Well said. True to what I have seen since I was a child. I know that I chose service (ministry) over business (selling) because of how my father talked about the arrogant abuse of his boss at the dinner table every night. Without knowing it, it turned me into being not only an outsider in the corporate world but to develop my critical skills of analysis. On an interview yesterday, I made the comment that even watching TV I’m analyzing how the story and the characters are developed. My guest likes to get lost in the story. My road trips are where that detachment comes. Understanding story, character, context, and philosophy serves my engagement with people. The more subtle and intricate, the more interesting. In this sense, I have been operating as an artisan through different iterations of my craft. The challenge of being an insider, even a marginal one, is learning how to stand on your own, taking care of your own needs and the needs of your family, building networks that serve your individual craft, without always having the specter of the company hanging around. Having been at it for a half century, I’d say we need new social business contexts for support of craft /artisan enterprises, like a Farmer’s Market. Wherever there are co-working spaces opening up and functioning to support small businesses, this is possible. The other challenge that adjoins this development is lifestyle. In another conversation, twenty years ago with a corporate president, he told me “I wish I had your freedom.” I responded, “I wish I had your paycheck.” Richard, you are describing the world that has been becoming for two generations at least. Thank you for this perspective. It is very important.
Thanks Ed. Love the line of your guest preferring to get lost in the story. It’s so true of organisations I feel. Large organisations are designed and built to optimise monetary returns for rentier shareholders at the expense of the quality of life returns of those who do the work. Large organisations cannot evolve as fast as changing conditions require, and are reluctant to try because they want “certainty”.
Rethinking communities- true communities- in a digital age is I think at the heart of this. Cultures of enablement, rather than compliance.
It is difficult to see it happening by organisations and politics heavily invested in the system they have created, so it has to start locally.
The catalysts for this are those with the attitude of artisans- those for whom work is about contribution more than extraction.
Labelling and naming is an interesting one Richard. I regularly witness ‘the artisan’ hidden in plain site. For some their name might be solicitor, for another their label could be electrician or teacher or care worker. Artisan is a sensibility, a spirit, as you say a calling. We are out there, getting on with it. Then there is the HOW? Well, I see many ‘portfolio career/jobists.
Yes- one of the things I’m noticing is how much less moral authority/ leadership many organisations have. It’s happened incrementally through a series of reactive, short term, decisions and increasingly transient executives and has mate relationships transactional. It’s taken a couple of decades, but pride in place of work, and pride in work have moved further apart. We are defined by the work we do far more than by who we work for.
The question it leaves me with is, if that the case, who do we see as our work communities?
Well said. True to what I have seen since I was a child. I know that I chose service (ministry) over business (selling) because of how my father talked about the arrogant abuse of his boss at the dinner table every night. Without knowing it, it turned me into being not only an outsider in the corporate world but to develop my critical skills of analysis. On an interview yesterday, I made the comment that even watching TV I’m analyzing how the story and the characters are developed. My guest likes to get lost in the story. My road trips are where that detachment comes. Understanding story, character, context, and philosophy serves my engagement with people. The more subtle and intricate, the more interesting. In this sense, I have been operating as an artisan through different iterations of my craft. The challenge of being an insider, even a marginal one, is learning how to stand on your own, taking care of your own needs and the needs of your family, building networks that serve your individual craft, without always having the specter of the company hanging around. Having been at it for a half century, I’d say we need new social business contexts for support of craft /artisan enterprises, like a Farmer’s Market. Wherever there are co-working spaces opening up and functioning to support small businesses, this is possible. The other challenge that adjoins this development is lifestyle. In another conversation, twenty years ago with a corporate president, he told me “I wish I had your freedom.” I responded, “I wish I had your paycheck.” Richard, you are describing the world that has been becoming for two generations at least. Thank you for this perspective. It is very important.
Thanks Ed. Love the line of your guest preferring to get lost in the story. It’s so true of organisations I feel. Large organisations are designed and built to optimise monetary returns for rentier shareholders at the expense of the quality of life returns of those who do the work. Large organisations cannot evolve as fast as changing conditions require, and are reluctant to try because they want “certainty”.
Rethinking communities- true communities- in a digital age is I think at the heart of this. Cultures of enablement, rather than compliance.
It is difficult to see it happening by organisations and politics heavily invested in the system they have created, so it has to start locally.
The catalysts for this are those with the attitude of artisans- those for whom work is about contribution more than extraction.
It seems a worthwhile area to explore.
Very much agree.
Labelling and naming is an interesting one Richard. I regularly witness ‘the artisan’ hidden in plain site. For some their name might be solicitor, for another their label could be electrician or teacher or care worker. Artisan is a sensibility, a spirit, as you say a calling. We are out there, getting on with it. Then there is the HOW? Well, I see many ‘portfolio career/jobists.
Yes- one of the things I’m noticing is how much less moral authority/ leadership many organisations have. It’s happened incrementally through a series of reactive, short term, decisions and increasingly transient executives and has mate relationships transactional. It’s taken a couple of decades, but pride in place of work, and pride in work have moved further apart. We are defined by the work we do far more than by who we work for.
The question it leaves me with is, if that the case, who do we see as our work communities?