Organizational Challenges

Why Focus on Systems of Work?

What are the organizing principles of work within the modern organization?

• In the modern knowledge work focused organization, significant investments have been made in Systems of Engagement and Systems of Record, however “Systems of Work” have largely been ignored.

• NolijWork suggests this intervening gap explains many of the challenges that modern organizations face, and why Systems of Work should be at the core of what organizations should address going forward.

• The focus on customer journeys provides clues to a potential way forward, however journeys are all around us, whether customer journeys or employee journeys

• Nor should Journeys be restricted to what happens at the boundaries of the enterprise.

Such “journeys” represent the navigation of the services provided by any organization, so should be a core focus.

NolijWork considers the Work Graph as that missing element in respect of Systems of Work for modern knowledge work focused organizations.

The Work Graph

is the critical lens through which any organization can be perceived. It...

• is the collection of services, outcomes and interactions within an organization
• is “transparent”, I,e, visible to participants
• can be thought of as a map to any organization
• is implicitly “navigated by proxy” on behalf of any stakeholder (e.g. customer, employee…)

Outcomes

Outcomes are the binding element between customers, employees and organizations. An individual service represents a progressive series of outcomes. These outcomes represent the rationale for engaging with any service in the first instance.

Outcomes

• are tangible
• are stable over time
• are valuable to one or more participants
• are method agnostic (e.g. people, technology, channel, outsourcing…)
• can highlight opportunities for innovation

What is a Graph Anyway?

Graphs are all around us, like computer networks or social networks, they impact and influence us in everyday life. “Graph” is simply the relevant mathematical term for networked structures.