Day 11: The end of job descriptions

Seems you can't escape getting into a build mindset when you arrive in Germany. It feels like I am starting to drift from discovery to synthesis without getting really lost. Not that the day wasn't inspirational. The baggage carousel sofa in Arlanda was quite well done irony. I was particularly intrigued by the little cables that held the fake suitcases in place. Just a pity that everyone is too conditioned by the "don't sit on the moving belt" signs to actually take part in the art!

More interestingly though, Bjørn Borg is running a Bjørn <3 John campaign. Isn't it fantastic that such an old rivalry can still sell shorts? Real emotion and authentic struggle just connects and keeps us fascinated, long after a winner or looser is chosen. I wonder if in 20 years there will be an underwear campaign which has "Goldman Sachs <3 Occupy Wall street?" Unfiltered emotion is far too rare a commodity to waste on the fleeting moments of real conflict.  

As a child I joined the water rescue squad (for a weekend). It turns out they spend 99% of their time drinking beer and getting a suntan. When I asked them why they did it, the answer was: "the accidents." The exceptional moments, the instant that redefines, in high drama the way we view our life and the contribution we make. The business model for the 99%

This really got me thinking about how we should or could view work to make more sense of why we spend so much time at it. Barry Schwartz put it so well in his loss of wisdom talk. Wouldn't it be so much more effective we did away with job descriptions all together and ask every employee to do a "mini/individual business plan"? Having a clear and well understood plan of how your individual contribution connects with the overall organizational mission would do away with a lot of politics. As the entrepreneur in charge of your career, you will have the responsibility to identify the resources you need, the channels you could use and the key market segment for your services and offering. The job description is dead, long live the individual business plan!