Shapers: Reinvent the Way You Work and Change the Future
Jonas Altman
Wiley (September 2020)

How and why you can — and should — shape the work you do and how you do it

According to Jonas Altman, “Shapers begin with their why, and then they figure out the how. Their interiority lets them create meaning time and time again. Their self-efficacy lets them shun the negative self-talk and spiral upwards. They feel part of something larger than themselves. There is sacrifice, yes. Settling [compromising], no.”

In this context, I am again reminded of a global survey by John Workman of several hundred knowledge leaders throughout the world. He asked them to identify what they view as the single greatest threat to the human race. What received more votes than any other? Expediency.

Everyone can be a shaper — in fact, everyone is a shaper, for better or worse — but some people are better at shaping than are others. Supervisors who have direct reports entrusted to their care can help others to become skillful shapers. For example, the best leaders shape others to be effective leaders.

As indicated by Altman earlier, “Shapers begin with their why, and then figure out the how.”  First they determine the given purpose to be served, the strategic objective to be achieved, and only then do they shift their attention to what must be done and how it must be done. They shape a workplace only after they and their colleagues have carefully shaped the process by which they and their associates determine how best to nourish “learning, feeling, leading, becoming, and futuring.”

These are among the passages that caught my eye, also listed in order to suggest the scope of Altman’s coverage:

o Work and meaning (5-12, 23-24, 26-27, 30-31, and 175-179)
o Fufillment (10-14)
o Employee disengagement (25-31)
o Recruitment (33-43)
o Bosses/leadership (65-70, 183-190, and 191-193)

o Focus (72-73, 115-116, and 124-137)
o Self-management (73-78)
o Attitude (74-78, 149-154, and 164-166)
o Engagement and autonomy (75-78)
o Learning organisations (111-119 and 146-149)

o Spaces (112-117)
o Flourishing (114-177)
o Tools (121-137)
o Busyness (135-137 and 166-170)
o Learning (143-158)

o Feelings (159-179)
o Boredom (166-170)
o Becoming/social fabric (195-210)
o Futuring: Writing a “grand narrative” (211-233)
o Inequality (212-215, 225-226, and 228-233)

In his classic work, Future Shock, Alvin Toffler makes this assertion: “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” Almost 40 years later, I am again reminded by that of how very difficult it is reinvent how we work when attempting to change the future. Shapers must constantly “learn, unlearn, and relearn.” That is a way of work. At its best, it’s a way of life.

Let’s give Jonas Altman the last words: “The shaping life works. I really can’t think of doing it any other way. And I’m always in awe of what comes when people I work with transition to become shapers. In discovering meaning and finding flow, they’re leaving their stamp on the world.”

That’s an affirmation, for sure, but also an invitation.