On Work.

The Future Does Not Fit in the Containers of the Past. Edition 225.

Image by Joe Latimer using Midjourney.

Work is central to the human experience.

Along with our physical health and our family relationships, work is the other significant factor that impacts the quality of our lives.

Work is critical not only in that it provides us with a) income but also b) identity (what do you do? is one of the first questions any one new we meet asks), c) community ( many of our social connections are built around our work and industry), d) purpose and meaning and e) growth ( the challenges and connections of our job help grow us).

Work not only drives GDP but factors such as the unemployment rate, the age of retirement, and the opportunities for youth are central to all politics.

In 2020 Covid-19 created a major shock to the structure of work in myriad ways from our inability to work in the ways we were used to, the importance of certain kinds of work, where we worked and much more which many companies and countries are still grappling with.

Many knowledge industries are fixated today on the right combination of in person and distributed work to ensure they can manage the quality of their service, their cultures and the imparting and growth of skills.

While this is an important factor to consider, smart companies, and visionary leaders understand that fixating on where someone works is like moving shells on a beach when waves of change are about to crash onto the shore. It is not only the wrong question to ask (the question should not be how to get people back x days in the office but how to maximize the benefits of in person interaction while enjoying the flexibility and freedom distribute work affords) but even this question is trivial compared to what is coming…

Work will change more this decade than it has in the past five decades due to a combination of significant demographic shifts (aging and declining populations and multiple generations at work ), technology (AI, XR, Blockchain, Biotech), marketplaces (anyone can now access scaled technology and marketplaces to compete with large companies using a mobile device), atomized work (task vs jobs, the rise of gig work) where a majority of the US population in 2025 will be doing freelance work either full time or as a side gig to their main job, and completely new mindsets about the place of work in one’s life ( A majority of Gen-Z do not want to grow up like their parents , or become like their bosses and ask the question should we find time for life in a world of work or find time for work in a world of living a life? )

After a 43-year working career that I hope to keep going for another decade or two I have never been as excited about how extra-ordinarily amazing the future of work is going to be.

It is going to unleash, unfurl and unhook both individuals and companies from the way it was to the way it can be and let everyone re-imagine their firms and their careers.

Over the past five and a half years I have met with, advised, spoken with or for, over 150 companies in over a dozen countries from companies with 20 employees to those with hundreds of thousands across all industries.

Almost everybody I meet asks the same three questions.

1) Business Model Relevance: Is my business model still relevant and how do I future proof it?

2) Structural Relevance? Is my organizational design, existing partners, data and other skill sets still relevant and if not how can they be upgraded?

3) Personal Relevance: Am I still relevant? Do I have the right skill sets and the right leadership mindset to lead a new generation into a new era? (this last question usually requires some alcoholic libation before it is asked and maybe the most important)

Over the years it became clear that in addition to upgrading one’s own mental operating system, investing and partnering with the right people in areas from data to content, to technology, investing in and upgrading talent, rethinking category definitions, dealing with change and restructuring the organization for more agility and lower costs there was something even deeper and broader and more central that had to be addressed.

The very nature of work, what a worker is, and why should a company exist?

With everything we know now if we started with a blank sheet of paper and only some legal, scientific and economic constraints (need income and or must run a viable business) what factors should we consider and what frameworks should we use as each of us design our firms and or manage our careers to thrive and win in the future?

After many years of thinking and researching these topics, a year and a half writing and a year of fact checking, updating and editing by a team of professionals at HarperCollins my distilled learnings of everything I have discovered on how to thrive in the future of work is in production and available for pre-order. It is called Rethinking Work.

This book is for everybody who works, whether you are a long­time senior leader or a brand-new employee, whether you work in a large company or for yourself, and whether you work in a developed or developing market.

This book identifies the key trends and issues, suggests ways for each individual and leader to interrogate their beliefs, their structures and much more. It has a chapter for CEO’s and Strategists that build the case that most existing strategies will be challenged, a chapter for Finance professionals identifying how financials will need to be recalculated, a chapter for anyone working in talent, HR or People Development to show how the entire training and incentive systems of the present are not going to work and what to do about it and much more.

Most importantly it is for everyone of us that works and wants to seize the future and thrive.

Work is central to our lives and as it gets redefined, nothing is as important as being informed and provided with tools to thrive in the coming transformation.

To help you judge if this book is any good after my request below you will see a link to the entire opening section of the book. You can read what CEO’s, Chief Talent Officers, Deans of Universities, and even other authors of books about the future of work and the workplace from whom I learned while working on this book have to say. You will see the table of contents and the introduction. This should help you determine if the book is any good and worth spending twenty dollars on.

A Request.

The sales of a book are determined by many factors including quality of the book, whether the topic is in vogue, how well it is reviewed and the success of the marketing efforts.

A huge factor driving these is something that occurs before the book is published which are pre-orders. Pre-orders determine the size of the print run, how many books are ordered, the merchandising support and the marketing support.

My first book Restoring the Soul of Business: Staying Human in the Age of Data was successful because it had many thousands of pre-orders. It also anticipated distributed work before Covid, had a chapter on AI three years before ChatGPT, spoke of the importance of Blockchain when crypto was in a deep winter and Augmented reality before the Metaverse hype and sells hundreds of copies a month because it seems to have been written a few days ago and not five years ago!

It is why I am hoping you will pre-order today for a book that will be available for another two months (Feb 4, 2025). You do not have to pay till then and for those buying individual copies the actual price is likely to be closer to 22 US dollars vs 30 US dollars which will be reflected in the price guarantee that the various folks like Amazon and others offer. Please check your local retailer or Amazon for outside the US for options on how to order and time of delivery.

This LINK or this site : https://rishadtobaccowala.com/rethinking-work shows you all the places you can order including if you are in a position or interested in ordering more than 25 books for nearly half off. Many leaders have bulk ordered books for their teams and companies realizing it’s the best 20 dollars they can spend per employee.

This is a book that can help you as an individual or a leader.

Here is a link to the opening of the book (first 20 pages) that you can read or download.

It’s time for a rethinking for something so central to every person, firm and leader.

Rethinking Work.

Outside of our health and families, work is the most important thing we have.

It is going to be amazing believe me…

Rishad Tobaccowala spent 37 years in a spectrum of roles including being the Chief Strategist and Growth Officer of the Publicis Groupe a 106,000 person marketing and business transformation company before beginning a new career over five years ago as a company of one. Rishad helps people see, think and feel differently about how to grow themselves, their teams and their business through a combination of content creation, speaking and advising. More at https://rishadtobaccowala.com/