Why Getting Things Done at Work Feels Hard

The world of work was designed for robots.

The very first large organisations were factories, where we needed people to do the work of robots. We needed people to be cogs in a machine.

We needed people to do a predictable task in a predictable way. We needed lots of order and control and certainty. We needed to check what makes us human at the door and come into work. That’s the legacy on which the large organisations came to life.

Since then, a lot has changed.

We now need people to take on tasks that are uncertain and ambiguous. Most of the time we can’t fully predict an outcome ahead of time. We now need “knowledge workers” or just smart, creative people who are willing to experiment, collaborate and discover solutions to problems that are unclear and uncertain.

But if you look at the way we work, and the mindsets and assumptions underneath it, we’re still treating people like robots. We’re aiming for control, predictability, certainty. Rules and processes govern much of our work lives, rather than principles and trust.

You might experience this as decisions that get stuck in bottlenecks, rigid hierarchies that slow down work, time spent endlessly in meetings, office politics that slow work down. Worst of all, we all seem to be stuck in this hamster wheel of constant busyness.

These are not some necessary evil, they are a direct result of the mindsets and ways of working that are operating invisibly, and they are due for an upgrade.

The future of work doesn't belong to robots - it belongs to human ingenuity, creativity, and collaboration.

To thrive in this new reality, we have to shed this old industrial skin and embrace ways of working that amplify our humanity rather than suppress it.

The next revolution in work isn't just about new technology - it's about letting the best of what makes us human shine through.