BLOOMING AND THE FUTURE OF WORK ~ What Are We Learning Now?

Have you ever wondered, given the current state of things, how will we work in the future, and what are we learning now?

At BLOOM our focus on the future of work presages the current crisis of work, diagnosed in a recent New York Times Magazine article on The Future of Work,  as “The Age of Anti-Ambition.”

There is argued that current chaos in the workplace has roots that predate the dislocation of the working environment caused by the COVID Pandemic. 

We believe that at the heart of this upheaval are important questions, now being asked with greater urgency. 

• How do I find / create purposeful and rewarding work?
• How do I keep myself well, as I work and balance the other areas of my life? 
• How are we to all work together more productively and equitably? 

Whether you are a creative, executive or an entrepreneur these questions are at the heart of our journey through the land of work.

And rightly so.

How we work matters to our sense of wellbeing. 

These questions  out-picture our evolving cognitive human instinct to give meaning to our lives.

Fundamentally we are asking:

• WHY am I doing this? / Why do I exist?
• WHEN do I come alive? / When is my time?
• WHO am I? What are my talents? Are they being valued and appreciated?
• WHAT is my role here? What is my possibility?
• WHERE am I now and where am I going?

Of course these are questions we ask about life generally, however when it comes to our work —the area where culturally we are most visible and valued, these questions are now magnified even more. 

Set against the backdrop of the effects of pandemic, the increasing income and wage disparities, the need for greater equity, diversity and inclusion, we are all asking the same questions. 

Here are some of the issues that are being resolved:

• Aligning or personal and professional goals and identity
• Adapting to change; and casing ongoing play, experimentation and innovation  
• Appreciating the spectrum of diverse values that we each bring to our working spaces 
• Being able to be responsible for one’s needs and feelings; able to better negotiate workplace conflict and completion, and diversities. 
• Creating structures and guidelines of practice that support generosity and individual as well as collective productivity.

Here is what we at BLOOM are learning…

1. The answers we have are only as powerful as the questions we pause to ask.

The first lesson is that to connect to meaningful answers one has to be willing to take a reflective pause. Pausing is valuable not because of the respite it provides, but also, the depth of the questions that are asked during an engaged pause. 

2. We each have a unique gift and purpose, and they can be known.

Second, we have learned that one’s purpose can be known; and that any job can be repurposed for greater meaning within a wider vision for oneself, either a strategic move, as a resource, or vehicle for one’s purpose. 

3. Finding your balance is what matters.

The third is that balance is at the heart of many of the dilemmas we resolve in workspaces— personal and professional, life and work, individual and corporate. Much of this resolution is done in the form of trade-offs. What we have learnt is that there is a new paradigm for balance — as an ecosystem based on the five elements of the natural world, that can yield far more sustainable results. 

As we begin to turn our focus to preserving more of the natural world, what might this world also teach us about the ecosystems we can create in our working places? 

A BLOOM, this is our work, to explore new elemental  frameworks, and build a new ecosystem that helps us to find renewed purpose, balance and productivity.

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BLOOM offers guided Journeys to Executives and Entrepreneurs working on B.I.G. Ideas. We offer guidance and practices as you engage a series of fundamental questions on a journey to more meaningful work, better life-balance and increased productivity. This journey is packed full of rigorous inquiry and experiential exercises, intended to help you create a powerful eco-system that supports the results needed for you and your enterprise to flourish.