In this episode of Transform Your Workplace, host Brandon Laws sits down with Scott Cawood to discuss the recent shift from a production-based to a consumption-based world of work. Scott explores what this means for businesses, leaders, and employees, highlighting the changing dynamics in the employer-employee relationship. It’s time to embrace the future of your business by recognizing that your people are the linchpin to your success.
GUEST AT A GLANCE
Scott Cawood, the CEO of WorldatWork, is the author of The New Work Exchange: Embracing the Future by Putting Employees First. He previously served as the Global Leader of Organizational Effectiveness at W.L. Gore & Associates Inc., a global manufacturer with 10,000 employees.
A QUICK GLIMPSE INTO OUR PODCAST
🔊 Podcast: Transform Your Workplace, sponsored by Xenium HR
🎙️ Host: Brandon Laws
📋 In his own words: “The Transform Your Workplace podcast is your go-to source for the latest workplace trends, big ideas, and time-tested methods straight from the mouths of industry experts and respected thought-leaders.”
FROM PRODUCTION TO CONSUMPTION
The rich and somewhat scandalous history of work has been a recent topic of exploration in Scott’s recent book, The New Work Exchange: Embracing the Future by Putting Employees First. But instead of focusing only on the past — on the rise of factory work and the advent of automation, both based solely on production — the fourth and most recent revolution shifts to a focus on consumption.
Today’s work is all about the consumption of information, skills, and products. And this shift prompts a discussion on the implications of this new model. What does it mean for business practices? For leaders? For employees? It may be high time for a thoughtful exploration of the effects of this shift on the modern workforce.
PODCAST EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
The New Work Exchange
“So when you think about an ‘exchange,’ it’s ‘what I do for you, what you do for me.’ And typically, it looks like the social contract between employers and employees, managers and subordinates, whatever those exchanges are that need to take place for a person to do their best work. And as you think about work and the exchanges that you get, what you give and what you expect to get, there’s just been a tremendous amount of change happening in the last decade.”
The Full Human
“We use these big words in the space like engagement, and we want retention, and we want high productivity and commitment. These are very big human deliverables that don’t just happen randomly. They’re not magically imparted from an employer to an employee, and everyone shows up just ready to go, giving you everything they need to give you. So part of it is you have to care about more than just what’s in front of you. For decades, I think we’ve focused on just the employee aspect of the relationship, but we forget that sometimes there’s a full human being in that employee position, and we have to think a bit broader about how we tap the full human, and that could come across in terms of how I engage you, how I listen to you. Do I talk to you before I make changes that impact your life?”
Out in the Open
“I’m a big fan of being pretty direct, so if I have to tell you some hard news, I just put it out there, right? […] Do people really understand your organization in a way that sets them up for success? Do they understand the promotions process in a way that I can adapt my behaviors to achieve what I want to achieve? Whether it’s my compensation, my rewards, my recognition, my promotions — whatever that is that you want — the experiences, the learning, the development. Oftentimes, a lot of these processes are really hard to navigate. There’s a lot of unwritten rules that exist in workplaces.”
Focusing on the People
“How do we take an organization that had its history and change the trajectory without alienating the employee base? It’s really around this culture and growth, and how do you kind of blend them together differently to get to a different outcome? Not very easy, right? ‘Cause you don’t want to be a CEO who comes in and starts changing everything. […] I really wanted to focus on this notion of taking the current culture, moving it to a different spot — taking the current abilities, capabilities around growth, and moving it to a different spot by focusing on people.”
Work that Matters
“It’s not just CEOs that want to leave a legacy. I may be letting the cat out of the bag here, but every employee wants to leave a legacy. Nobody on this planet starts out wanting to be mediocre at work. No one, right? We start out wanting to do great stuff. So you have to define what that might look like for this person and that person. It’s an individualized approach. […] We’re not in a mass-production environment anymore, right? So a consumption environment means it’s more personalized. Even things like total rewards and compensation — which we’ve designed for years on the mass scales — can also be changed.”
Who’s Your Biggest Asset?
“Part of what’s happening in the New Work Exchange is that employees, as a construct, need to be elevated to a different level as stakeholders. So decision-making is all coming from one CEO in one part of the world. […] And it’s not to say that the board or the executive team aren’t important. They’re equally important stakeholders, but you’re going to have to level out the imbalances where the employees are an afterthought, and they’re not really critical stakeholders because they’re the future of your business. And so that’s really part of what we’re looking at. Take your stakeholder groups — there are probably five or six of them — and see if that experience is somewhat equitable, or maybe can you make it more equitable, and let’s see what happens in your organization. My sense is that there’s an imbalance there that may be costing you more than you think.”
LEARN MORE
Every penny from your purchase of Scott Cawood’s book, The New Work Exchange: Embracing the Future by Putting Employees First, wil be donated to the WorldatWork Scholarship Foundation, so get your copy on Amazon today.