Jonas Altman - Shapers

The science behind human motivation should inform how we organise ourselves in work. And although there is no one‐size‐fits‐all solution for a company, we can think in systems with the interconnectedness of control, context, and collaboration.

1 ControlEngaged employees have more discretion over their experiences at work. We've seen the power of autonomy at work: being trusted to choose when, where, and how we work is vital for workers to feel and be their best. Still, the use of fixed technology (a desk phone and a desktop tied to a workstation) exceeds mobile technology (a cell phone and a laptop) by 2 to 1. Office desks around the world are not only restricting mobility, they're doubling as handcuffs.

2 ContextWhat works in Barcelona won't necessarily fly in Bengaluru. The most engaged employees in the world are in emerging economies. Developed nations are more polarised (either very engaged or not at all) and a few notables like Spain, Belgium, and France suffer from the highest rates of dissatisfaction. When a company expands to a new city, and ‘exports’ its office, it must consider cultural context. Too often, companies fail to appreciate the nuances of a city's culture and meet the expectations of their future employees. This principle even extends to large office settings that span several floors. When someone, say in Customer Success (2nd floor), heads up to Management (22nd floor), the cultural disparity, more than the physical distance, can be telling of organisational dysfunction.

3 CollaborationParadoxically, many companies still operate with stiff hierarchies that inhibit collaboration. Collective efforts that fuel the innovation economy don't jive well with the positional authority that is so commonplace. What's needed in turn is a dynamic and participatory way of working that champions cognitive and cultural diversity, multiple opinions, and a knack for adapting to change.

Organisational agility is like a pendulum, and as it swings, experimentation is required to keep people engaged. Sensitivity must be given to the emergent properties and uniqueness of each institution. Those companies that champion control, context, and collaboration lay the foundation for people to be their best selves. They convert the proverbial office into a destination where employees choose to work and hangout.

While our ancestors saw work as a sacrifice that made them morally worthy, shapers see work as a moral good that is worthy in and of itself. Whether team leader or YouTuber, the main driver for being engaged in our work comes deep from within. And as organisations upgrade their operating systems, we too must continually update our personal ones. When we sync with our motivations, we can discover more meaning, build better organisations, and weave a richer social fabric.

With some history under our belt and an appreciation for how the nature of work is changing, we turn our attention to the ways in which one's job and one's personal life have blended. It's possible to organise ourselves in such a fashion that finding and sustaining purposeful work as shapers may not be for the few but a real opportunity for the masses.

As work and life have blended, we need to be increasingly discerning in how we expend our energy. In the case of traditional workaholics who toil away as a diversion, engaged workaholics do so as an energiser. By working in intervals, cross‐training between domains, and adopting the right attitude–shapers seek to spiral up.

‘Sup buddy?’ Brian saunters into the cafe with a grin. On cue, I prep my fantastical coffee shake concoction complete with peanut butter cookie, a scoop (or two) of vanilla ice‐cream, a dose of chocolate syrup, and just the right amount of espresso. Oblivious to Brian's chatter, I'm dead set on making the best thing he's ever tasted. When he indulged in one of my wacky creations, which was all too frequently for one human, the twinkle in Brian's eyes grew brighter. Then I got fired.

As a teenager, this was my first proper job. A barista was the perfect position for me–I loved people and would soon grow to love coffee as well. I moved on to a myriad of other jobs: retail slave, warehouse packer, bartender, salesman, marketer, event organiser, designer, researcher, innovation guy, teacher, lecturer–you name it and I likely did, or at the very least tried it. For a hot minute I worked at a startup that was trying to take down Google. Big surprise, they went bust.

In all of these roles I was a segmentor : work was work and I got my kicks in life and satisfaction elsewhere. Segmentors keep the space between work and life wholly separate because having them bleed together feels unsettling.

In the fall of 2003, at the same time that the Concorde made its last supersonic flight, I started a business. I moved from a segmentor to a blender –and an entirely rubbish one at that. For the better part of a decade, I would direc all of my energy (and I had a tonnes of it) towards work. Indeed, work had become a container for my fear of failure and totally consumed me.

It took a while and a lot of practice, but I think that I'm a much better blender now. I strive to integrate work and life in such a fashion that the two are in harmony, often indistinguishable from one another. While the seamlessness can get tricky at times, it can also bring wholeheartedness. Diplomat, historian, and writer François‐René de Chateaubriand put it best:

A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between their work and their play, their labour and their leisure, their mind and their body; their education and their recreation. They hardly know which is which. They simply pursue their vision of excellence through whatever they are doing, and leave others to determine whether they are working or playing. To themselves, they always appear to be doing both.

The workplace has become an abstract concept with a virtual set of relations. The office now lives in our pockets or purses. And what you do, rather than where you go, is what really matters. Eking out your waking hours so as to get the best results is what keeps you relevant.

If we are what we repeatedly do, then the question blenders ask is: ‘How can I best direct my energy today?’ The answer, it seems, isn't about doing things the right way–it's about doing the right thing.

Shapers are in effect masterful blenders . Instead of working around the clock, blenders layer work into life like expert Tetris players. With a war chest of resilience, they continually level up.

At the risk of sounding drunk on my own Kool‐Aid, I should clarify that the blend is about a distinct working style that blurs work and life in a purposeful way. It means moving fluidly between facets of work and life aligning your skills, interests, hobbies, and attitudes in such a fashion that you feel richer for it. Interestingly enough, the organisations that actively seek to blend work and personal time for their employees are actually better off in the long run.

Nearly half of the US professional workforce are independent workers. And we're now witnessing passionate job quitters and an entire gamut of flexible working arrangements help shape the Great Migration . With a tsunami of workers striking out on their own, there'll be more Tetris players than ever before.

While some take to the blend like a duck to water, it suits a certain skin better than others. And regardless of whether you fancy yourself a segmentor , blender , or a bit of both, what's important is that you set healthy boundaries for those things that matter most.

The new workforce is a young one. The advantage of being born after 1980 is being native to digital and only knowing our connected world (perhaps a drawback is never having possessed a pre‐internet brain). But millennials are too often confused with being entitled rather than networked. The opportunities afforded by the information and telecommunications revolution have given these future shapers a fresh worldview : working hard doesn't necessarily mean getting ahead, ergo, I might as well do what I love.