Meet Charlie Clark!
Transcript
Hello, my name is Charlie Clark, and I am a member of Cohort 10 of the Lockheed Martin Leadership Institute at Miami University.
My cohort is exploring the future of collaboration and the workplace, and to research this topic I chose to read the book “Nine Lies About Work” by Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall. Over several years, Buckingham and Goodall visited various companies ranging in size and notability to explore the most common miscommunications and myths about the workplace. There were three specific lies that pertain to the future of collaboration, those three being: people care which company they work for, the best people are well-rounded, and work-life balance matters most.
To elaborate, Buckingham and Goodall’s research indicates that people don't actually care very much about the company that they work for. They care more about the team that they work on, as that is where they will see the biggest impact of their work. The company’s vision will hardly impact employees' day to day lives compared to the effect that each employees’ department or team will have. The future of the workplaces will likely see a large focus on teamwork, rather than company wide group work.
Secondly, the book explains that the best people are not well rounded, but in fact are “spikey”. While an employee might be more experienced in various fields, an employee that has a refined skill set and can focus great and efficient work on a few fields is more valuable to a team. An effective leader will understand their team members strengths and utilize each member on projects that fit their respective skills. Meanwhile, a team member that is decent at many skills, will not be as easy to organize onto a specific project and will be less likely to be effective in their work.
Finally, Buckingham and Goodall state that a work life balance is not the most important rule in work, but rather a love-in-work balance is most important. It behooves both the employee and the company to find a strong connection between the employees’ interest and the work they do. An employee can have a perfect work life balance, spend an appropriate amount of time doing work and leave plenty of time to explore interests outside of work, but they will burn out quickly and not produce quality products if they don't enjoy what they are doing.
I found the insights from the “Nine Lies About Work” to be very interesting and helpful in hypothesising where the direction of the workplace is headed and what collaboration may look like in the future. I hope you found this video interesting and learned something about the future of collaboration.
Bio
Hello! My name is Charlie Clark and I am a second year student at Miami University studying Mechanical Engineering. I grew up in Seattle, WA and moved to Thousand Oaks, CA in high school. I am a huge outdoor enthusiast and I will always want to go camping, backpacking, or even just hang out in a hammock.
I chose engineering because I am passionate about building things and problem solving. Growing up, I loved playing with Legos and anything I could take apart and put back together. I challenged myself to make my models and Lego projects better than the original when I put them back together. Problem solving excites me and encourages me to keep working, especially when I am in a group or team. I joined the Lockheed Martin Leadership Institute because I wanted to improve my group and teamwork capabilities in addition to improving my leadership skills. I have experience working and leading teams from my journey to Eagle Scout and other organizations, but I always see areas where I could improve those skills.
On campus, I am a campus tour guide, the president of the Outdoor Adventure Club, a member of Engineers Without Borders, and a member of the Lockheed Martin Leadership Institute. I am also frequently hanging around in a hammock around campus.