Working like a network
Microsoft Stories
“It’s not really about having an office full of 10,000 people anymore. You can have a network of 10,000 people who are technically not employed by the same person, but are working together to create something and build something.”
-Jessica Lawrence, Executive Director, NY Tech Meetup
As the world becomes more interconnected, value creation is shifting from the individual to the collective. Resilient, high-empathy teams will drive the best business outcomes.
It’s like the social networking we do in our personal lives: We ask for advice or help on Facebook and other social media. And we get answers, responses and often, ideas we might not have thought of on our own. We work like a network in our social lives, and we can work like a social network in our work lives.
The workplace itself is worldwide for many companies; no one building or structure holds all the brainpower a company uses or needs. By the year 2020 in the U.S., 40 percent or more of the workforce will be contingent and independent workers. In this world, networks of people and organizations will form around projects to solve big challenges – like movie teams in Hollywood.
