Coworking and Outworking

November 3, 2008

Large companies today are like flowers in late late bloom, in search of pollination. Stale business strategies and mundane working conditions make it difficult-to-impossible to attract the best and brightest of today's young technologists and creatives.

A growing army of Gen Y technologists- designers, developers, analysts- are saying no to BigCo in favor of working independently or in small groups of peers on a project by project basis. (There are over 21 million self-employed entrepreneurs in the US today).

Many are gathering in coworking spaces and communities. Coworking communities are small-business coops-groups of individual entrepreneurs- who share vital resources and support each other as they struggle to make it as independents.

Because many in the coworking scene are able to make a living outside of BigCo, they represent a swath of talent that is, essentially, off limits to traditional employers.

Why would they want to go to work for you, in a cubicle, with set hours and 1-2 weeks off per year, when right now they make good money, on their own terms, and have more work/life balance now than they could ever possibly have working for you?

This is your challenge. What is your strategy for working with this group? They will not work for you, but possibly with you. Are you ready for this?

Coworking is but one iteration of OUTWORKING, which parallels the teleworking trend that is taking hold in the corporate sector. Increasingly, like in the example of P&G's 'Connect and Develop' program, more and more of companies' core work will be done outside of company walls.

It will be done in part by teleworking employees, and in part by through partnerships with people in the coworking scene, on a project by project basis.

This talk will provide the history, data, stories, and realities that will condition your ability to recruit the most promising talent coming on line today...