A Four-step Framework for Redesigning Work

1. Understand what matters. Which skills, networks and tasks are critical to the individual’s productivity? How does knowledge flow within and across your business for this individual, and what do these flows look like? What does this person want from work and from the company in terms of their career life cycle?

2. Reimagine the future. Imagine making the office a place for cooperation where conversation flows and people bump into each other in a serendipitous way. But also, imagine the home as a real source of healthy living and energy. Think about how focus and coordination can be supported by how working time is structured.

3. Model and test ideas. Now these ideas can be modelled and tested. Will the model still be relevant and purposeful in the short, medium and long term? Will it both enable the technological transitions that are in play and, importantly, provide the support for employees to make the necessary skill transitions? And will the model be experienced as equitable and fair by employees across the company?

4. Act on your model and create new ways of working. This ensures the model of work will be embedded into the practices and culture of the company. Achieving that requires emphasizing the role of senior leaders and of the narratives and stories they tell. It means acknowledging and supporting the pivotal role of managers, and implementing widely a process of co-creation that engages people with the design choices being made and brings them along in the process of change.