quarta-feira, fevereiro 17, 2010

A atitude é uma coisa pequena que faz uma grande diferença

"The great excitement of the future is that we can shape it.”

Eu sei, em primeira mão, o que isto significa.

No entanto, acredito que muitas pessoas ainda não perceberam que assim é. Por isso, em vez de moldarmos o futuro, somos conformados pelo passado que ficou obsoleto.

Em vez de ousar arriscar, há a tendência para barricar o status quo e defender o passado.

A revista The Economist no artigo “So hard to bend” bate nas leis laborais rígidas e nos salários elevados e, bate neles porque julga que a solução passa por mexer nessas variáveis.

Assim, de um lado, temos os defensores do passado que tentam defender os postos de trabalho a todo o custo e, do outro lado, temos outros defensores do passado, os que defendem estratégias obsoletas, e que em vez de apostarem na criação de valor se concentram na redução de custos. Ambos estão condenados à erosão, à irrelevância e à implosão final.

Charles Handy tem um capítulo intitulado “Finding Sense in Uncertainty” no livro “Rethinking the future” onde se pode ler:

"WE ARE LIVING in very confused times, because many of the things that gave structure to our lives are disappearing. Institutions which we relied on, particularly the work organization are no longer so sure or so certain. For one thing, work organizations disappear rather rapidly these days.

If we are going to make any sense out of all this confusion around us, we have to find a way to organize it in our minds, so that we can start to understand what is actually happening in the world and then try to do something about it. (Moi ici: Sempre a mesma coisa, se queremos lidar com um “wicked problem” esta é a a abordagem correcta, devemos procurar perceber primeiro o problema antes de saltarmos para a solução)

In the twenty-first century, we will see more and more people adopting a `portfolio' approach to their lives and to their work. What I mean by this is that life will be a collection of different activities, almost like a share portfolio. A part of the portfolio will be the core activities, for providing the essentials for living, whereas the rest will be other things that we think of as personal fulfillment, as responsibilities towards other people or even just as fun.

Instead of having a career in the traditional sense, you will, for part of life, have a `portfolio career', where part of your time will be spent earning wages or fees, and the rest will be for community work or study or whatever. A lot of it will be work of some form, even if much of it is unpaid, and it will all go to make up a portfolio of activities which will increasingly define you.

...

We have to remember that the very definition of work is changing. Work used to mean having a job with an employer. But today, it increasingly means working for yourself and even by yourself. In the near future, half of the workforce of the developed world will be working `outside' the organization. Traditional organizations now employ only 55 percent of the workforce on a full-time basis. The rest are temporary, part-time or contractual workers. Our portfolios will increasingly be collections of different work for different clients.

We've got to learn to live with chaos and uncertainty, to try to be comfortable with it and not to look for certainty where we won't get it.

You can't look at the future as a continuation of the past. The things that got you where you are are seldom the things that keep you there. But, on the other hand, if you don't know where you are coming from you will find it hard to go forward.

Actually, we've got to see the future as a series of discontinuities, and we've got to learn to take these things in our stride.

The way you make sense of the future, in organizations and in societies and in your own life, is by taking charge of the future. Not by responding to it.”

Entretanto, o sítio da revista Business Week cita um artigo de Harvard “Cut Costs Without Cutting Meaning” que é uma chamada de atenção para todos aqueles que se concentram tanto no corte dos custos que se esquecem do significado, do valor para os clientes.

O título é uma citação atribuída a Winston Churchill.

Sem comentários: