Dave Coplin imagines what might be possible if more organizations embraced the empowering potential of technology and encouraged a truly open working culture.
How can we get people more engaged, more productive, and happier at work? Is technology part of the problem – and could it also be part of the solution? Dave Coplin, Chief Envisioning Officer at Microsoft, imagines what might be possible if more organizations embraced the full, empowering potential of technology and encouraged a truly open, collaborative and flexible working culture. Taken from a talk given by Dave Coplin as part of the RSA's free public events program.
Prior to the 1970s working a desk job meant that you were at that desk from 08:30 until 17:00 with two coffee breaks and a lunch break. I remember when my employer introduced flex-time, the ability for workers to come earlier and leave earlier or come later and leave later. It was a little scary for managers who suddenly imagined there would be no accountability since time worked was the measure of how good an employee you were. But in time we survived this radical concept.
More recently a new challenge to the control of employees has been working its way into some organizations – part-time home-working, the ability to spend some portion of your working week somewhere other than in the office. Again, scary! Or is it?
But Dave Coplin, former Chief Envisioning office at Microsoft, would like to see more organizations embracing the full, empowering potential of technology and encouraging a truly open, collaborative and flexible working culture.
Coplin is author of two books on the need to rethink the usage of technology in the modern world. He is an established thought leader on the role of technology in our personal and professional lives. He has worked across a wide range of industries and organizations, providing strategic advice and guidance around the intersection of a modern society and technology both inside and outside of the world of work.
His first book: Business Reimagined, provided a view of a new working environment based on collaborative and flexible working. His latest book, The Rise of the Humans provides a further call to action, for both individuals and organizations to harness the digital deluge, to rise up and take back control of the potential that technology offers our society.
Coplin spoke to the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) which cleverly condenses speeches and animates them with a high-tech white board. In less than ten minutes you might get some new ideas about why we hate our offices and what might just make us more creative and happier.
https://www.thersa.org/discover/videos/rsa-animate/2013/09/rsa-animate---re-imagining-work
Herb