Part 1. What is the Gig Mindset?

Gig-mindset people are a new breed of employee who dare to challenge the traditional thinking and ways of working in order to make the organization more resilient and successful in volatile times. Does this sound familiar? If so, what does it mean for you and your organization?”

Gig-mindset people are a new breed of employee who dare to challenge the traditional thinking and ways of working in order to make the organization more resilient and successful in volatile times.

They are in effect a secret weapon because they are unseen and not yet recognized for their impact on organizations. …

My research in 2018 with 300 people around the world was the trigger for writing “The Gig Mindset Advantage“, which will be published in May.

I would be grateful for your help in phase 2 of my gig mindset research where the goal is to see how the gig mindset has changed over the past 2 and a half years.

It’s important to get a view on how mindsets are evolving over the recent past with the pandemic, global, economic and political shifts around the world.

The purpose of the second phase of research is to identify changes in how individuals and organizations are working today, in early 2021. We will also look at the impact of the pandemic on the workplace and organizations. …

Are functional roles disappearing inside organizations? Yes, I believe they are. This is part of how hierarchy is fracturing.

Functions are based on job titles and roles in a hierarchy more than on skills and talent that people have.

A member of my 2018 Advisory Board in Phase 1 of my Gig Mindset Research said:

“When you eliminate roles, you start to fracture hierarchy. The culture, the technology, communication, employee performance reviews, and nearly every other aspect of traditional business structure is stressed.

“If companies have not developed systems to measure talent and skill inventory separately from full time employee roles, it will be difficult to transition from old school hierarchy, where full-time employees are tied to specific roles, into a system where you can analyze skills and talent that are available from both internal and external resources.” …

The companies described in the six case studies in the book are living in the future in different ways. They are examples of values and practices that are an exception today, but that will be common in the future, as expressed by a senior manager I quoted at the beginning:

“Today the gig mindset is the exception, not the rule. But it’s like [they’re] early adopters who may well become the rule in the future.”

Each organization presented here has found an approach that makes sense for them. Each has found ways to leverage the gig mindset advantage in their work cultures. …

What has triggered the current gig mindset movement?

The term “gig mindset” refers to the attitudes and behaviors of people who, even though they are salaried employees in an organization, approach their work as if they were independent freelancers. Their attitudes and behaviors contrast with those of salaried people who work with what we might call the “traditional mindset”, with an approach to work influenced by defined roles, hierarchy and established procedures.

For the last few years I have seen many people, salaried, inside organizations, showing signs of behavior much like freelancers:

• People were moving fluidly from project to project, changing roles and bosses (meaning project owners) more often. …

The opposing forces of what I’m calling civil disobedience and strategic blindness underlie the gig mindset inside the organization.

They are the fundamental forces that will make or break the gig-mindset way of working inside companies and are the subject of an early chapter in my upcoming book.

This article about strategic blindness is part two of a short series. Part one, about civil disobedience is here. (You may wish to check out a couple earlier articles on the gig mindset inside organizations for background on my work: The emergence of the gig mindset and How a gig mindset inside organizations will shape our future.)

Why strategic blindness?

A well-known analyst and journalist, based in India, explains how he sees the resistance of senior management to…

This article about civil disobedience is part one of a short series.

The opposing forces of what I’m calling civil disobedience and strategic blindness underlie the gig mindset inside the organization. They are the fundamental forces that will make or break the gig-mindset way of working inside companies and are the subject of an early chapter in my upcoming book.

Part two, about strategic blindness is here. (You may wish to check out a couple earlier articles on the gig mindset inside organizations for background on my work: The emergence of the gig mindset and How a gig mindset inside organizations will shape our future.)

Why civil disobedience?

A senior test engineer in a global industrial company based in Europe shared how he and colleagues worked to bring visibility to new ways of working, or what I call the gig…

The shape of organizations in the future will depend in large part on how we as individuals take control, steer our own lives and interact and communicate with others in the workplace.

For the last few years I have seen many people, salaried and inside organizations, showing signs of attitudes and behavior similar to external freelancers. I use the term “gig mindset” to describe this phenomenon and decided to explore it further.

• How does the gig mindset differ from a traditional approach to work?
• Is it just a question of nuance, of degree, or are there real, meaningful differences?
• What does it mean for people and their individual development?
• What impact does the gig mindset have on organizations? Does it build resilience, and trigger innovation? Does it create disorder and increase risk?

The “gig mindset” research is based on eight behaviors (Figure 1). The traditional mindset and the gig mindset are posed as opposites on the table, but in reality, people find themselves at different points along the spectrum, and individual people see themselves at multiple points on the spectrum depending on context and circumstances. …