Competing in a flat world means shedding excess baggage

by Art Murray

Did you ever want to just pack it in, sell everything you own, and have the freedom to go wherever you want, whenever you want?  Kathleen Osness, CMT, has done exactly that.

I’m not talking about someone who’s reached retirement age (she’s not even close), or who’s made a killing in the stock market.  Kathleen is a member of the fastest-growing segment of the workforce: knowledge workers.  She makes a modest living working two days a week as a certified massage therapist, in addition to her part-time duties in the Air National Guard.  After all, when you sell everything and live in an RV, you quickly find out you can get by on a lot less.  And you have none of the worries that Harry and Harriet Homeowner do: like lawn care, real estate taxes, wailing sirens, barking dogs, traffic jams, graffiti, you name it.

Most of her time is spent in the crisp, clean air of the Colorado Rockies: hiking, camping, and water skiing.  Whenever she feels like it, she gets in her RV, and takes off.  Where to?  Anywhere.  Out there.  That-a-way.

Don’t look for her website, either.  She doesn’t have one.  Doesn’t need one.  At least not for this part of her journey through life.

I met Kathleen at a conference, where new ways of educating the military workforce were being introduced.  Like iPods.  We talked about the changes that were happening.  Then we discussed the fate of so many who remain trapped in the old ways.  Stuck in the pursuit of financial gain.  Burning the candle at both ends.  Trying to make senior-level rank.  Although they live in affluent suburbs and high-rise condos, they are pitifully unhappy.  Visiting the shrink every week.  Popping anti-depressants.  What’s with that?

Solving the problems of the 21st century demands that we have all of our faculties.  We need every ounce of creativity we can find.  What are you doing to provide a creative environment for yourself, for your family, or your employees?  They need time to learn.  To think.  To innovate.  To experience.  To get creative.  And they can’t do it in the pressure cookers we call offices.  Same goes for neighborhoods.

To survive in a flat world, you don’t need to sell everything and live in an RV like Kathleen.  But you can find plenty of worn-out Industrial-Age baggage you can shed.  Those albatrosses which are dragging you down, holding you back, stressing you out.  Draining not only your productivity, but your creativity as well.

Try this one for size: Has the growth in your well-being kept pace with the growth in your paycheck?  We will always need money, but maybe not as much as we thought.  In a flat world, there are many different forms of capital.  Relationships.  Knowledge.  Well-being.  Fulfillment.

What does your work-life balance sheet look like?

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P.S.  Lou Ivey, of Washington, DC lives a Work 2.0 life and tells me she has been "car-less for seventeen years."  She sent me an article from the July 3, 2006 edition of the Washington Post:  "Science Confirms: You Really Can't Buy Happiness."  It highlights a study by Princeton University Professor Alan Krueger.  He states: "One of the mistakes people make is they focus on the salary and not the non-salary aspects of work.  People do not put enough weight on the quality of work.  That is why work looks like, for most people, the worst moments of the day."

©2006 Applied Knowledge Sciences, Inc.  All rights reserved.