which are softer on the knees, letting laborers sit instead of stand, and piping in more daylight. Today BMW has implemented similar ideas on most of its assembly lines. By recognizing the concerns of its workforce, BMW turned a probable decline in productivity into an opportunity for innovation. It is often little changes like this that make all the difference.
There are hundreds of additional companies with success stories like these, and we will be highlighting many of them on OpenWork, celebrating the idea that when workers, managers and leaders collaborate to rethink work, everyone benefits. Please join us. Together, we can shatter the poverty of imagination that limits business productivity and societal well-being. We can change work. Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.