The CAFFWTW Conversation has been suspended for now.
If this is a subject you'd like to see reinstituted, call 9819 7914.
Especially if you know of a venue we might use.
See details of past meetings on this subject.Feb 1st Mar
1st April 5th
May 3rd
Conversation on Creating a Future for Work
That Works (4th)
During the opening session today, some folks told of what C21C has
meant to them and why they come. Much of it was to do with both intellectual
stimulation and the chance to be with people who are prepard to talk about issues that
concerned them. Like mindedness was an attractive feature.
So.. What is Work? Questions of all sorts arose out of this
one. Is walking working? Does work have to be task oriented? Is all work
contributing to the community good? Noted that organisations like Tobacco Companies
can justify themselves without any problem.
Is reflective or coffee talk, contribution? Noted that peer
pressure often mitigates against reflection. For reflection to happen, we must
create the spaces for that to happen.
Work interactions are almost entirely functional and fail to fulfill
our innate need for relationships.
Identifying some of the elements of the environment we'd LIKE to
work in we came up with a few.
- Chance to make a difference
- Do no damage
- Sustainable activities
- Building relationships and community
- Opportunities to face challenges
- Respect for things that are working
- Work that satisfies the innermost desire. What touches me most
in the moment.
- Synthesis and Flow
- Connections with like minded people
- Values people
- Respects diversity
Suggested that looking for the future ideal work is futile. It
doesn't exist. More useful to check the attitudes towards the context we find
ourselves in. Attitude is far more important.
One matter remained clear. Much of our satisfaction with our
'job' environment depends on our relationships with supervisors and colleagues.
Some salient points taken away from the session were:
- Interested in the distinction between contributing vs production.
- Community building may not be a specific task but rather something we
do on the fly while we are relating.
- Need to sustain the things that really count.
- Depthing
- Fine meeting
- Talk about the conversation and the inhibitors
- Are there stages that will lead us to deeper conversations?
Could we have a conversation on the future of community?
Next CAFFWTW
Conversation is
to be held on Friday June 7th at Level 20, Tower 2.
Darling Park 201 Sussex Street Sydney (The first
Friday of each month.)
Starting time is 12.30pm Sharp and finish at 2.00pm.
Please join us. You and your friends
will be most welcome. Call Noel on
(02) 9819 7914 or email nwinterburn@conversations.com.au
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Conversation on Creating a Future for Work
That Works (3rd)
I'm often asked about how many people I expect to come to a
Conversation. The answer is always, "I have no idea" and this event
was typical. Thirteen new people arrived and added to our storehouse of views and
ideas about the Future of Work and also added to the cosiness of the room.
Today we addressed the particular question "What is your
vision for a better future for work? Another way of wording this might be, "What
would your life be like, or how would you live your life, if you were living with a better
relationship with work? In what ways would your life be different?"
Here are some of the points created.
- I could help to make a difference in the world
- Live my vision
- Opportunity to give back
- No longer driven by 'shoulds'
- I could listen to and be driven by what's inside
- I would integrate what is inside my conscience and my outside actions
- Listen to my inner self and learn to live 'with' my fears rather than
'in' them
- Have time for reflection
- Balance my spiritual life and my financial needs
- Bring dialogue into the workplace as reflection on values and beliefs
and also reflect on the impacts I make on other people
- I would make a distinction between job and work, my current self and
my core self. To align the two sides and enjoy the energy release.
- Need to take time to reflect and know when to shed my shell.
- Reference made to a lobster who lives in a shell but from time to
time moves to a safe place to shed the shell and develop a new and expanded one to live in
for the next period.
- Noted that in China, there were people doing nothing beside people
doing something
- Time to think, live with passion, compassion, creativity, variety and
connectivity
- Define work for myself and get away from the 'control'
- Right livelihood discussion. What is it?
- Want to be around techno colleagues with whom I can converse in the
language of the job and keep up to date. Staff room conversations VERY
important to me. Long hours of concentration are just not productive
- Place where sinecured postitions ensured some slack. Tea ladies
as a concept. Doorman, lift operators. Much value was seen for such positions in
helping to build social capital beyond mere financial profit.
- Not so much busy ness
- Ability to take a sabbatical essential
- To build contentment we'd be smart to throw away some of our beliefs
about what we HAVE to have. eg. it might be smart to throw away the TV thence have
time for talking and relating and reflecting.
- Fear the loss of community and in the current work world some of our
primary needs are not being met.
It was interesting to note that one of the major reasons we go to
work is to get money so we can live. Yet nowhere in todays conversation did anyone
even mention money.
In summary, the issues that were important to us about the world of
work are these:
- It's about contributing to the quality of life in our communities
- It's about supportive relationships
- It's about living according to my values
- It's about time to reflect and living out my spiritual aspirations
Next we will see what we already do and what we might do to live
with respect for these in the world of work.
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Conversation on Creating a Future for Work
That Works (2nd)
A strong conversation today that brought us in some ways to a deeper
understanding of our relationships with work and very much with each other.
We asked the question, "Who are our audience?" We
pondered over who we would want our findings and new understandings to go to?
Who would we like to influence? Here are some of the answers.
- People who are wearing the masks at work and want to take them off.
- Enlightened employers who want to be more competitive
- Employment agencies and counsellors
- School and careers counsellors. (Something about the
implications of choosing for only financial considerations.
- Government policy makers
- Think Tank participants
- Insurance Workers Compensation claims departments
- National Training Authority
- Media folk
The quote was noted that the product of work is people. There
are a number of understandings that could come from such a statement. Are you
curious? Well you could come to a conversation and participate.
Interesting piece on the idea of us connecting to a higher priority
in our work than just the task. Perhaps we would be well served to focus more on the
connection or relationships than the tasks. A lot of unecessary tasks are created
because of a lack of connection.
A lot of our measures are spurious because we don't include the
interconnections between people. What we are perhaps talking about is a human rights
issue. We are entitled to a fair wage BUT ALSO a respectful workplace.
How about this for an idea. Tax differentials for companies
that are net givers or contributors to society rather than the net takers.
Some discussion about Socially Responsible Investments and the
possible effect on the workplace environments.
One thing for sure, any processes or policies to improve the
workplace need to be regularly evaluated. "Is it working?"
We finished with a conversation about the interactions between
serving people and customers with the final statement from Robin Elliott that will come as
little surprise to anyone giving thought to this issue. "What you're seeking,
you must first find within yourself." The aim is to live in
awareness.
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Conversation on Creating a Future for Work
That Works (1st)
Friday Feb 1st 2002
The Project:
Originally promoted by the Future of Work Foundation, this project sets out to
engage people in a process to envision how we would like the world of work to work in the
future.
"Fuelled by an increasing angst about the current world of
work, this project will create a network of people committed to creating and
living preferred futures of work."
This project is primarily about making choices
(albeit informed choices) about a future world of work - and then taking deliberate steps to implement these choices.
For a full presentation of the project, go to: Presenting The Project
Some points from the Conversation:
- Living and working in your passion maybe requires personal growth.
It may certainly require courage.
- Not living with courage leaves me empty and that is reflected back to
me through my children
- Children and other responsibilities sit at the seat of conflict .
Thus a need to trust the validity of your own life.
- Rather than "Balancing" work/life, we need to think about integration
of work/life. So rather than identifying ourselves by our work, have our
"work" as a reflection of who we are.
- Quotes from Charles Handy about looking for 'Clients' rather than
jobs.
- Need to dissolve the separation of work/leisure
Questions canvassed about "Why we work,"
Reference made to the Australian award winning film on
"Leisure." Do we work so we can enjoy our leisure or do we engage in
leisure so better able to work?
Suggestion that we change our language about work so that we can be
more unifying than devisive. The word "Work" carries an unconscious
negative implication.
Noted that aboriginal peoples are less task oriented in their daily
business than they are, relationship oriented.
The relationship between healthy 'work' practices and the principles
of Permaculture. Thus observation of the fractal nature of the concept. Must
have conversations across the metaphores of permaculture etc. eg. Investing as a
learning experience. A number of other relationships were explored here.
This first conversation did not consciously address the primary
questions that were offered on this topic but reflection reveals that indeed the first
one, "What is the interaction between work and individual human beings at the
physical, emotional and spiritual levels?" was very much on
the subconscious minds of the participants as they spoke.
We are proposing to meet on the first Friday of each month so why
don't you join us on this fascinating journey? |
Here is a
transcript of the invitation to the first Conversation. Consider it as addressed to you. Invitation to A New Conversation
Last year I offered an invitation to a new conversation titled, "Creating a Future
for Work that Works." Quite a number of you responded with interest and we are now
going ahead with a pilot of this special project.
Robin Elliott and the Sheffield organisation are graciously providing the space for a
monthly lunchtime meeting in the city and the first will be on:
Friday 1st February and thence the first Friday of each month.Time: 12.30pm
til 2.00pm
Place: Fraser Room
Level 20 Tower 2 Darling Park
201 Sussex Street. Sydney
Do bring your lunch. It’s possible to listen while eating.
The coffee shop downstairs does an excellent takeaway coffee.
Bring one with you.
Just to remind you, this series is to be commenced as a multi disciplinary project to
a) Envision how we would like the world of work in the future and b) Create and live a
preferred future of work.
It is convened/sponsored by Conversations for the 21st Century and the Future of Work
Foundation.
We will explore the role of work in the world at the individual, organisation,
society/community and global levels.
To commence proceedings, here are some questions that might fuel your thinking and
focus.
at the INDIVIDUAL HUMAN level…
- What is the interaction between work and individual human beings at the physical,
emotional and spiritual levels?
- What aspects of types of work enhance (or ennoble) human beings at the physical,
emotional and spiritual levels?
- How are individual humans best prepared to recognise and be enhanced by: first work in
general and then specific areas of work; at the physical, emotional and spiritual levels?
That should be quite a mouthful for openers.
Do let us know if you intend coming.
See you there.
Noel
9819 7914
PS. A special thanks to Kerry Fallon-Horgan for making the connections for us. |
Next CAFFWTW Conversation
is to be held on Friday May 3rd
at Level 20, Tower 2.
Darling Park 201 Sussex Street Sydney (Thence on the
first Friday of each month.)
Starting time is 12.30pm Sharp and finish at 2.00pm.
Please join us. You and your friends
will be most welcome. Call Noel on (02) 9819 7914 or
email nwinterburn@conversations.com.au
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