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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIn the distant past, explorers used local landmarks and stars to navigate. This made it difficult to go to unknown places. Today, many organizations are using best practices, benchmarking, and past successes to guide their way. These are local landmarks. Local to the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As of the 14th<\/sup> century and the age of exploration, the compass made it possible for explorers to go further, reaching new lands. My thesis is that today, in the 3rd decade of the 21st<\/sup> century, the gig mindset is the organizational equivalent of the compass and will lead those who follow it to places we do not yet know. We will find new ways of working, living and being, and develop a gig mindsetter sense of identity: \u201cI can get there, I can do it\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The gig mindset is not a model nor a method. It is a metaphor. It refers to a new breed<\/strong> of employee who blends freelancer thinking and behaving<\/a> with employee status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why \u201cbold<\/strong> new breed\u201d? Because management resistance is very strong. Gig mindsetters are seen as undisciplined, disrespectful of tradition, and lacking respect for hierarchy. Some risk their careers because they are perceived as deviants to be ignored or sidelined, rather than positive deviants<\/a> to be celebrated for bringing positive results via their unconventional behaviors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n During my research on the gig mindset, I talked with a CEO of a company specializing in workplace and office design. He believes focusing on skills rather than roles, which is a key gig mindsetter behavior, destabilizes organizations:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are seeing roles and processes being converted into skills required for performance. When you eliminate roles, you start to fracture hierarchy. The culture, the technology, communication, employee performance reviews, and nearly every other aspect of traditional business structure is stressed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organizations are all forced to rethink strategies, from office versus home, from shareholder expectations to purpose-oriented goals, from structured change programs to spontaneous movements from workers. In short, the traditional mindset work culture is approaching the end. The old hierarchy no longer works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The gig mindset work culture is not without hierarchy, nor leaderless. On the contrary, it weaves a new living leadership that comes from different places in the organization. This reversed leadership<\/a> is a new dynamic based on openness, autonomy and questioning. Opportunities and risks are seen early thanks to diverse eyes scanning the horizon. People self-organize, improvise and adapt when faced with a challenge. Questioning of the status quo is natural and instinctive, which means people bring a range of options to the table when decisions need to be made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Without these changes, the organization is closed in on itself, people automatically do what they have always done, and the organization is ill-prepared for the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What follows are three orienting principles, all second nature to gig mindsetters:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Merck KGaA, Darmstadt in Germany developed a future-oriented Competency Model as a framework of behaviors for actions and decision-making across the organization of over 50,000 people. Defined in 2015, it is still a strong reference of behaviors described with verbs. An example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cInnovation means constantly experimenting and driving change initiatives. This includes being open to new ideas, making quick decision and taking risks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A senior manager in a global healthcare company described how an agreed-upon framework made it easier to decide which processes are mandatory versus where people should be free to make their own decisions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe should not be saying, \u2018What are the key things that we need to have processes for?\u2019 Instead, we should be saying, \u2018What are the things that we absolutely must not deviate from?\u2019 We can then allow people to get on and do what they are doing, as long as it\u2019s not illegal, dishonorable, or likely to cause deception or embarrassment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I interviewed an engineer in a very large global company with over 100,000 employees. Many small groups throughout the company were experimenting with new ways of working:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSome more radical things were coming from the idea that, if we are going to change a company as large as ours, it\u2019s not any different to change in society, so why don\u2019t we do things like civil disobedience? We organized a visible peaceful protest event. Between 100 and 200 people turned up, unannounced, in front of the CEO’s office in this green area. Everybody had food and drinks, a few signs and stands. It was a 2-hour spontaneous event where anybody could come and see what others were doing to take responsibility for building a better company. The CEO noticed the people, came out and asked why HR was not involved. The answer? \u2018We did not need them\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The engineer summed up their \u201cjust do it\u201d philosophy:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBasically we believe we’ve started a grassroots movement for people taking responsibility for changing the company. We say to them, \u2018rather than just waiting around and complaining about things \u2026why don’t you just do it\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The gig mindsetter values of behavior over goals, freedom within a framework, and the \u201cjust do it\u201d attitude, bring to mind the closing address<\/a> at the 9th<\/sup> Global Peter Drucker Forum in 2017 when Charles Handy gave a simple, inspiring call to action:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe must just start small fires in the darkness, until they spread until the whole world is alight with a better vision of what we could do with our businesses. And I say to you now, If not us then who, if not now, then when?<\/p>\n\n\n\n About the author:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Jane McConnell, <\/strong>author of The Gig Mindset Advantage: A Bold New Breed of Employee has conducted 12 years of research on organizations in the digital age. She has worked as a digital strategy advisor with large global organizations in Europe and North America for 18 years. <\/em>https:\/\/www.netjmc.com\/<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n This article is one in the \u201cshape the debate\u201d series relating to A Day of Drucker<\/a> on June 30, 2021.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the distant past, explorers used local landmarks and stars to navigate. This made it difficult to go to unknown places. Today, many organizations are using best practices, benchmarking, and past successes to guide their way. These are local landmarks. Local to the past[\u2026]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":""},"categories":[297],"tags":[298,116],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3319"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3319"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4004,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3319\/revisions\/4004"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Realistic assessment: The gig mindset is an existential threat to business as we know it today<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Why is the gig mindset essential?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How does the gig mindset act as a compass to help us navigate uncertainty?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
1 – Focusing on behaviors, not end goals \u2013 knowing they are embedded in people, thereby lasting longer<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
2 \u2013 Daring to assume the freedom of making decisions \u2013 within a minimum framework of guidelines<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
3 – Carrying out civil disobedience \u2013 and leading others to do the same<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Navigating uncertainty<\/h2>\n\n\n\n