A recent post by Seth Godin got me thinking about a question in the Baldrige Criteria: How do you design and innovate your overall work system?

Godin’s post, Goodbye to the office, asks why people go to their office, plant, or factory. As he notes, “If we were starting this whole office thing today, it’s inconceivable we’d pay the rent/time/commuting cost to get what we get. I think in ten years the TV show ‘The Office’ will be seen as a quaint antique.”

I’m not so sure about that. True, we’ve already seen a trend toward more telecommuting, but the office mentality is so ingrained that it will take a few organizations revolutionizing the way we work—and making it fun, desirable, and profitable—to really get this ball rolling, and I don’t think that’s going to be widespread in ten years.

Having said that, the organizations that abandon the office concept in favor of something more efficient and relevant to today’s world will carve out an immediate competitive advantage. Young workers in particular will be attracted to the idea. They are already used to a more flexible environment with their phones and their friending and their connecting with friends through their phones. If they want to get together, they figure it out on the fly and it seems to work. There’s no reason meetings couldn’t be organized the same way. People worry about the social aspect of an office but, as Godin writes, “You can get energy from people other than those in the same company.”

In fact, those revolutionizing the office concept will likely be brilliant young entrepreneurs who start innovative companies with no regard for the office concept. A few are already doing it. Once that approach gains traction, once it gains critical mass, the office will, indeed, become an antique.

Now if we could only revolutionize that other antiquated system, K-12 education!

To read more about work systems, click on these articles:

• Is Your Job Ideal for You?
• This Year’s Best Employer
• What Matters Now
• 10 Steps to a Successful Workplace
• The 3 Factors That Motivate Employees

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