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‘Work 2.0′: using employees’ skills more effectively

”Work 2.0” author Bill Jensen, a consultant, has an intriguing hypothesis. Jensen
argues that employees are starting to demand a better return on the assets they invest
with companies by working for them – and those assets include their time, their
knowledge, and what he calls the ”social networks we use to get stuff done.”

By Martha E. Mangelsdorf, Boston Globe Correspondent

In a knowledge economy, employees’ skills, Jensen maintains, are a key asset – and
they want to know what kind of return they will get if they invest that knowledge in a
company by working there. Employees look at aspects of a workplace that measure
the return they get on their knowledge assets. Among the issues they ponder, he
says, are ”how easy it is to make a big impact, how much of our time is spent doing
great and important work [and] how challenging, rewarding, and exciting our work
remains.”

What’s more, Jensen posits that using workers’ skills and knowledge more effectively
is good for business, too. ”Most companies,” Jensen observes, ”are still in the
Neanderthal age when it comes to their ability to truly help individuals work smart
enough, fast enough.”

According to Jensen, the Internet – and other new communications technologies that
make it easier for employees to connect with others – changes the dynamics of
communication in organizations. He introduces the concept of the company as
”middleman” between employees and colleagues and customers. ”Nobody needs
companies anymore to help them collaborate, share, or create,” he writes. ”People can
now self-organize amazingly well, thank you.”

Jensen’s ideas are challenging and intriguing, and they make the book worth reading.
There’s an intriguing section, for example, about creating e-learning modules to help
employees pick up new skills. There’s also a fascinating discussion of what
companies might find if they studied the social networks within their organizations –
the ways employees interact with one another.

By finding out who employees look to when they need information or help, for instance,
managers can better understand their organizations. ”A senior vice president may be
the gatekeeping head of a department,” Jensen writes. ”But when it comes to how
things really get done, the social network map might show that someone three-deep in
the organization is the actual go-to person.” Such ”trusted go-to people,” Jensen
observes, are key players to involve if you are trying to implement innovation.

Although Work 2.0 is interesting, it’s not always convincing. Jensen attempts to tailor
his comments to today’s economy, but his vision of employees’ demands of the
workplace is not as compelling in lean times as in boom ones. The book could also
use more thoughtful, structured exposition about the reasons Jensen thinks the
workplace is changing – and could use more detailed case studies, too. At one point,
Jensen admits that there is not yet any ”poster child” company that fully exemplifies
one particular idea he is presenting.

A truly annoying feature of the book is the author’s slang. Jensen at times writes like
an enthusiastic teenager, using phrases like ”now, wow, and addictive learning.” At
one point we learn that ”the new contract is about each person having more control
over his or her own destiny. Whadda rush!” While there are all kinds of ways to write,
Jensen’s informality undercuts his message, because it makes him less credible as a
business commentator.

Still, interesting, relevant, and original ideas about business management are hard to
find. This book contains some. And however much you agree or disagree with Jensen’s
theories, he’s probably worth reading. The book is also a fairly quick read, so its ratio
of interesting ideas to hours spent reading – a key measure in a management book – is
good.

Martha E. Mangelsdorf (m-e-mangelsdorf

@hotmail.com) is a business writer and editor.

This story ran on page C2 of the Boston Globe on 4/21/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/111/business/_Work_2_0_using_employees_skills_more_effectively+.shtml

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