I was chatting the other day to my pal Dave Coplin from Microsoft who told me he was deep into writing a new book. Awesome!
It made me go and look back at his previous one, Business Reimagined (free on Kindle!), that was published last year. A delightfully short read at just under a hundred pages*, it’s pretty much the WorkSmart bible, what with its subtitle of Why work isn’t working, and what you can do about it.
Dave describes the book as
…simply a view of the potential that technology could bring the modern work environment and some recognition of the barriers that will prevent us from being successful.
It’s made up of five sections. The first explores what the problem is, and why business might be broken. Then we move into potential fixes. In chapter two, flexible working; in chapter three it’s social under the microscope; chapter four covers changes to organisation structures and culture that are needed to succeed. Then in the fifth and final chapter, Dave looks at bringing it all together and what individuals need to do to ensure their organisations adapt to the future of work.
For a fantastic summary of the arguments Dave makes, check out this RSA Animate video:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G11t6XAIce0&w=560&h=315]
Here are some slides from a talk Dave gave around the themes of the book. They are rather good, even without the talk itself.
[slideshare id=18422332&style=border: 1px solid #CCC; border-width: 1px 1px 0; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%;&sc=no]
* don’t you find that a lot of these business books could usually be an awful lot shorter than they are? Most are just the same point being made over and over again. I commend Dave for his brevity.