The Digital Workplace: How Technology Is Liberating Work Paperback – March 22, 2012

I also posted this on my blog at nonsensus.dk, but there's no reason this shouldn't also work as an Amazon review:When I picked up Paul Millers book (or rather, opened it on my Kindle), it was like opening a Jack-in-a box and getting instantly punched in my senses by the clowns head. There was no dancing around, there was no jabbing. Just the naked truth in the sentences:"Most work in most organizations is awful. It's mind-numbing, soul-destroying and depressing. Everyone knows this but virtually noone admits it."I knew I had the right book for me. That resonated within me, and it was actually somewhat of a relief to see it in writing, from someone else. Because I recognize this as my past experience as well, in a lot of cases.And if that hadn't hooked me, I got the next solid punch on the next page:"Study hard, pass your exams, get a good degree, and you too can land the job of your dreams, only to discover... you have arrived at nowhere."KO. And while I was down there on the floor in dreamland, I had to read on.This book proved to be influential to me. In the way I think about work, leadership and the business I would like to start myself.Paul Miller starts off the book by telling about his own experiences as a newly educated reporter in '79, on the Newcastle Evening Chronicle, where the question "Is this it ?" often arises.As it turns out, Miller believes the problem is physical. He actually compares modern work somewhat to slavery. And makes a pretty good case for his comparison, I must say.He also argues that work shouldn't be about where we work, but how we work, and the results we deliver.You will be taken through a lot of perspectives: Paul Milers world, your own world, leadership, the problem with bricks, and a lot of other subjects relevant to the digital workplace. To me, I had a lot of "yes, that's true !" moments during the book. But it's not all hippiehappy times.The second part of the book, Your World, is a lot about the problems which can arise in virtual workplaces, and what you should be careful with, what you should consider when working this way.I wrote my final Academy Professon thesis on virtual teams, and a lot of what I read rang true. Both the challenges and what Paul Miller suggest you do about it. I recognized that as well.The book will take you through a wide range of issues, aspects, examples, and present you with little fact boxes here and there. It's easy to read, the language is very down to earth. It's a good mix of stories, facts, real life examples, and thoughts for the future. That's all I'm going to tell you about the contents. You should do yourself the favour of reading the book yourself, and see what rings true to you. Because as sure as I am, that the content I can confirm definitely seems academically valid, I'm just as sure that your preferences, experiences and choices will be different than mine.The only thing I will have to warn you about, reading this book, is that you will soon learn that a better worklife is actually attainable. And that's kind of the biggest danger with this book: It creates a picture within you, a feeling, a motion. It shows you that work can actually be different, better. Work can be about something else, than having to show up at a specific place every day, sitting at the same desk, doing the same thing, for the same boss. Day in. Day out.As a leader, that may actually be true as well. You COULD end up trying hard to create another work environment for your employees. Just sayin'. Now you've been warned ;) This is as much a refreshing break from traditional workplace thinking, as it is a needed one. And even if you won't be able to recreate the same type of organization that Paul Miller has created, it's definitly worth considering if you could focus more on the essentials. Like trust, being evaluated on the value and results you create, and if your workplace could be different. Better. More 2013.This book is not only great because it's a good example that workplaces can function differently then your run off the mill company. To me, it's great because it's a step towards a more humanized workplace, where a lot of the stuff that doesn't (or rather, shouldn't) matter about work, is peeled off - and then the juicy, great tasting layers are exposed. It's not a "guide to implementing this workmodel, right now in your own organization". It's a book which will make you reflect, reevaluate, rethink and should you be so lucky, change your view of what work is in 2013, to some degree.It gave me a different perspective on "the workplace" as such, even with me having worked with the tools which enable the virtual organization, for a long time. I've long wanted to create my own business. And currently I'm in a situation where I have the luxury to seriously entertain that idea. The business I have in mind, should I choose to go that way, will be built on a lot of the principles of this book. At the very least, I will be try to implement these principles in my worklife in general, going forward.In the end, is there any greater compliment to the validity of someones work, than that ?

The best book to start to change the mindset and preconceptions of the workplace and behavior of employees in the companies.

Paul Miller is one of the few visionaries who understands how information and communications technology is redefining when, where and how knowledge workers will perform their jobs in the post-Industrial Age era, disintermediating the commute-in office building. “Large office buildings will disappear and become relics of a bygone age,” Miller predicts, adding they will be replaced by co-working hubs or company-owned hybrid centers in communities where people live. Of course, many will work out of home offices as they do today – a trend likely to accelerate. “We will see the complete physical fragmentation of work as companies and businesses function without any physical centres,” Miller forecasts.Miller rightly recognizes this shift as liberating force that enables knowledge workers to escape the drudgery of the daily commute to the cube farm as metro areas centers struggle, choked by unstainable traffic congestion and unaffordable housing costs. That has profound implications for the future economy and residential settlement patterns first described by Jack Lessinger in his seminal 1991 work,  Penturbia Where Real Estate Will Boom After the Crash of Suburbia , which predicted a migration out of large metro centers to less populated, smaller communities for more affordable housing and improved quality of life. Miller presciently writes, “If we can work when we want, where we want, then we can live wherever we like and the entire demographic of modern advanced societies, including the developing new economies changes. The city versus country split dilutes, and the general population will spread as areas of regional neglect become new economically viable areas again…This is a new template because economic power is separated from locality. You can earn in a global market but spend locally.”

Paul Miller's book `The Digital Workplace: How technology is liberating work' is an absolute must read for anyone interested in finding out how technology is changing the way we work for everyone on the planet.The way Paul Miller writes it from his own experiences and view of life - working and personal - makes it compelling to read. The examples Paul uses are ones we can all relate too and are real, not made up to fit a theoretical scenario.I loved the format of the book. If like me you sometimes put a book down and pick it up a little later you won't lose your thread and have to read back over the last few pages. In fact it is split into sections that are easy to use and refer back to again and again about the digital workplace. I found the `top 10 digital workplace benefits, challenges, etc.' very good for focusing on the key points of each section.It's good to see Paul Miller share his expertise and enthusiasm with us in this book. I'm fortunate to know Paul so I realise every word is sincerely meant to help you, the reader.It's impossible to get serious about the digital workplace without reading and absorbing the ideas and examples in this book.

Book in good condition and arrived promptly. Contents ok but a bit obvious nowadays as digital transformation is well understood.

The blurbs promised more than the book delivered

We know the business environment has changed forever, we know that there is a new focus on value, increased competition across the developing world, that capital credit is hard to come by... We read this everywhere, but what can we do about it?In this book Paul Miller offers us a rare slice of good news. While the business challenges will get no less difficult, there are ways in which you can dramatically change the way you do business to streamline and adapt to the 'new normal'. Paul explores the benefits of flexible working for both management and workforce, how it can drive increased engagement and productivity in staff, and enable you to drive a culture of results rather than hours based performance.The book contains tangible case studies of large organisations of all kinds where both management and staff have transformed their working practices and tackled bringing the late adopters and reluctant skeptics along with them. It is full of practical high level tips for anyone in management looking to start the conversation around transforming their business into something more agile and carring less costs. My work is deeply rooted in delivering change strategy to business in this way and I would heartily recommend. Well worth reading.@dombles

This book could act as a reasonable summary of the state of remote working and the possible impacts for someone with little or no knowledge of the field. However, it is very poor value. It has around 200 pages, most of are only half filled with text in large font with the regular use of pop-outs repeating sections of the text - it is more like an extended magazine article. The quality of the book is also awful, the pages and cover began curling not long after it arrived. I would like to have seen more depth and discussion of the evidence around the productivity and emotional and psychological impacts of remote working.