Gladwell On Our Changing Workplace

There’s an interesting article with PSFK face Malcolm Gladwell over on Report For Business where they try to ask him about how the changing workplace. The interview has obviously been set up to help promote a conference and the interviewer and Gladwell seem to be a little at odds but if you delve, you’ll find some interesting insights from the original Bedouin Worker:

I think it’s changed a lot already…But I think a lot of the changes are probably invisible for the moment because they have to do with the way people think, not with the way they behave, necessarily. Jobs have gotten harder and more demanding. You’re still going into the same place and wearing the same clothes, but a lot more is being asked of you

…But I know that the next problem we need to solve is, we have given people virtually unlimited access to data, to information; the next question is, can we give them better tools for making sense of that information?

Google in a sense is a symbol of the solution to an old problem. We don’t need more Googles; what we need is a way to prioritize and analyze and make sense of the information we have at our fingertips. And maybe those kinds of solutions aren’t technological at all. I’m quite prepared for the possibility that the next revolution is not going to come from a machine; it’s going to come from creating a more thoughtful work force and giving people the opportunity to be thoughtful.

…You’re going to have to create internal structures that will help people grow into positions; that’s really where the real opportunity is going to be. That’s what we’re going to have to do. That means being more patient with people, being willing to experiment with people, and being willing to nurture people. Those are three things we’re reluctant to do at the moment.

Report On Business