Jonas Altman - Shapers

See, Manny's odd‐looking board had a big advantage in that it was super fast. And Manny was a crackerjack surfer. He gracefully carved his turns on the waves, turning the heads of every onlooker on the beach as he did. When it came time to pack it up and head back to the parking lot, Manny would invariably get stopped by a sea‐sprayed bro. ‘Hey, can I see that thing?' the onetime mocker now turned gawker would ask. Such interactions would prove formative in more ways than one.

‘It occurred to me at that moment that the rest of my life isn't going to be determined by other people's formulas,' Manny recalls of the experience. ‘I'm going to determine my own formula—because nothing else is really going to work.' Trusting his instincts, Manny became the steward to his gifts.

* * *

Alongside his boisterous laugh, that funny quad fish from the parking lot has become his signature design. Manny had tapped into the thing that he needed to be doing in this life. He didn't mind one bit that I was waiting (and salivating) while he calmly doctored up that taco. He had ceased conforming to what the world wanted him to be and began bopping to his own beat.

Shapers adhere to a craftsman‐like culture. If you're a shaper, you put your stamp on your work. You earn your stripes. You sync with a rhythm of life that lights you up. At times, work may be a frightening obstacle (and obsession), but shapers move through adversity with temperament and tenacity. A determination to continually improve and evolve. A willingness to experiment and learn from mistakes. To create on the fly. To work fluidly. To persevere and be patient in equal measure. To unwaveringly nourish the soul.

A shaper is someone who becomes energised by work. The way they work provides for the highest expression of self. They lead deeper and more fulfilling lives because what they do everyday serves them and the greater good.

If it sounds like I'm talking about more than handcrafting surfboards, I am. Now, more than ever, the professional working world needs a bit of the shaper shimmer.

I should know, after years of trying to run a business with the wrong partner, in the wrong industry and in the wrong way–I burned out. So I up and left and went back to school to study design and to figure out where I went wrong. Or perhaps why I went wrong. It turned out that my workaholism was a container for my fear of failure. Instead of working smart and with purpose, I just kept my head down and toiled away harder.

I discovered that my approach to work was crushing my spirit so I swapped it for one that helped me come alive. I began to see that my vitality would only come when I gave into my curiosity and creativity. I realised that I needed to rest and reassess so that I could show up for others as my best self. Over time I was able to earn a living by doing what fuels me–learning, teaching, and helping.

I know too that I'm no exception–because every day I work with people who use the strategies in this book to transform how they work and discover meaning. I've witnessed these approaches succeed time and again. Producing over posturing. Empowering over embittering. Asking over telling. Giving over taking. Leaning in rather than opting out.

It's no secret that we're facing an unprecedented crisis in work: Gallup polls regularly report that the majority of the working world is not engaged in what they do. The contributors to this crisis are a smorgasbord of realities, including the growing financial divide, a widening skills gap, unemployment, precarious work, diversity issues, and algorithms and automation that keep gobbling up jobs. Along with climate change, the crisis of work is one of the biggest challenges we face. Indeed, the two are inextricably linked. The good news is that there are people and companies already making work a whole lot better.

And so we find ourselves at a watershed moment. Now is an extraordinary time in which we can indulge the human spirit and our impulse to do the work that matters. Instead of clinging to age‐old attitudes, we have a ripe opportunity to reimagine work and our place in it. We have an unprecedented chance to renew ourselves in the work we do.

Margaret Mead was a shaper. So too was Alvin Toffler. Yvon Chouinard is a shaper as is Marie Forleo. And a tide of burgeoning shapers are rushing in. They're eager to find meaning in their work and reinvent our organisations. What's crucial now are the decisions we make going forward and whether we can let go of the structures, systems, and practices of a bygone era and come together to do the work our world needs.

The future of work is about the meaning you discover. It's about the shape that we collectively give it. That's what we're here to explore in this book. Drawing from hundreds of interviews, we'll apply anecdotes from CEOs, organisational designers, social psychologists, workplace strategists, marketing gurus, design ninjas, startup entrepreneurs, restless raconteurs, culture geeks, creative freaks, and a plethora of other trailblazers all helping to shape the future of work. We'll dive inside companies like Netflix, Squarespace, LEGO, and Patagonia to see how they cultivate resilient work cultures. We'll see precisely how shapers fuel themselves by what they do every day and how you can do the same.

In Part One, we'll explore the history of work and how we find ourselves at this watershed moment. In Part Two, we'll look at the organisations and people that are pioneering work in new and exciting ways. And since there are many possible futures, in Part Three, we'll consider the principles that can help you navigate your way to a preferable one.

Whether you're in the C‐suite or the front line, work remotely or in an office–the ideas, lessons, and tools presented in these pages are for you to adopt as you see fit. Pick, mix, experiment, and run with whatever works best for you. We all have different approaches to work, and each one of us can find those opportunities for growth. We can all evolve. My invitation is for you to thoughtfully shape and regularly refine the ways you work.

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms–to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.

—Viktor Frankl

The nature of work is quickly changing so that more of us can find meaning in what we do. And given the opportunity, it's absolutely imperative that we search for work that lights us up. At this watershed moment, with massive disengagement and a system of work that is broken–we can embrace the drive we all have within. As shapers we pursue our vision for fulfilling work because it impacts every aspect of our lives and the lives of those around us.

Work is now a practice through which we search for meaning to help shape a colourful life. The choice we have is to move beyond ourselves and connect with something larger. This deep sense of commitment and purpose is non‐negotiable and is what gives shapers their shimmer.

Last I checked, they don't stock bottles of happiness on store shelves. (OK, depending on where you shop and what's in the bottle, perhaps they do.) Instead, the shelves are lined with books about the pursuit of happiness. If you want to learn how to find your bliss, chase down the things that spark joy, and untether your soul, there's no shortage of authors and teachers who are glad to point the way in exchange for a handful of your dollars. What you don't see lining the walls of bookstores and the splash pages of your go‐to guru is the promise of keeping happiness once you have it. It's a promise nobody—at least, nobody honest–is going to make.