Work and Rework

Crushed Paper

My wife bought me Rework Hardcover from Kinokuniya over the weekend. Its a wonderful gift and I’m really thankful. You see this is not a normal business book, some of its concepts are turning traditional business processes on its head and being a bestseller in US and UK you know there is something exceptional there.

Like its title, Work as we know, is getting Reworked.

I’m managing a Projects team in a Digital Agency in Singapore and intrinsically, projects processes also weighs on my shoulder. Having been a designer and a coder, I know that high during uninterrupted blissful productivity. Now I’m on the other side of the fence, on the managing and client facing side of things, activities are very different and I do miss those highs.

Jason Fried, Author of Rework and co-founder and President of 37signals recently presented at Ted and its a wonderful 15 mins worth of provocative business / management sharing that everyone should sit thru.


Jason Fried: Why work doesn’t happen at work

I think the future of how we work is going to be different, very different, especially in our internet industry. People will be highly skilled and be able to pick up new skills very quickly simply by searching online. Efficiency and productivity will be so high via mobile devices that we can either do a lot more wherever or choose to spend a lot more time on other things. I’m so excited.

Jeff Brenman did a set of beautiful slides which predicts the future of Work. I think its super accurate and hope for this future to happen now.

Are you frustrated on how work is being done in your organisation? If so, do share your horror stories. ;)

3 Replies to “Work and Rework”

  1. the future of work slides is inspiring, but at the same time a bit biased to certain industries only.. but it applies to us :) nice sharing

  2. Hey Nick, happy new year!

    I manage a team of 7 – and was watching the Jason Fried video in hope of getting some new ideas on how to revolutionize the way we “work” @ work.

    While I see where he’s coming from, I think it’s really more applicable in the creative industry – where ideas, creativity and solutions are essential to getting work done.

    I’m in operations – where we’re largely “reactive” – our value as an employee comes in when we solve problems from a day-to-day (and dare I say, minute-by-minute) basis.

    I can’t imagine us having a “no talking Thursday” or cancel coordination meetings unfortunately :(

    We are already using a lot of IM (and emails! 100-200 a day easily) now at work for the non-urgent stuff…

    Anyway, just dropped in to say hi and congrats on #3 (Clara)! ;)

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