Eiffel Over

Tag: knowledge worker

  • Machine work

    Inputs

    Outputs

    KPIs

    Tools

    Models

    Performance

    Quantitative analysis

    Scaling up

    Accelerator

    Dashboard

    Timesheet

    Human resources 

    Bottom line 

    When we think of our work as the work of a machine, then is it any surprise that the incredible machines that we have built will one day starting doing it for us.

    But we do ourselves a disservice if we only think of ourselves in machine terms. If we leave out empathy, care, collective knowledge, grounded understanding of place, knowing that is not describable in words, trust, passion, play… then we are not bringing our whole selves to the work we need to do. 

    There are so many more ways of knowing than the knowledge we can enter into a computer. Let the computers do the computational part – they will be very good at it – and let us step into our wider intelligence as engineers (and other humans).

    This blog post was inspired by Reinventing Organizations, by Frederic Laloux. 

  • Who hired the knowledge worker?

    Do you work with metal? Wood? No, I work with knowledge. I mine it, I process it, I chop it up into tiny pieces, I study it, I mix it with other ingredients, I put it back together, I mould it into new forms, I package it up, I send it and I get paid for what I make. 

    We have Peter Drucker to thank the metaphor of the knowledge worker. Coined (another manufacturing metaphor) in the 1960s, it was a term he used to capture the essence of the work being done in corporate America. It was a time of shifting away from manual work to desk-based work with knowledge. 

    Ever wondered why we talk about running a ‘workshop’ with other people? Or creating a toolkit of different approaches. It’s the knowledge worker metaphor.