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Redefining Work Through Liberation
The Great Resignation is upon us and we have an opportunity to rebuild something in its wake
As an inclusive organizational development researcher, when you put people first, outputs are improved. People who feel supported, included, seen and heard are less stressed, healthier, more joyful, and more free to innovate and be productive. For decades, I’ve been researching and facilitating organizational change through a justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) lens. It’s time to revisit work and redefine it as conscious co-creation.
The connotation of the noun ‘work’ is associated with labor, arduousness, and a necessary output with a degree of difficulty. The verb ‘to work’ implies that systems are functioning. I believe that our current conceptualization of work is not working for most people. It’s killing us, and we need to reimagine the possibilities.
What if work stopped being laborious and instead was associated with joyful co-creation? What if wellness and personhood were privileged over the dehumanization and commodification of extractive, transactional labor? Considering the age of Covid-19, imagine if the choice between risking one’s life for work or losing their job was an unfathomable impossibility. Well, it’s not at all inconceivable. We’ve arrived at a…
