The future of work is chaos | Claire Haidar | TEDxAthens

If we want to unleash human potential, we need to accelerate it by creatively harnessing chaos. A practical example of this is a playground: kids are playful and chaotic because they have defined structures and beautiful systems driving their development. Work should be no different. Let's start inventing new playgrounds to accelerate humans in the world.
Claire Burge is the CEO of This is Productivity. Part adventure seeker, part nerd, part psychologist, part technologist.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at ted.com/tedx

[@taurahelms3068]

This is easily one of my favorite TEDx talks and the reason that I am in the process of examining control. I feel like this is what is happening to me on my job right now and I do all I can to resist it. I am a hard worker and have never once been late, yet I feel that I am made out to be the devil when small things go wrong. This is why I am in the process of fixing that problem.

[@CurlyChrizz]

We are actually doing this approach at my work place, but unintentionally. My boss just doesn't care HOW the work gets done, just THAT it gets done. It works very well, I think. Only new people are confused when they start working for us because they are used to working with a strict plan.

[@adrenadim]

What do you work as?

[@simonasvaitiekunas5326]

they milk cows.

[@velara314]

This hits the nail on the head. The people in the trenches doing the work know the system better than the managers (not always everything but for the most part). They know what they need. It's been somewhat strange and almost always inefficient when they've been left out of the user experience process. This is what we need to do in the political arena. The politicians making decisions for the people are not living or breathing the life of the average or low income individual. A common misconception is poverty is a lack of character. No, poverty is strictly a lack of cash. These people, and people from all walks of life need to be a integral in the political process, the user experience process and so on. So many people talking about what the poor or middle class need but surprisingly no one is asking them. This is why a basic income is such a good foundation for eliminating poverty. People know what they need. This reminded me of the objects behave in space (in a vacuum). On Earth if two objects crash together the debris goes everywhere. But in space, in a vacuum, if two objects crash into each other the debris will clump together. Out of the chaos comes order. I don't remember the name of the phenomenon but if I do I'll post it here.

[@ryo-kai1938]

+flex capacitor Oh yeah! Universal Basic Income is the beginning of the emancipation of humans from indirect slavery to prosperity for all (who want it.) We've heard the awesome points in its favor, but I have a few less-often-mentioned ones: I believe people freshly lifted from poverty will reach out to the other impoverished around the world out of direct empathy and understanding of their struggle, using their newfound freedom and wealth to help people in countries that can't afford a UBI plan currently. As a matter of fact, they have a greater understanding of the situation than anyone. Societal and economic favor will also likely shift from left-brained, business-minded individuals to every personality type, enriching the diversity of what people can and will offer society. All those right-brained intuitive artists who create the stuff that helps us grow, self-reflect and relax after a job well done will be freed to focus on their craft and hone it to a razor's edge! All without the meddling of producers (usually non-artistic types) thinking they know best because they're paying for it. The focus won't need to be solely on what makes the highest profit, anyway :D

[@antonm5605]

Challenging, provocative and insightful...thank you for your fresh perspectives and glorious analogies. May the world listen!

[@dcupmusic]

Ive had these thoughts for some time now. Makes me optimistic to see someone who's actively working on this :) Lets un-zombify the workforce!

[@josephmolinari4627]

Fascinating perspective. It would be interesting to read about studies where this is tried on an organizational change initiative such as an an ERP implementation.

[@santoshmanik7456]

LOVE D VOICE, ITS MORE DISTRACTING THAT I COULDNT FOCUS ON THE CONTENT

[@andrewb5743]

Check out Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux. He outlines the systems thinking approach to management more clearly.

[@liamanthonydalton6784]

Marie Antoinette; "Let them eat cake"

[@shivaschimera6101]

How lacking in sight must one be before they are thrown into chaos? Can you ☆measure☆ vision into the future to avoid chaos? What has been foreseen and what has been foretold was written to avoid chaos? Or was it written to prove time exists in repeating pattern's?

[@jazznsurf2308]

It should hardly be surprising that it is generally going to be preferable for any able group of people working at the sharp end to determine piece-by-piece how best they can work together and effect change for the better, rather than having this dictated by "ivory tower" management. An exception could be when managers are truly hands-on types and can lead by example, but these days when one can go and obtain some half-baked degree in "Business Management" or similar it is too often the case that they are far less knowledgeable, experienced and qualified than those they are supposedly managing. This, along with high wage differentials inevitably breeds resentment. Meanwhile the social scientists, along with all those with a vested interest, revel in hijacking scientific concepts ("chaos" being but one) and inflating the already bloated vocabulary of large organisation mumbo-jumbo. I marvel at people who can academicise and earn their livings from routinely dressing up common sense in such a manner, but presumably this can only be because it sounds revolutionary to so many of their audience - the majority of them managers, no doubt! Just let the people who love and are good at what they do get on and do it unfettered and be respected, encouraged and commensurately rewarded for their skill and ability. Innovation and change for the good will be the natural consequence.

[@jolieroy]

Very interesting and makes sense. The question I have is in an Agile environment, do Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches still fit in? I imagine we coach the teams as usual, but what else? If the teams determine their own task lists, do they also follow a methodology within the Agile framework?

[@diazibibah6778]

And

[@Jim-rj7nl]

But what will all those managers do then... ;)

[@untouchable360x]

Chaos is a ladder

[@VeganSemihCyprus33]

Resource Based Economy, let's do it! :D

[@3089280288]

semih oguzcan only the wealthy will control the resources

[@Klachsjsj1]

semih oguzcan @ what does that mean ?

[@stevenpadilla4294]

Shes a tall drink of water. Learn skills. Create value. Enterprise.

[@aldiwaitrose4634]

AND Count:

[@jorgegomez524]

the future? then i live in the future every day lol

[@baadetudabawn5487]

Every time i think of chaos i remember anarchy, what is the difference?

[@Syklonus]

They are completely different concepts. Chaos relates to non-apparent patterns. Anarchy deals with matters of authority. The words have both been used so much to mean "negative mess" or "danger" that the individual meanings have been almost completely lost.

[@NewtralHuman]

Does this sound like the same old "creative" version of commodity/slave labor? Nowhere in the talk does she address the very real issue and greedy dynamics of capitalist style continuous unsustainable bottom-line growth mentality. At one point I was hoping to hear what she had to say about the "human" factor. But it turns out that this is just another version of the same cancer. By-the-way, I am not trying to be negative here. I am being sceptical and critical. My feeling is that in the future, work hierarchies will become more flat in order to be more productive. Management will become less useful and more of a financial resource burden. The knowledge of management is also going to become commodity. The worker will probably be more empowered, and as a result creative and productive, specifically because of job security, more so than this "creative" chaotic labor management.

[@ryo-kai1938]

+NewtralHuman I believe your idea of an ideal workforce and Claire's have very few disparities. In a workplace where the power is quite evenly divided, everyone will have a more equal say as to what they are working on and how they are doing it. This naturally plays to the strengths of each individual while simultaneously reducing the emotional energy drain of blindly following orders when you know you could be way more efficient. She may not have specifically mentioned fixing our unsustainable, voracious, capitalistic growth model as part of her talk, but to be fair, your description of the future of workplaces didn't either. That doesn't mean it's not a great predictive idea and that you're not both right :)

[@ois9]

Not sure why the “whole system” needs to be completely reinvented to achieve this…

[@edwardmurphy4665]

I'm not influenced.

[@DuffPaddy79]

Very thought provoking. And what a gorgeous lady! Slightly distracting :)

[@roby1376]

Blah blah blah

[@dianering4708]

Why do they have to stand on the red carpet dot. Is there any significance. Why has it been put there. Is the lies more enhanced.

[@AdornInFlowers]

While the core ideas are wonderful, I think Ms. Burge is very poorly spoken. It sounds a lot like she needed a time filler before getting to the very basic concepts she presented at the dead end. Short and sweet would've been a great fit for expressing these concepts instead of repeating the words "chaos", "systems", "boundaries", and "anchor" with little meaning attached to them in an almost nonsensical fashion.

[@adhddhdh3572]

AdornInFlowers You obviously didn’t pay attention to the video.

[@AdornInFlowers]

Adhddhdh3 How can you assert how much attention I did or did not pay to a video? Irregardless, I can still say I found someone poorly spoken even if I wasn't on bated breath over their every word.

[@joshray2117]

*regardless

[@adhddhdh3572]

AdornInFlowers Based on your comment, it’s pretty obvious you didn’t pay attention to anything she was saying. Go improve your critical thinking skills instead of using a thesaurus to try to sound smart.

[@kutay.t]

Bullgrap speech.

[@ZokcoPokco]

incredibly boring

[@harrykuheim6107]

A good looking Babe can sell Rubbish all day...