12 New Rules of Working You Should Embrace Today
The workplace, more and more, is changing, and with this change comes a whole new set of rules.
The traditional office work environment and tools are still around, but at a very rapid pace, they’re being supplanted by newer and better tools, newer and better ways of working. The old rules are being broken, and new ones are emerging.
You could call this the Workplace of the Future, as not all businesses have adopted these models, and it will be a few years before these new rules are the norm. But for many people (myself included), this is the Workplace of Today — there’s no need to wait for new technologies or tools, because they’re already here.
So you could wait a few years, resist the new trends, talk about how great things were back in your day … or you could embrace the new rules, and be a part of the change.
Transitioning from Electric Typewriters
I love my grandfather, a journalist of more than 50 years, but I always remember when the local newspaper (he’s the former managing editor) changed from typewriters to computer terminals and a mainframe. Instead of typing his columns with an electric typewriter, which he’d done for 25 years, my grandfather had to learn to type on a computer … and save it, and pull it up from a directory.
It proved to be a pretty difficult change for him, and while he can still crank out an amazing column with the best of them, the technology of newspapers passed him by.
It can pass you by too, if you let it. That’s why my philosophy has been to embrace change, be a part of it, help direct it, rather than just resist it. If a new technology or way of working is better, let’s go with it. That doesn’t mean we should just adopt things because they’re new and shiny and trendy — sometimes the old is actually better. But if the new ways are better, let’s embrace them.
Google, Wikipedia, Linux, and Freelancers and Bloggers … oh, my!
A number of companies and projects embody the spirit of the New Rules of Working, but my favorites are Google, Wikipedia and Linux. And the rise of freelancers and bloggers is another trend that shows these New Rules.
1. Google: While the company itself seems either cool or scary, depending on your point of view … but the tools that Google is making are not only perfect for the New Rules of Working, but in many ways they are driving these changes. The archive-and-search philosophy of Gmail, the easy collaboration of GDocs, the ease-of-use of Gcal and other online tools, the innovative uses of cloud computing. Google tools embody the new ways of working.
2. Wikipedia: In a few short years, this has become one of the most useful tools ever. It is more useful than regular encyclopedias by an order of magnitude. And it was created by opening things up to the public. Despite massive criticism for this open process, it has worked beautifully. Collaboration works.
3. Linux: Another tool that has been created through an open, collaborative process. While it still has a ways to go, for many it is already better than Windows, which was created using massive funds but a closed system.
4. Freelancers and bloggers: More and more, people are breaking out of the traditional workplaces in favor of more freedom and independence. This means they are working using mobile computing and technology, they are collaborating with others but not in the traditional heirarchical authoritarian structure, and they work where and when they want, as long as they produce good-quality work.
The New Rules of Working
With new tools, new models of collaboration, and new freedom and mobility in working styles, some New Rules of Working are emerging. Not all of these have asserted their dominance yet, and there’s no guarantee that they’ll ever totally supplant more traditional rules and ways of working. But they are emerging, and in my mind, they’re all positive and exciting developments.
1. Online apps and the cloud beat the desktop and hard drive. While the majority of workers use desktop applications such as Microsoft Office, that’s rapidly changing. Today, people like me use apps that are almost all online, such as Gmail, Google Docs and Spreadsheets, Gcal, WordPress, Twitter, Zoho Office, High Rise, Backpack and many others.
The advantages of online apps: you can use them on any computer, and never have to worry about where you saved documents. With desktop apps, you have to save the document to a folder and either email it to yourself or put it on a USB drive if you plan to work from home or on the road. And if you use another computer, you have to make sure you have the necessary desktop app. Mobile workers such as myself want to be able to use their key apps from anywhere, anytime.
Of course, there are disadvantages and limitations to online apps, but the gap is narrowing more and more. Many people also worry about being disconnected from the Internet. Well, that’s becoming less and less of a problem — I can’t remember the last time my Internet was down, and it’s never been a problem in more than a year of using almost exclusively online apps.
Using the cloud instead of your hard drive has similar advantages — and one of the best being that you don’t have to back up your info on your hard drive. In the cloud, the data is already backed up. And again, it’s available everywhere — a very important factor in the emerging mobile workplace.
2. Collaborate on documents, don’t email them. I won’t name names, but recently I had to work with a group of people on a draft of a book. These people are intelligent people, but they are used to their old processes, and one of those is to use the Microsoft Word format for drafts, and to email revisions of the draft back and forth. In one case, they actually printed stuff out, marked up the printout, and FedExed it to me for further revisions.
But that’s outdated! With online apps such as Google Docs, real-time collaboration is so easy these days. You can be working on the same document at the same time, and changes are autosaved. You can see who made what changes, you can go back to previous versions of the draft, and you don’t have to worry about who has emailed the latest version. Best yet, if one of the collaborators is a Mac user (as I am), you don’t have to worry about whether he has a copy of Microsoft Office (which I don’t and never again will).
You can chat while collaborating. You can invite others to collaborate, and give them specific permissions.
There is no reason to email documents anymore when you collaborate, and for goodness sakes, there’s no reason to print and mail them to each other!
3. Collaboration is the new productivity. It used to be that we tried to work our butts off to produce, but mostly individually. Sure, there were meetings, and there were teams, but in the end we mostly did it individually. It’s still that way mostly.
But consider Wikipedia: if each of those articles were written by a single writer, and then went through the traditional editing and publishing process, it would’ve taken forever to publish that many articles. Not to mention the headaches and cost of coordinating such a vast project. But using collaborative technology (wikis), Wikipedia was able to do it at relatively low cost (mostly computers, not many people), and a massive project has been accomplished by collaboration. Groups of people collaborating in a smart way are way more productive than those people could be in the traditional way, individually.
I could name many more examples of open-source technology, from Firefox to Linux to OpenOffice to Gaim and so many more — these are excellent examples of software, done collaboratively. This model can be spread to almost any industry, and it’s vastly more productive.
That said, there will always be a need for individual work. Sometimes the best software is written by one genius, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But to get really massive things accomplished, use collaboration.
“In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.” - Charles Darwin
4. People don’t have to be in an office. This is the one I wish most businesses would get, right now, right away. It’s so obvious once you get away from the traditional mindset. Traditionally, people worked in offices (and of course most still do). They go into the office, do their work, go to meeting, process paperwork, chat around the watercooler, clock out and go home.
These days, more and more, that’s not necessary. With mobile computing, the cloud, online apps and collaborative processes, work can be done from anywhere, and often is. More people are telecommuting. More people are working as freelancers or consultants. More businesses are allowing people to work from anywhere — not just telecommuting from home, but literally anywhere in the world. People are forming small businesses who have never met, who live on different continents. People have meetings through Skype or Basecamp group chat. They collaborate through wikis and Google apps.
If you are stuck in the traditional mindset, think hard about what things really need to be done in an office. Sometimes there are legitimate reasons for working in an office, but often those barriers have other solutions you just haven’t explored yet.
The advantages of a decentralized workplace are many. Workers who have more freedom are happier, and often more passionate about their work. They enjoy collaborating with others who are smart and talented, and work is no longer drudgery. Flexible schedules work well for many people’s lifestyles. Mobile computing is actually good for many types of businesses where people need to be on the go. And what really matters isn’t that the worker is present, but that the work is being done.
5. Archive, don’t file. Traditionally, people filed paper documents in folders, labeled the folders, and organized them in cabinets. With more and more documents being stored in computers, this way of organizing carried over to the computer desktop, with folders and files all being organized (or disorganized, if you aren’t careful). This meant that either you spent a lot of time filing and organizing, or you lost things.
Today, many people still work that way, even if it doesn’t make the most sense. What makes more sense, with the power of computers and speed of today’s apps, is the method popularized by Gmail: archive and search. Instead of creating folders for everything, and then diligently filing, you could now just hit “archive” and then use Gmail’s very fast search engine to find what you need. Of course, you could still “tag” things which is almost like folders but more versatile, but even that is optional.
Why is this better? Think about how much time is saved, when you don’t have to file. It’s much easier, less headaches. You don’t have to remember to file and then lose things if you get disorganized. You can just search and find it.
This applies not only to emails, but to everything. Bookmarks are searchable in Delicious, my blog posts are searchable in WordPress, files are searchable on the desktop (on the Mac, Quicksilver and Spotlight both work very well; on the PC, Google Desktop also works well) or in an online server. Nothing needs to be filed — everything is searchable, and finding things is much faster through search than having to browse through files or directories.
Some people say they have trouble finding stuff sometimes through search. I haven’t had that problem yet, and it’s all I do these days. I think it just takes a bit of a shift in mindset.
6. Small teams are better than large teams. I know I said collaboration is the new productivity, but for many projects where a team is defined (as opposed to collaborative efforts like Wikipedia, where anyone can get involved), a small team works much better. It’s faster, nimbler, smarter, less bureaucratic, more creative.
Think of a large corporation like Microsoft, trying to start up a new enterprise. Microsoft has never been good at that, because of its size. It’s better at taking the innovation of other companies and leveraging existing dominant markets to make its new software or service successful. Or buying smaller companies who do something well and merging it with existing businesses. But when it tries to start something new on its own, the team doing so is well-funded, with the full force of the mega-corporation behind it … and yet has to go through so many bureaucratic steps, it’s like going through the old USSR government. The new product ends up having tons of features (most of which aren’t needed) and takes forever to launch.
New startups of just a handful of people — sometimes just 3-4 people — can create brilliant new products by keeping things small, lean and simple. They don’t included a bloated feature set, don’t have to worry about writing up technical specs and getting approval, don’t have to go through bureaucracy. They just write the code and make it work, as fast as possible, because otherwise they die. Small teams are lean and hungry, with more freedom and creativity.
7. Communication is a stream. This is something I still have trouble with. In the traditional model, paperwork comes into an inbox, and you process things sequentially until you’re done. Phone calls came in and you took them as they came, and took care of each one. Letters and faxes came in, and you dealt with them one at a time.
So when email became the norm, the same top-down, sequential processing applied. Getting Things Done uses this method — start from the top, and work to the bottom until you’re finished. Unfortunately, this is a bit overwhelming to many people these days, because there’s just too much coming in to handle this way.
So the new way of working sees communication as a stream. You go in and bathe in the stream, and then get out. It’s never-ending — think about when emails and IMs and Twitters and RSS feeds and forum posts and other types of things you read ever stopped coming in. It doesn’t happen. And because it’s never-ending, you can’t process from top to bottom, sequentially.
How do you work with the stream? You know it’s never-ending, and you don’t try to process it all. You take what you need, go in every now and then to see what’s going on, and don’t worry that you’re missing things. You’re always missing things — everybody is. No one can fully process this stream — it’s too overwhelming. Who can read all the blog posts out there? Who can respond to every email and Twitter and forum post? Who can read everything on Digg or Delicious or Stumbleupon? No one.
So you find what interests you, search for what you need, and pick and choose the things that matter most to you. Can you answer every email? No — so answer the important ones, and archive the rest. Can you know everything going on in your field or industry? No — so monitor what interests you, and when things really matter you’ll find out from your network of friends or blogs you read.
Don’t process everything — focus on what’s important to you.
8. Fewer tasks are better than many. With the overwhelming amount of information coming at us, there’s also an overwhelming amount of requests and things to do. While the old way of thinking said that we should Get Things Done, that’s just not possible anymore. And it’s not even desirable to do a huge task list — you’re just spinning your wheels.
Instead, focus on the few tasks that make the most difference — to your company, to your career, to your life. Simplify your task list.
9. Meeting (usually) suck. The traditional way of doing business includes company meetings throughout the day, taking an hour or more usually. This can eat up half of your day or more. Add to that individual meetings — at lunch, or having drinks, or just a one-on-one in the office — and you’re meeting more than you’re producing.
If you’ve sat through a lot of meetings, like I have, you know they’re almost always useless. Sure, sometimes they’re good, but most of the time they’re boring, full of chit-chat or useless information, and really can be accomplished through a simple email or phone call. They’re a waste of everyone’s time, and worse yet, most people know it. And nothing changes.
Instead, learn to accomplish the tasks of a meeting through an email, a quick phone call, a quick and focused IM, an online group chat if necessary. Collaborate through online tools, such as those mentioned above. Keep meetings to a bare minimum. Sure, you still need to socialize with people, and have actual conversations, but boring and useless meetings aren’t the best way to do that. If you control your company or division, do yourself and your company a favor by eliminating most of your meetings.
“Meetings are indispensable when you don’t want to do anything.” - John Kenneth Galbraith
10. Open-source is better than closed. This is related to Rule 3, where collaboration is the key to productivity, but it goes a step beyond that: instead of being closed and protectionist, open things to the public. Be accountable, release copyright, allow people to share, and allow others to contribute.
The traditional way was to keep things a secret, and not let others be privy to your inside information. Only those on the inside were allowed to collaborate. If people tried to share without paying, you sued.
The open-source model works much better in many cases. It allows people to contribute, recognizing that not just a select few people have good ideas or talent. It allows people to share, recognizing that an idea grows in value as it becomes more widespread, and an artist grows in worth as he reaches a wider audience, and a program becomes more successful as it becomes more popular.
This model can be applied to many businesses, from publishing to online apps to information workers and more (even blogging!). It can even be applied to governments, if we open the spectrum of ideas a bit wider. Imagine a government where all information is available, making things more accountable. Imagine a government not just “of the people” in words, but action — the people are actually contributing to it and making it work. Imagine a government where everything is distributed, and democratic, and shared. It’s idealistic, but it’s something that can happen if we embrace the open-source model.
11. Rest is as important as work. In the traditional model, people worked long hours to accomplish as much as possible and get ahead in their careers. However, there is a high rate of burnout and job dissatisfaction and employee turnover in this model.
The new model recognizes that we’re people, not machines. That we have lives and interests outside work. That we need a good nap now and then (or even every day). That when we’re well rested, we work better, and we’re happier.
I’m not saying you have to rest just as much as you work, but that you should recognize that not only is nothing wrong with taking a nap, it’s actually a good thing. Work doesn’t have to be monotonous and done in 8-hour shifts — it can be fun, and done in productive bursts. See this article for more.
12. Focus, don’t crank. This is a corollary of Rule 8: instead of cranking through a lot of tasks and multi-tasking, learn to focus on important tasks and single-task.
In recent decades, multi-tasking has been seen as a productive thing — although the more traditional model, dating decades earlier, said that doing one task at a time was a good thing. Today, more and more people are realizing that when you constantly switch between tasks, you get very little done. You actually tend to procrastinate on the important stuff, and use multi-tasking as a way to postpone doing things. You can crank through tasks all day long, GTD style, and not get anything real done.
Instead, simplify, identify the essential, and learn to focus on one task at a time.
A Few Final Words
Not all of these “rules” are accepted by the majority of people today — in fact, most aren’t. But a growing number of people are working this way, and I think a majority of people will work this way in the near future.
Not all of these ways of working will work for you or your company. Some businesses and people are better suited for the traditional models, and that’s OK. Figure out what works for you, and what you do.
However, at least give these points some consideration. In some cases, they’ll be a better way of working, and can be good changes. I think this is exciting stuff, and I hope you’ll embrace these changes as I have.
“He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery.” - Harold Wilson
你应该掌握的十二条新的职场守则
传统的办公室工作环境和工具还在，但它们正飞快的被更新更好的工具和工作方式取代。旧的规则在被打破，新的规则正涌现出来。
你可以说这是未来的职场，的确并不是所有的行业都已经采用了新的模式，这些新的规则还要过几年才普遍为人们接受。但对很多人来说（包括我自己），这就是如今的职场--没必要去等待那些新的技术和工具的到来，因为他们已经在那儿了。
所以你可以再等上几年，拒绝新潮流，说说想当年如何如何...或者你可以接受这些新规则，成为时代变迁的一份子。
转变从电动打字机开始
我爱我的祖父，他是一名已经有50多岁老记者了，我永远记得地方报纸（他是当时的总编）从打字机转变到电脑终端及中央处理机的那时候。不再使用那台他已依靠了25年的电动打字机上写他的专栏，我的祖父不得不开始学习在电脑上打字...然后储存，最后把它放到一个目录上去。
事实上这个转变对他而言很难面对，然而他仍然很好的用这些新玩意儿写出了他最棒的专栏，报纸的新技术没有难倒他。
新技术也难不倒你，如果你愿意的话。这就是为什么我的哲学一直是去拥抱转变，成为转变的一部分，并帮助指导转变，而不是去抵制它。如果一个新的技术或者工作方式更好，那就去接纳它。但这并不是说只要是新的光鲜的流行的东西我们都应该趋之若鹜--有些东西则如同陈年老酒一样越老越好。但是如果有了新的方式，为什么不采用呢？
谷歌，维基百科，Linux，和自由职业者还有博客作家...额滴神啊！
有很多公司和项目已经体现了职场新规则的精神，但我最喜欢的是谷歌，维基百科和Linux。自由职业者和博客作家的大量出现也展现了这些新的规则。
1. 谷歌：这个公司本身究竟是酷还是恐怖，取决于你自己的看法...但是谷歌所开发的工具则不仅仅是完美适用于职场新规则，同时它们本身也在推动着多方面的转变。Gmail的“存档和搜索”哲学，与GDocs的轻松协作，方便使用的Gcal和其它的在线工具，对云计算的创新使用。谷歌的工具体现了新的工作方式。
2. 维基百科：在短短几年里，它已成为了史上最有用的工具之一。它比任何常规的百科全书都更有用十倍。而且它的创立是由公众完成的。尽管这种公开创造的方式遭到很多批评，但它完成的确实很漂亮。合作的力量是无穷的。
3. Linux：另外一个通过公开，合作的方式创造的工具。尽管它仍然还有较长一段路要走，但对很多人来说它要强于那个花了大量资金创造出的却是一个封闭系统的Windows。
4. 自由职业者和博客作家：人们正逐渐远离传统的工作场所，取而代之以更多的自由和独立。这意味着使用移动计算和技术来工作，他们和别人一起合作而无需待在一个传统的要求服从的阶层式组织里，并且能够在任何他们想要的地方工作，只要他们能够工作出色。
有了新的工具，新的合作模式，和新的工作方式的自由和灵活，一些新的职场规则也随之出现了。并非所有的这些都已经家喻户晓，而且也不能保证他们将会最终取代那些传统的规则和工作方式。但事实是它们正在涌现出来，在我看来，它们都是积极的，是令人激动的进步。
1. 在线程序和the cloud击败桌面程序和硬盘。大多数工作者仍在使用桌面程序如微软office，但这一情况正在迅速转变。如今人们（包括我）都开始使用在线程序了，例如Gmail, Google Docs和Spreadsheets, Gcal, WordPress, Twitter, Zoho Office, High Rise, Bachpack等等。
在线程序的好处是：你可以在任何一台电脑上使用，而绝不用担心文件的存档问题。如果你打算在家里或在路上办公的话，使用桌面程序时，你得将文件存在一个文件夹内然后或者发到你的邮箱里或者存进一个移动硬盘。现在好了，这将越来越不成为一个问题了--我已经记不清上一次我的网络出状况是在什么时候了，几乎只使用在线程序的这一年多里，从未出现问题。
丢掉硬盘而使用the cloud也有类似的好处--最妙的事情之一就是你不用在你的硬盘上备份了。使用the cloud，数据已经自动备份了。同样它也是在任何地方都能使用--对于出现的灵活工作场所来说一个非常重要的因素。
2. 针对文件进行协作，而不是将文件电邮出去。我不会指名道姓，前不久我同一个小组合作完成一份书稿。这些人很聪明，但他们习惯于他们的传统方式，其中的一位使用微软word文档来来回回的将书稿的修订版电邮给我。甚至有一次，他们打印一份出来，然后在上面注上标记，让联邦快递公司快递给我。
这种做法已经过时了！使用一些在线程序如Google Docs, 实时合作可以变得如此容易。你可以在同一时间就同一文件工作，任何修改都会自动保存。你可以看到谁做出了哪些修改，你可以回到原先的版本，你也不用担心谁电邮出了最新的版本。最棒的是，如果合作者之一是苹果电脑的使用者（比如我），你用不着担心他是否有一份微软office的拷贝（事实上我从不曾有也将永不会有）。
你可以在协作的过程中聊天。你可以邀请其他人来参加协作，并给他们具体的许可。
当你在协作时没理由将文件电邮出去，而且，有没有搞错，不用打印出来并快递给对方！
3. 合作是新的生产力。 过去我们努力工作干到口吐白沫，但主要是以单干为主。当然，我们有各种会议，有各类小组，但最终我们大部分还是单干。在大多数的情况下现在还是靠单干这种方式。
但想想维基百科：如果每篇文章由一名作者所写，然后通过传统的编辑和出版方式，那么多的文章永远也无法完成。更不用提当中难免会碰上的困难和如此浩大的项目中的合作成本。但是使用协同技术(wikis)，维基百科能够以相对较低的成本完成（主要是依靠计算机，而不是以人力），于是通过合作一项浩繁的项目就这么完成了。一群人通过合适的方式合作比那些人以传统的方式单干要更有效益的多。
我能举出更多使用开源技术的例子，从火狐到Linux到OpenOffice到Gaim等等等等---这些软件公司的成功都是采取合作的好例子。这种模式能够被推广到几乎任何行业，它更有生产力。
尽管如此，个人作业也总是有一武之地的。有时候最好的软件只是一个天才写出来，这并没有什么错。但要完成大量的工作，还得依靠合作。
“在人类（也包括动物）历史长河中，只有那些学会合作并最善于随机应变的才能生存。”--查尔斯.达尔文
4. 没必要非得待在办公室里。这一条我希望实行于大多数行业，现在，立马实行。你一旦摆脱了传统的思维方式，效果会如此明显。长久以来，人们在办公室里上班（当然现在大多数仍这样），他们走进办公室，工作，开会，处理文件，在饮水机旁闲聊，打卡下班，收工回家。
现在看来，上述显得越来越没必要了。有了移动计算，the cloud, 在线程序和协作进程，工作能够而且通常是在任何地方完成的。更多的人开始远程办公，更多的人开始成为自由职业者或者顾问。更多的工作开始允许工作者在任何地方工作--不仅仅只是在家里远程办公，而是真正意义上的世界上任何角落。来自不同大洲的从未谋面的人成立小公司。人们通过Skype或者Basecamp group chat开会。他们通过wikis和谷歌的程序来合作。
如果你陷入传统思维方式中不能自拔，使劲想想到底有哪些事情是必须在办公室里完成的。有时候在办公室里办公确有其正当理由，但是通常那些障碍都有解决方法，你只是还没找到。
分散办公地点的好处有很多。工作者更自由，更快乐，并对他们的工作更有热情。他们喜欢和那些聪明有才能的人一起合作，工作不再繁重乏味的苦差。灵活的工作安排对很多人的生活方式都有好处。移动计算实际上对很多行业里那些需要经常出差的人都有好处。而实际上真正重要的不是工作者在场，而是工作正在被完成。
5. 存档很重要，但没必要去归档。传统做法是，人们把纸质文件放进文件夹，在文件夹上贴上标签，然后归类放在柜子里。随着越来越多的文件储存在电脑里，这种归类方法开始在电脑桌面上展开，文件夹和文件都被归类的井井有条（或者杂乱无章，如果你不细心的话）。这意味着要么你花大量时间用来整理组织，要么你丢掉东西。
今天，有很多人仍然像这样工作，即使现在这已经毫无意义了。“存档和搜索”这条Gmail将之推广的方法，加上如今电脑的能力和应用程序的速度，这才是有必要的。不再为每个文件都建立文件夹，然后辛勤的去归档，你现在要做的只是点击“存档”，然后使用Gmail的快速搜索引擎去找你想要的任何文件。当然，你仍然可以加上标签，就像文件夹一样，但其功能更多，甚至这一步也不是必需的。
为什么这样更好一些？当你不用去归档的时候，想想节约了多少时间吧。更容易，更少烦恼。你不用归档不用担心丢了东西。你只需要搜索并能找到它。
这一条不仅仅适用于电子邮件，也适用于任何事情。书签能够由Delicious提供，我的博客能在WordPress里搜索到，文件能在桌面（对于苹果机，Quicksilver和Spotlight这两款软件都非常好用；对于个人电脑，谷歌桌面也很不错）上或者在线服务器上搜索到。没有什么需要被归档--任何东西都能搜索到，通过搜索寻找文件也比浏览文件或者目录要快得多。
有人说他们不大会使用搜索来寻找东西。我没觉得这有什么难的，我一直在用这种方法。我想你所需要的只是思维方式的一点转变。
6. 团队越小越好。我知道我说过合作是新的生产力这话，但对很多确定了工作团队的项目（不像维基百科那种任何人都能参与其中的）来说，小团队工作更为出色。它更快，更灵活敏捷，更少官僚主义，更加有创造力。
假设一个大公司比如微软，想要建立一个新的企业。微软从未在这方面表现优秀过，因为它太大了。它善长的是夺走别的公司的创新成果，利用已存在的市场优势让它的软件或服务获得成功。或者干脆买下那些表现出色的小公司然后将其业务合并在自己已有的业务里。但是当它想要自己开始创建新的东西时，尽管任务小组资金充足，背后有着雄厚的支持...但是得经过无数官僚主义的层层步骤，就像当年的苏联政府一样。最终的新产品会有大量的功能（其中很多都是不需要的），而且要等到花儿都谢了还不见其正式发布。
只有几个人的创业--有时候只有三四个人--往往能创造出卓越的产品，因为他们做的是小而精，并且容易的事情。他们不会给产品安上繁多而无用的各项功能，他们不用担心写的技术规格能否被批准，没有那么多的官僚形式主义。他们做的就是写出代码并使之有效，并尽可能的迅速，因为如果不这样他们就会被市场淘汰。小的团队是精悍且渴望成功的，更有自由和创新精神。
7. 沟通成为潮流。这一条我还没太弄明白。在传统模式下，文件到达信箱里，然后你开始逐一处理直到结束。用这种方法完成工作--从第一件开始到最后一件结束。不幸的是对很多人来说这有一点吃不消了，因为有太多的文件需要处理。
所以新的工作方式以沟通为潮流。你会在这种新的潮流中如鱼得水。沟通交流从未停歇--想想电子邮件，即时通讯工具，Twitters和RSS feeds和论坛里的帖子等可曾停下脚步。这不会发生。因为它是永无止境的，你不可能像以前那样简单的从第一件事做到最后一件事。
在这股潮流下你应该如何工作呢？你知道它是不会停下来的，你也不会试图照单全收。我们应该各取所需，时不时来看看有什么新的情况，而且不用担心会错过什么。事实上你一直在错过某些东西--每个人都在。没人能全部把握这股潮流--它太巨大了。有谁能够阅读完所有的博客?谁能够回复每一封电子邮件，Twitter和论坛里的每副帖子？谁能读完在Digg或者Delicious或者Stumbleupon上的所有东西？没人。
所以你找你感兴趣的，搜索你所需要，然后选择那些对你来说最重要的。你能够回复每一封电子邮件吗?不能--所以回复那些重要的，并把其余的存档。你对你的行业里的任何事情都了如指掌吗？不--所以关注你感兴趣的东西，你能从你的朋友圈子里或者你读的博客里找到有用的东西。
不要事必躬亲--把精神集中在那些对你而言重要的东西上。
8. 任务越少越好。随着信息量的爆炸，我们也有了大量的需求和事情要处理。按照过去的思维会说我们应该把事情完成，但那已经是不再可能的了。甚至列出一个庞大的任务清单也是不可取的--你只是在白费力气。
相反，专注于那些对你的公司，你的职业，你的生活最能有所改变的任务吧。将你的任务清单瘦身。
9. 开会（通常情况下）糟透了。传统的做生意方式包括开没完没了的公司会议，一般需要一小时或更多。这些会议能花掉你半天甚至更多的时间。加上那些单独会议--在午餐时或喝点东西的时候，或者一对一在办公室里--你开会多过于你工作。
如果你有很多次挨到会议结束，像我曾经那样，你会发现它们几乎都是没什么用的。当然，有时候它们也有好处，但更多的时候它们都是无聊的，全是扯淡或者没用的信息，简单一个电子邮件或电话就能取而代之。更坏的是，大多数人知道这一点。但一切还是照旧。
学会通过以下手段来完成一次会议的任务吧：一封电子邮件，一个迅速的电话，一个迅速而醒目的即时通讯工具，必要的话进行一次在线群聊。通过在线工具来协作，比如上面提到的这些。把会议的数量保持在最少限度。当然你仍然需要与别人参加社交活动，进行面对面的谈话，但是单调而无用的会议不是最好的社交方式。如果你公司或者部门的头，帮你自己也帮你公司一个忙，取消掉大部分的会议吧。
“当你什么都不想干的时候，开会是个好主意。”--John Kenneth Galbraith
10. 开放的资源比封闭的好。这一条和第三条合作是关键生产力相关，但是这比那更进了一步：不要做一个闭关的保护主义者，对外开放。负责任，公开版权，允许人们分享，同时允许别人做贡献。
传统方式是保持秘密，不让别人知道你的内部信息。只有内部人员参与合作。如果有人想不付钱而分享你们的信息，你会告他。
开源模式则在很多情况下更好的工作。它允许人们贡献，认识到不光是那些选中的少数人有创意和才能。它允许人们分享，认识到思想传播得越广才越有价值，艺术家越被广泛接受才越有价值，一个程序越流行才越成功。
这种模式能被很多行业运用，从出版到在线程序到信息工作者等等（甚至博客）！它甚至能为政府采用，如果我们思想更解放一点的话。想象一下政府里所有的信息都是可获得的，这样做任何事情都更加负责。想象一下政府不光口头上“是人民的”，而行为上也是--人民自己正在为之做贡献并运行着它。想象一下政府里所有一切都分配好，民主的供人分享。这是理想化的，但如果我们采取开源模式这是可行的。
11. 休息和工作同样重要。在传统模式下，人们为了尽可能完成任务和在职业生涯上取得成功而长时间工作。但是，随之而来的是大量的精疲力尽和对工作的不满，以及频繁的员工跳槽。
新的模式认识到我们是人，而不是机器。除了工作外我们还有生活和兴趣爱好。我们偶尔（或者每天）需要小憩一下。我们休息好了，才能更好地工作，同时也更快乐。
我并不是说你工作多久就得休息多久，但你应该认识到打个盹不仅没什么错，实际上它还是一件好事。工作不一定非得是单调乏味的八小时--它能够是有趣的，同时能富有成效。
12. 专注，但不要走火入魔。这是第八条的一条推论：不要为繁杂的任务和多重任务而手忙脚乱，学会专注于重要的任务和单一任务。
在最近的几十年里，多重任务处理被看做是有成效的事情--尽管越是传统的模式，时间上越是久远，曾说一次完成一件事情是好的。今天越来越多的人意识到当你不断的在任务间转换时，你基本上什么也做不了。实际上你倾向于拖延重要的事情，把多重任务处理当成了拖延的方式。你可以一整天都围着你的种种任务转，采取GTD方式（时间管理Getting Things Done--译者注），而实际上什么都没完成。
相反，简化并确认出那些最基本的，学会一次专注在一个任务上面。
一点最后想说的话
这些“规则”今天并非被大多数人所接受--事实上，多数尚未被人接受。但是已有越来越多的人开始这样工作了，我认为在不远的将来大部分人都将这样工作。
并非所有这些工作方式都适合你或你的公司。对于有些行业和人来说最好的还是传统的模式，这没什么。找出最适合你和你最擅长的。
但是，至少考虑一下这些观点。在某些情况下它们将会是更好的工作方式，能够成为好的转变。我想这是令人兴奋的，希望你们能像我这样接受这些转变。
“拒绝改变的人只会走向腐朽，唯一拒绝进步的人类机构是在坟墓”--Harold Wilson
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