shoring is here to stay and he lists 20 “hard truths” in support of

the view in Changethis.com (www.changethis.com/7.OffShoringManifesto),

Graham Douglas challenged us to respond with our ki work offshoring

manifesto.

Drawing heavily on TSE thinking, we submit a draft for your

comments. Our position is that while we accept the inevitablity of

off-shoring, especially in manufacturing and to some extent in IT,

we do not see this as appropriate for knowledge work. New

organisational structures are required. The following is our 19

point manifesto. We are allowing Tom Peters to win by having more

points!

the challenge

in the emergent knowledge economy, the mechanistic command and

control organisational model that was suitable for manufacturing

goods and location-dependent services is clearly not working for

services that are delivered via IT and telecoms.

these services are being undertaken in contact and admin centres,

which are, essentially, knowledge factories. Based on transaction

economics, the goal is to optimise the cost and productivity of

every transaction, without full regard for the impact on customers

and workers. As a result:

- there is a growing chasm between companies and their customers,

illustrated by the decline in customer loyalty

- workers are becoming increasingly less fulfilled in their work, as

reflected in the growing levels of staff turnover

- in the banking sector, insider crime rates are soaring as more and

more short term staff are employed

there is a progressive breakdown in trust between companies and

their customers and workers. With the growth in offshoring, the gap

between the company and its customers widens further. The

relationship between the company and its onshore employees is also

further stressed.

with growing dissatisfaction from both customers and employees, the

risks posed by applying an outmoded organisational model with a

narrow focus on minimising the cost per transaction are compounded,

leading eventually to serious negative outcomes for all stakeholders.

to meet this challenge, ki work proposes a radical restructuring of

both with its customers and its workers.

ki work manifesto

1.   ki work is an innovative organisational structure facilitating

collaborative and transactional interactions between workers and

customers, mediated by IT and telecoms

2.   ki work supports the large scale distribution of interactive,

collaborative decision-making and transaction processing – typically

contact centre, admin and knowledge-intensive applications

3.   ki work is a cost-competitive, socially responsible and

sustainable alternative to offshoring

4.   ki work is a self-organising, adaptive, non-linear, and complex

social network. This entails a radical realignment in working

relationships, from the dominant competitive to the emergent

collaborative mode of consciousness – from collaborating to compete

to competing to collaborate

5.   ki work supports the balanced creation of financial,

relationship, social and environmental capital, enabling a quantum

shift from transaction to relationship economics

6.   ki work minimises organisational and infrastructure overheads,

and maximises process efficiency, enabling ki workers to earn most

of the total interaction value by keeping costs low

7.   ki work is a purpose-centred and principle-based community -

the common purpose that all members share is to realise the power of

collaborative networking on an equitable basis for all members and

to create and share financial, relationship, social and

environmental capital

8.   ki work and its members are custodians, not owners of capital -

the shared intellectual property belongs to the ki work commons

9.   ki work is a collaborative organisational layer that

interconnects workers both inside and outside conventional

organisations, focused on cross-functional and customer-focused

processes across permeable organisational boundaries

10.  ki work recognises that each collaborative and transactional

interaction between two or more individuals supporting a business

process is unique, exceptional and potentially transformational

11. in the ki work network, the centre of the organisational

universe is the interaction between two or more individuals, whether

they are ki workers or not. This enables organisations to build

trust with both customers and workers, compounding the growth in

relationship capital. This in turn results in massively increased

productivity, flexibility and adaptability

12.  in the ki work model every interaction is an opportunity to

share information, knowledge, emotion, wisdom and transformational

opportunities, providing ki workers a path to self-actualisation

through the sustainable development of self-knowledge and

authenticity through the development of deep working relationships

13.  in the emergent knowledge economy, knowledge and its means of

transfer are abundant - what are scarce and have value are deep

relationships

14.  purpose-centred collaborative networks are massively scalable

and accelerate the development of relationship capital, following

Reed’s law of exponential growth on the value of networks

15.  the ki work relationship model is responsive and empowering,

shifting from the traditional employer/employee and customer/service

provider relationship in favour of peer-to-peer and mutual

interdependence

16.  empowered workers are more than capable (with the appropriate

environment and training) to manage themselves, to agree outcomes

with other team members, and to deliver those outcomes, even when

working from home. This self-organisation contributes to the low

cost of the ki work model

17.  people flourish, grow, succeed, and are more fulfilled when

part of a supportive community with shared purpose, values and

goals, and where their contribution makes a difference

18.  when part of a community of practice, the potential for

collaborative learning, creating and sharing new knowledge, and

finding innovative solutions, rises exponentially

19.  ki work supports an integral home and community-centric