I got this via email as a member of a yahoo group focused on Shoshana Zuboff’s concept of the support economy.
Michael Wolff of ki-work.com has been thinking about organizations, knowledge work, customer service, distributed newtorks and offshoring.
Here’s his email:
Following Tom Peters offshoring manifesto in which he says that off-
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
the conventional organisational model, in favour of one that
recognises and is based on the value of a company’s relationships,
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
approach to work-life balance.