{"id":16097,"date":"2021-09-07T21:16:52","date_gmt":"2021-09-07T21:16:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fieldnation.com\/resources\/architecture-of-work\/"},"modified":"2025-06-26T13:36:03","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T18:36:03","slug":"architecture-of-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fieldnation.com\/resources\/architecture-of-work","title":{"rendered":"It’s time to think about the architecture of work"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Shawn Fields, Senior Field Services Strategist, Field Nation<\/em><\/p>\n

Convention is an innovation killer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Convention dictates that we do things the same way we\u2019ve always done them, even though there\u2019s often a better way of doing them.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are plenty of reasons for sticking to convention, of course. People are often so busy <\/span>doing<\/span><\/i> their job that they just don\u2019t have the time to <\/span>improve<\/span><\/i> their job. For years, I\u2019ve referred to this as being \u201ctoo busy working \u2018in\u2019 the business to work \u2018on\u2019 the business.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

People are often so busy doing<\/i> their job that they just don\u2019t have the time to improve<\/i> their job. <\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Make no mistake, however. The fact that you aren\u2019t working \u201con\u201d the business doesn\u2019t mean your competition isn\u2019t. Plenty of businesses find themselves outpaced by their competition because they were so busy executing that they let the world pass them by and got \u201cout-innovated\u201d often making them obsolete.<\/span><\/p>\n

Convention also causes corporate inertia \u2013\u00a0the inability to move off of status quo. Unfortunately, status quo has a shelf life. A tremendous amount of energy is required to overcome our tendency to do things the way we\u2019ve always done them. Innovators willing to transform and overcome the associated risks are few and far between.<\/span><\/p>\n

So why bother? Why is this important? Why is it imperative now to overcome convention and corporate inertia to examine doing things differently and making progress vs. doing things the way they\u2019ve always been done?<\/span><\/p>\n

The<\/span> future of work<\/b>, that\u2019s why.<\/span><\/p>\n

The changing dynamics of the workforce are forcing businesses to reexamine who does that work. Unprecedented levels of job changes, the \u201cgreat resignation,\u201d and an aging workforce (a speaker from a recent TSIA webinar referred to as \u201cthe silver tsunami\u201d) has put a premium on qualified resources.<\/span><\/p>\n

In order to stretch the current available resources, keep them from burning out, and improve their employee experience, businesses <\/span>are being forced to<\/span><\/i> question convention \u2013 and ask if the way they\u2019ve always done things is the way they should do things going forward.<\/span><\/p>\n

In many cases, asking these questions are long overdue. Some conventions related to work have existed since the industrial revolution. We work from 9:00am to 5:00pm because early manufacturers needed daylight to light their factories before the advent of electricity. We have meetings because sending memos took too long. Corporate headquarters became the center of work because there were no tools that allowed remote collaboration and innovation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Those conventions are outdated.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to look at the architecture of work differently. And it\u2019s not enough to just automate the current work architecture. We must <\/span>really look<\/span><\/i> at the discrete components of work and examine how they might be most effectively and efficiently performed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Additionally, the way work is prioritized needs to be reimagined. In many companies today (especially in field services), all work is done by permanent (W2) employees by default. If the W2s can\u2019t get to it, the work either waits until workers become available or until more W2s are hired.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hybrid workforces are providing a mechanism to overcome that limitation. Hybrid workforces aren’t just composed of W2\u2019s, but contractors and gig workers \u2013 even robots! Any entity that can perform work can be a component of a hybrid workforce.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s think about the basic components of work using today\u2019s conventional terms:<\/span><\/p>\n

Work Composition<\/strong><\/p>\n