New Work is sustainable

A while ago I wrote an article about a company event and Magdeburg (article in German here). Magdeburg is vom to a Hundertwasserhaus - the green citadel. What a fantastic name. In 2016, I was back in Germany for a summer holiday. At the time, I was living in Shanghai. It was also one of the first joint trips to Germany with my, at that time, not-yet-wife. In the beautiful town of Abensberg in Bavaria there is a tower designed by Hundertwasser - the Kuchlbauer Tower. A beautiful name, too. This whimsical building with trees growing out of windows, twisting shapes and colours that simply ignite a magical effect. Right next to it, is a great wheat beer factory. Something for me again. We talked about living in such a house one day. In Magdeburg you can.

Hundertwasser designed with nature and humans at the centre. With a firm belief in the power of nature and individual creativity. A pioneer in many respects. Sustainability, ecological action and away from the unrestrained growth doctrine.

It is now the year 2022. Record heat waves almost everywhere in the world. The unrestrained growth doctrine broke by war, disease and climate crisis. I live in Leipzig, after 8 years in China, and many years in the Erzgebirge, but some things have changed. We don't live in a Hundertwasser house (even if that would be really great and I wish there were many more such buildings), but we also have responsibility for our little daughter, who should grow up in a world that is habitable, open and sustainable.

"The straight line leads to the downfall of humanity." - says Hundertwasser. Top-down, command and control, growth at all costs, patriarchal structures, hard-core conservatism, denial and clinging to old systems have brought us to where we are now.

Since I started working at e-dox AG, one term has always been in the spotlight. And a bright spot for the working world and beyond. NEW WORK. Frithjof Bergmann born here near Leipzig. Is the pioneer of the "New Work". Someone who, as early as the 1970s, described what today, like digitalisation, is unfortunately often misused and washed out into fruit baskets and home offices. What Frithjof actually meant was: empowering work, doing what you really, really want. Not letting yourself be sucked dry and going home to your family in frustration. Meaningful work resonates here, but also the question of what people really want.

"The goal of the new work is not to free people from work, but to transform work so that it produces free, self-determined, human beings." - boom! This is how Bergmann writes it. Scientific and technological developments must help us advance towards this goal.

In mid-June 2022, I was at an event of the Economic Council together with Marcus Putschli. The topic: "Modern, attractive and suitable for grandchildren - How is work and thus the working world changing? Suitable for grandchildren!" I hadn't thought of that term before. What happened next was inspiring and inspiring, but instead of a straight line to these feelings, Guido Rottkämper (of design2sense) took us on a journey through the depressing ACTUAL state of our environment. We experience first-hand, in the here and now, how badly we have missed environmental targets. How the old work model and the world have brought us to where we are now.

As a member of the Green party, little of the introduction was foreign or unknown to me. Everything spoke to me! We then came to design2sense's way of working, which integrated phase 0 into the process because of the change in the world of work. An examination of the people in the company. With the question of what they really want and an understanding of working methods with sustainability in focus. Suitable for grandchildren, so that we don't make the world even worse. With meaningful work and people and the environment at the centre, the world of work and work itself strengthens people instead of weakening them.

New Work is now the talk of the town and is too often reduced to the fruit basket and home office or hybrid/flexible working models. It must be about asking what the people in the company really want. There are certainly people who want command and control, but I question whether this is suitable for our grandchildren. Generations that are now entering the world of work, according to recruiters and companies everywhere, probably have completely different requirements and motivations. Good thing! Change is necessary, no, vital. Diversity makes us strong and I am pleased to see more and more companies embracing the 4-day week, flexibility, trust and truly sustainable, indeed grandchild-friendly systems.

I hope the success of companies that attract and retain skilled workers with New Work will light a way to a future fit for grandchildren, of which both Bergmann and Hundertwasser would be proud. With my small family, this topic often occupies us and I can happily report that I am already in such a new work mindset (and company).  I produce content that radiates this topic as a core issue.

Let's work on ourselves and the companies! We have needed NEW WORK since the 80s when I was born, I hope the core will not be lost to my grandchildren (if I will have any) and maybe NEW WORK will no longer be new but the standard.