The Next Rules of Work

The world of work is changing quickly for workers and bosses.

“Old Rules” have long dominated modern companies. Under this ethos, bosses embraced the idea of management-by-surveillance. If a worker wasn’t in the office, the thinking went, he or she must be slacking. The cubicle, which furniture maker Herman Miller invented in 1968, exemplified the concept of command-and-control management.

This innovation in maximizing office space didn’t catch on at first, but eventually cubicle farms became the normal working environment. Workers endured long commutes to arrive at a place where their bosses could supervise them. The old mind-set applied to the organization itself, which created scarcity by limiting the number of workers and enforced that scarcity through hierarchical models of supervision. Bosses called the shots and workers obeyed.

Followers of the “Next Rules” embrace a different mind-set. Individual workers contribute creative solutions to complex problems and pursue their own list of responsibilities. Employees no longer focus only on completing predictable assignments. Modern employees mix and match the stability of a day job, the uncertainty...