Dragging Workplaces back to the 1760s – the Work In Office Dilemma and the Productivity Myth

In the 1760s Josiah Wedgwood changed forever the nature of workplaces. He expanded his pottery business and constructed a new large scale factory that required two critical elements:
a) Systemisation of processes to ensure consistent high-quality outcomes
b) Skilled workers on site

The systemisation required experimentation, observation, trials, failures and recording of data – what we now refer to as Research and Development. That was something largely within Wedgwood’s control. But what he didn’t have was a mass of skilled labour. For that, he devised a new approach.

The classical ‘Master and Apprentice’ model would not deliver the skills at the speed and mass, so he created a new role in which the ‘master’ rather than teach one, or two apprentices, would instead teach a line of workers. The Master would stand behind a worker and tell them what to do, and where needed, show them how to throw a clump of clay, how to turn a wheel, how to carve, shape and mold a form into a the beginnings of something beautiful. That role as ‘overseer’ meant Wedgwood gained access to a rapid uptake of skills using a process of workflow that enabled a skilled tradesman (all men back then) to look over the shoulders of workers at their pottery wheels and ensure processes were being followed.

The ‘overseer’ was born. In other parts of the world that term took on more sinister meaning.

Over the centuries that overseer role in Wedgwood 1760’s factory has morphed into what is amusingly called ‘management’ but the process is EXACTLY the same. A manager stands behind the desks of workers and convinces themselves that worker is being productive. For over 15 years the Future of Work has been a theme in my strategic futures consulting. I dubbed the current approach the ‘hairy eyeballs’ model. Provided a manager can see a whole heap of hair (people stifled at a desk) they believe good work is being done.

The Process of work – that which Wedgwood was intensely interested in, NO LONGER sits as the remit of middle managers, certainly not inside Human Resources departments or CEOs or CFOs. We have mistakenly chosen activity over productivity. We know this because there is a push right now to ‘get everyone back in the office’.

The sheer folly, the galling stupidity of that thinking should see the immediate removal of HR Directors and CEOs across the country. Simply put, the facts of Working From Home and the increase in productivity belie the myth that only office based workers can be productive. During covid lockdowns a vast number of companies saw profitability go UP – why? Because 40-60% of their workforce who CANNOT BE EFFECTIVE IN THE RATS IN A MAZE WORKPLACES were suddenly untethered from their rats in a maze seats and allowed to get on with getting the work done.

In March 2020 I wrote that many Property owners were about to become price takers because CFO’s will start to look at their empty rental office and ask why they would be spending the money, when work was still being done with an empty office space. The push toward ‘return to the workplace’ has vested interests all over it and none of it has any interest in what is good for the company or the workforce.

WFH, works. It’s freed up a whole heap of workers who prior to shut downs and an enforced work-from-home regime, were not accessible to workplaces. The travel costs, and time of work blocks just made it unviable to work. Here’s the rather indelicate message – those workers, by and large, are women.

Forget about the environmental benefits of less peak hour car traffic. Forget about the lower costs of office rental and the direct positive growth of the bottom line profit as a result. Forget about the improved mental health. Forget about the proven negative impact on  person’s blood pressure when they’ve spent just 40 minutes in peak hour traffic (productive workers anyone?!). Forget all that and just remember this – those who are insisting on a return to the workplace are most likely to be MEN who have no clue whatsoever about what enables a positive working environment for women.

The call for a return to Work from the Office is a call for a return to Wedgwood 1760’s factory. It’s time Australian workplaces grew up.

Australia’s 2020 Future – the Futurist’s report

Apr 20, 2008

You’d think that given a focus on the future, you’d ask specialists in the future to have some input, and whilst that didn’t occur for the PM’s Summit in Canberra over the weekend, some of Australia’s Futurists had already done the leg work to contribute their thoughts on the future of Australia. That report is…

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Australia’s 2020 Future – the Futurist’s report goes ‘live’ tomorrow

Apr 17, 2008

Some of Australia’s leading futurists gathered in Melbourne in March to provide a specialist Futures approach to addressing the Australia 2020 Summit in Canberra. The outcome of that Summit and the development that subsequently followed has led to the creation of the report ‘Australia 2020 Futurists Summit’ that has worked through each of the ten…

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Marcus Barber to join Jon Faine for the Conversation Hour on ABC Melbourne

Apr 14, 2008

Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber will meet with eminent ABC radio presenter Jon Faine on Wednesday the 16th of April to discuss the outcomes of the Australia 2020 Futurists Summit and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s Australia 2020 Summit in Canberra on the weekend With a focus on the future of Australia it would be only natural…

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2020 Australia – Futurist’s Report

Mar 3, 2008

A group of leading Australian Futurists gathered over the weekend to consider the 10 core themes set to be tackled at Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s Australia 2020 Summit in Canberra in April. Convened by Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber, the 2020 Australia Futurists Summit utilised some of the advanced facilitation and strategy development techniques as a…

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Australia’s 2020 Future – the Futurist’s report

Feb 25, 2008

As preparations continue for the Prime Minister Rudd’s ‘1000 heads’ ideas summit in Canberra in April, a group of Australia’s leading futurists are gathering in Melbourne this weekend for the ‘Australia 2020 Futurists Summit’. The futurists attending the summit work across Australia, in corporate, not for profit and Government agencies in a variety of fields…

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Are Interest Rate Rises Too Clumsy to Help a Teetering Economy?

Feb 21, 2008

A few thoughts on what steps could be taken to overcome the ‘treat everyone like a nail’ approach that Interest Rate rises seems to do. Check out the idea under the ‘Latest Focus’ section Interest Rate Rises are going to penalise too many people who don’t deserve to lose their homes

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How to Stop Japanese Whaling in its Tracks

Feb 7, 2008

Marcus Barber offers his thoughts on How to Stop Japanese Whaling in its Tracks and suggests that raiding boats won’t do the job. Instead he suggests that the key to negotiating with the Japanese is to have the Japanese people do the work. And to encourage them to do so we must begin to talk…

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Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony Blanketed by Dust Storm

Jan 17, 2008

If an ‘Inconvenient Truth’ raised the profile of global warming to the general population, it appears that a willingness by political leaders to take appropriate action to mitigate the possible ramifications is still very much lacking. It is such a pity. No one who holds the Global Warming scenario close to heart wants to be…

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Marcus Barber to be Interviewed on 774 ABC

Dec 6, 2007

Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber will join Tim Cox on 774 ABC as part of the conversation hour next week Tim is filling in for Jon Faine whilst he takes a well deserved break and Marcus will join him for the conversation hour kicking off at 11am on Thursday the 13th of December, where they’ll discuss…

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From Foresight Foreplay to Corporate Consummation

Nov 14, 2007

At the AustForesight 2007 Conference, Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber and fellow Futurist Steve Tighe presented their take on what is required to enable futurists to be seen as more relevant to the Corporate world. Drawing on their shared experience as facilitator and client, they detailed the journey of foresight and futures across the past 50…

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