Artisans - the rise of the hybrid employee?

Holland Rainbow Rose

It used to be so simple. We created organisations with neat little boxes, specified the needs for each box and recruited accordingly. We trained people in the specific skills needed, and managers weaved those skills together into a fabric that was the product or service we made. It made the organisation supreme, and the employee a replaceable part of the whole.

But life has got much more complex. Things that we used to conveniently ignore - what the economists called "externalities", and what we now call more meaningfully climate change, inequality and biodiversity are centre stage. Add technology into the mix and the relatively stable economic environment we have been used to for several generations is gone.

It comes to something when we can look back at significant recessions and regards them as blips compared to what we are experiencing now, and probably heading towards, but that is the harvest we are reaping.

When it comes to employees, the impact is significant. …