If you’re tired of reading about an author’s vision for the #FutureOfWork post-pandemic, or staring into the chasm of shifting your team to perpetual #RemoteWork, or just feel buffeted by daily Top 10 lists from the popular business press, then I think you’ve found a friend and advisor in Phil Simon. Put simply, prescriptive and opinionated lists, articles, videos and books probably leave you thinking … “yeah, they may be right but if I did that it would be a disaster at my company, it would never work” … “I wish someone would translate all this into something I could actually execute” … then this book your needle in that haystack.
From a leader/manager perspective it does an excellent job outlining some of the core data and discoveries underpinning the theories of future of knowledge work without descending into lengthy academics. It gives you enough of a synthesis (with references) so that you can truly understand why you would want to change or adopt these new approaches and/or technology, before diving head first into the author’s vast experience rolling out these ideas at companies large and small. From my perspective I kept reading it thinking how refreshing it was not to get an all too common “fragile recipe” of “you must do X, then Y, because they are the best”. Rather it finds a fine balance of considered synthesis of all the pros and cons and caveats and gotchas that would normally sink a project or a career if you found them out too late. It also does this without skimping on the details or leaving you to wonder about the author’s personal opinions. I think it’ll give you what you need to develop your own perfect recipe tailored to your unique organization.
In a nutshell I would say this book is for a leader embarking on these kinds of organizational changes and technologies, especially those not content with just knowing the “what” or the “how”, instead needing the confidence that only comes from the “why”. I could also see this book being used as team handbook to kick-off or pull-through these kind of changes. A quick read in place of a longer “winning hearts and minds” campaign. A campaign which all too often is left to a manager to accomplish alone (and a great project risk) through endless meetings and presentations. The author’s down to earth conversational style, mixed with evidence and sprinkled with stories would almost certainly disarm even the most skeptical on your team.
As for accuracy of the advice, I’m a leader of a remote-first technology company which has served large global enterprises for 10+ years and adopted a lot of the technology and practices when they were firmly on the bleeding edge. I can attest that if this book existed in 2010 I would not have nearly as many scars and gray hairs. Grab yourself a copy if you haven’t started this journey yet, or like us, are well on the way but could always use a gut check, a handbook for new team members or the latest tips for refinement.