The Gig Mindset Advantage

Why a Bold New Breed of Employee is Your Organization's Secret Weapon in Volatile Times

Jane McConnell

• Publisher: Figure 1 Publishing
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781773271514
• Topic: Betriebswirtschaft
• Subtopic: Mentoring & Coaching

Companies and organizations around the world are being confronted with alarming challenges—a global pandemic, market shocks, climate change, political instability. But in these unsettled times, organizational analyst Jane McConnell reveals that managers and executives have a secret weapon on their side: an overlooked group of employees that share "the gig mindset"—a freelancer-style knack for improvisation, adaptability and innovation that offers a crucial key to the future. Found at all levels of the organizational workforce but often stifled by managers, gig mindsetters are disruptors who upend business as usual and bridge gaps while achieving surprising outcomes and charting new directions. In The Gig Mindset Advantage, McConnell brings her decades of research into workforce culture, organizational strategy and digital transformation to bear on this unrecognized breed of employee whose way of working offers a wake-up call to managers and executives—and a bold new pathway towards long-term success and resilience.

Part 1

What Is the Gig Mindset?

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The gig mindset is a way of working where people take initiatives, experiment with new methods, and share their work openly. Gig mindsetters network extensively, interacting, sharing, and contributing information with others. They keep their eyes on what’s happening in the external world. They do not hesitate to question the status quo and often come up with new ways to deal with problems and challenges. These qualities—described inside the circle in the chart below—help manage risk and build proactive resilience for the organization. In this world, leadership is not hierarchical but rather the influence coming from any part of the organization that brings change. The resulting work culture brings benefits to the organization in many ways, as you will discover throughout this book.

However, unless management is aware of the benefits of having a work culture oriented toward the gig mindset, the organization runs a risk of disappearing or diminishing its place in the world. Gig mindsetters are not troublemakers causing problems, even though some I have talked with have experienced that reaction. In reality, they trigger change and enable organizations to face the future with both ambition and serenity.

A CEO in a mid-size US-based company sees the strategic big picture:

The gig mindset is the real competitive advantage for the future.

A manager in a global transportation company in Scandinavia believes it is a priority to retain people with a gig mindset:

If I, as a manager, don’t encourage the gig mindset, I will lose my own motivation and, in the end, the best people.

A senior manager in Switzerland in a UN agency foresees the future:

Today, people with a gig mindset are the exception, not the rule. But it’s like they’re early adopters who may well become the rule in the future.

These three leaders know the importance of the gig mindset. Most people do not yet understand it. The greatest risk today is to ignore it. The gig mindset tends to be resisted by the organizational immune system because it threatens hierarchy, questions the status quo, and breaks through invisible barriers.

Why is the gig mindset important?

Gig mindsetters are a new breed of employee who dare to challenge the traditional thinking and ways of working that in the end will make the organization more resilient and successful in volatile times. They are in effect a secret weapon for the organization. However, they are unseen and not yet recognized for their impact. Once they are seen in a new light and understood by management, celebrated and encouraged, they can inspire others, stimulate new thinking, and help the organization build strength and self-sustaining resilience.

? Questions to ask yourself

Take a look at the two sets of questions below—the first for people in general and the second for high-level leaders. Answer the four questions by responding “yes,” “sometimes,” “rarely,” or “no.”1

You, the individual

1. Are you comfortable questioning the status quo in your organization for work practices or business strategies?
2. Do you often “work out loud”—making your project work visible to people outside the immediate team before it is finished, and soliciting feedback from others?
3. When you see a problem, do you feel free to take the initiative of working with others to solve it, without first getting approval from your manager?
4. Do you spend a significant amount of time on external networking, to learn and share with people outside your organization?

If you answered “yes” or “sometimes” to two or more of the questions, the way you work is likely gig-mindset oriented.

You, the senior leader

1. Are people in your organization able to communicate directly with you or your immediate team when they have ideas that may challenge the status quo, without having to go through layers of management?
2. Do you encourage teams across your organization to work out loud, sharing their work in an ongoing way before it is completed?
3. When an experimental initiative fails, do you consider it a positive experience and ask the people involved to share what they learned?
4. Do you give people time for outside activities such as external networking, attending conferences, and taking external online learning programs?

If you answered “yes” or “sometimes” to two or more of the questions, you are likely one of the rare senior managers cultivating a gig-mindset approach to work in your organization.

Why does the gig mindset make some people uncomfortable?

The CEO of a company specializing in workplace design for education, healthcare, and retail industries explained why gig mindsetters are perceived to be a threat to most organizations and traditional leaders:

We are seeing roles and processes being converted into skills required for performance. 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.

When we compare the eight traits of the gig mindset with the traditional mindset as studied in the research, we can see exactly what the CEO quoted above is talking about.

1. In the gig-mindset culture, experimentation and test-and-learn methods are important, and failure is considered to be a learning opportunity. In the traditional-mindset culture, proven and approved methods are preferred.
2. Gig mindsetters believe roles in projects should be determined by skills, and that different skills are required at different times during the project. People with a traditional mindset prefer a clear definition of roles and responsibilities, established by the manager.
3. Gig mindsetters believe that working openly on projects and making work visible before it is finished is valuable because people outside the team may have information, ideas, or contacts that will enrich the project. Those with a traditional mindset, on the other hand, prefer to wait until the project is finished, to avoid the risk of showing imperfections that could negatively impact the team professionally.
4. Gig mindsetters feel free to take initiatives when they identify issues others have not seen. They act, making decisions and assuming responsibility for the outcome. People with a traditional mindset prefer decisions to flow down the chain, bringing consistency and control across the organization.
5. Gig mindsetters do not hesitate to question the status quo and express doubt when they believe there is a better way of doing something. They do not hesitate to contradict what is taken for granted by others. A person with a traditional mindset sees no need to question something that has worked so far, because the...