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The New Future of Work: A Conversation with Matt Mullenweg
Podcast

The New Future of Work: A Conversation with Matt Mullenweg

Making Sense podcast

Sam Harris and Matt Mullenweg
Sam Harris, 2020
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Eye Opening
  • Visionary
  • Engaging

Recommendation

Shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic began, millions of workers around the world started working from home for the first time. Companies have been scrambling to adapt, and Matt Mullenweg has a message for them: Persist. As the founder of software company Automattic, he believes distributed teams are uniquely geared to lead society into the future. He might have a point. All 1,172 of his employees across 75 countries work from home. Whether you’re new to remote collaboration or a seasoned vet, hear an intriguing discussion between Mullenweg and Sam Harris, host of the award-winning Making Sense podcast.  

Summary

Distributed work can help businesses survive the COVID-19 pandemic while boosting employee morale, productivity and innovation. 

At software giant Automattic, all 1,172 employees in 75 countries work from their homes. Naturally, founder and Wordpress founding developer Matt Mullenweg is a big advocate of remote teams. While industries like hospitality may need their employees to show up physically, knowledge-based industries should adopt a distributed workforce to save lives – and invigorate employees. As Daniel Pink writes in Drive, three factors keep workers happy and motivated: 

  1. Mastery – Do employees have the chance to excel, or is someone like the micromanaging “pointy-haired boss” from the Dilbert comic strip blocking them?
  2. Autonomy – Are they free to customize their environment and manage projects in a way that suits them? Many businesses force employees into offices where they grapple with co-workers they’d never choose, room temperatures they can’t control and inefficient meetings that waste their time.
  3. Purpose

About the Podcast

Sam Harris hosts the award-winning Making Sense podcast. He is a New York Times best-selling author, neuroscientist and philosopher. Matt Mullenweg is a founding developer of WordPress, the open source software used by 36% of the web. In 2005, he founded Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, WooCommerce, and many other products.

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