Introduction

Rethinking Chess and Work

—Garry Kasparov

You probably haven't heard of the soon-to-be 24-year-old Magnus Carlsen. He is perhaps one of the few world champions that many people have never heard of. By most accounts Carlsen is the world's greatest chess player alive (and perhaps even dead). The assumption is and always has been that chess is just a board game but it is indeed a mental and physical battle that can last for many hours as players contemplate infinite calculations on the board. Consider that there are more possible moves in a game of chess than there are atoms in the entire universe or seconds that have elapsed since the Big Bang. Now imagine how challenging it is to calculate through all of the possible combinations to make the next best move; clearly it's impossible for any human to consider all the possible moves. Hopefully this gives you some perspective as to how tough of a “game” chess can be.

Many people are familiar with chess legend Garry Kasparov, who dominated the chess world for decades and who famously played (and lost to) IBM's Deep Blue. But Magnus is a new breed of chess player from a different era. When Garry was champion his peak rating was at 2,851, Magnus's peak rating at the time of writing is 2,881 and he recently defeated five-time former world chess champion Viswanathan Anand who was around twice his age without losing a single game, thus becoming the new world champion. Garry and Magnus first played in 2004 when Magnus was just 12 years old. Everyone knew Magnus would end up being a superstar when that game (which everyone thought Kasparov would win) ended in an unexpected draw.

In 2012, 60 Minutes ran a profile on Magnus, calling him the “Mozart” of chess. In the 60 Minutes clip he was filmed playing simultaneous games against 10 other players on separate boards without being able to look at any of them. He's also been known to do a bit of modeling, as he did for Liv Tyler and the G-star clothing line.

Many, including Kasparov, describe this as a new era in chess. Similarly, we also see a new era in the world of work.

One of the reasons why Magnus is such a great chess player is because he challenges the traditional notions of chess. When positions are technically drawn he plays through them and finds winning combinations and when positions are seemingly lost he manages to save them. He embraces and thrives in new or complex positions and has a unique ability to adapt to what is in front of him. He goes against the traditional grain of chess and for that he is considered to be one of the greatest chess players to play the game despite the fact that he is just turning 24.

The approach that Magnus has toward chess—the ability to adapt, identify opportunities, and think outside of the “board”—is the same type of mentality that is required when thinking about the future of work. Actually, it's not just required, it's essential for the future of work.

Many organizations around the world today are in trouble. The world of work is changing around them while they remain stagnant. The larger the gap grows the greater the chance becomes that these organizations will not survive. However, organizations shouldn't just want to survive they must want to thrive and be competitive in a new rapidly changing world. To do this requires pioneering change, not waiting for tragedy or for a crisis to force change. The future workforce is bringing new attitudes and ways of work to which managers must adapt. This means that organizations must adapt to both employees and managers and, as of now, this is happening at a snail's pace, if at all. This is a book about adapting to that change.

We spend a large portion of our existence working, thinking about work, worrying about or stressing out about work. Even though the average work week should be around 40 hours many still work 50, 60, 70, or more hours every week. We plan our lives around work and for many of us work is the focal point around which everything else revolves. People are working so much that companies like investment banking giant Goldman Sachs are actually trying to discourage some employees from working on weekends. In the finance world it's not that unusual for people to work 100-hour weeks!

Recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the majority of us now spend more time working than we do sleeping, an hour more a day. Work is officially the single most time-consuming thing in our lives today, so it's important that we enjoy and care about what we do because we're going to spend most of our lives doing it.

Work is clearly a big deal, but how many times have you actually thought about the following—What is work? What is an employee? What is a manager? If you had to explain these things to someone who wasn't familiar with them, what would you say?

When most people think of “work” they typically of think of four things: employees, managers, organizations, and technology. However, we never really stop to think about what these words actually mean even though they encompass such a large part of our lives.

If you were to look up synonyms for “work,” you would find words like: stress, drudgery, toil, and daily grind. For “employee” you get gems such as: cog, servant, slave, or desk jockey. If you look up “company” you get: gang, zoo, or horde. Finally, we have “manager,” which sees synonyms such as: slavedriver, zookeeper, and boss. Basically we are all cogs, working for a slavedriver, as we go through our daily drudgery working for a gang. Wow, work really sucks!

These are the words and the associations that we have been using to think about and describe our companies for the past 10, 50, and 150-plus years. It's no wonder why organizations are having such a hard time trying to evolve and adapt; we have literally built our companies from the ground up with the notion that employees are just cogs and that work is drudgery! Now we are working against the grain to change the approaches and ways of thinking about work but it's like trying to stop a speeding freight train. The difference is that now the need for change has never been greater.

During my keynote presentations at conferences and events I often ask the audience to tell me some of the things that make them happy or things that they enjoy doing. I get answers like: family, sports, good food and wine, friends, and a host of others. But I can't recall an instance where someone ever said “work makes me happy,” or “I enjoy my job.” This is all going to change. It has to change.

In my first book, The Collaborative Organization, I laid out a detailed strategic framework for how organizations can become collaborative by connecting their people and information anywhere, anytime, and on any device. I explored everything from use case development and technology evaluation to employee adoption and sustaining these initiatives in the long term. It was filled with case studies and models that organizations can use to help them become more collaborative. That book was designed as a strategic guide for decision makers, leaders, and those involved with making their organization more collaborative on the inside.

However, in writing that book I realized that it was necessary to talk about the future of work from a broader perspective. The world of work was changing yet there wasn't a clear description of what that change looked like or what impact that change might have. Time and time again we hear that employees work in new ways, that managers are using outdated approaches, and that organizations have to change the way they operate. It seems as though everyone knows this. But what exactly are the changes that employees are bringing into the workplace? What do they look like? What are some of the outdated management practices being used today and what do new approaches look like? If organizations are to rethink how they are constructed and operate then what do those new ideas actually look like? These are the pieces that are missing, not the fact that change needs to happen but what that change actually looks likes for employees, managers, and organizations and how to make that change happen.

I wanted to write a book to really help further the conversation around the future of work to get people thinking differently. That's what this book is about. Unlike my previous book, this is not a strategy guide with many models and frameworks, it's a compass to help guide organizations or a picture to help readers see what the future of work is going to look like.

In addition to this book my team and I at Chess Media Group also launched an invite-only membership community dedicated to the future of work and collaboration at FOWCommunity.com. The community not only allows you to share best practices and learn from other practitioners...