Many people are frustrated by the email, the meetings and the empty talk of the modern workplace. Often this translates into a view that the future of work will be ‘Less Talk. More Action’. They are usually disappointed.
Organising collaboration takes a lot of talk, especially among peers. Finding purpose takes talk. The ambitions for less talk fail because we have better talk. This better talk addresses the issues our email and meeting doesn’t – surfacing the real issues, sharing ideas, aligning and engaging people.
Better action results from all the talk. The actions will be shaped by a richer understanding and be framed to drive further learning to be shared. Those driving the action will understand their roles, the context, and the purpose enabling them to adapt through further conversation. Our organisations today have too much talk because orders from HiPPOs save discussion at the beginning but they create a flurry of other conversations to clean up the mess. In the future of work we will need people to discuss and sort those issues first and ongoing.
