"Where change is happening quickly, who best sees the openings, opportunity, and necessities of change? It's not always the CEO," Thomas Friedman tells Fast Company. Friedman, a New York Times columnist and best-selling author, co-wrote a new book, That Used To Be Us, which argues that empowering innovation from every worker must become a priority for employers, the military, schools, and policy makers, if America is to retain (regain?) its superior international standing. From the use of iPhones by bootcamp trainees to shopfloor innovation at DuPont, That Used To Be Us shows that the future of work is already upon us, presenting interviews with global influencers from every corner of society to paint a world blindsided by the need for creative production--and prescriptions on how to learn from those ahead of the curve.
The principle driving forces behind the need for a more inventive worker is "access to more automation, more software, more machines and more people, and more talent of an above average quality," says Friedman, noting that even "cheap genius," is a click away. The implication is that workers who just fulfill their job description are finding themselves left behind in the recession. "If I have to make tough compensation choices between lawyers, a significant factor now for me is their ability to invent," Nixon Peabody partner Jeff Lesk told Friedman, in his response to a question about which lawyers he was retaining at his law firm.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Thomas Friedman To United States: Innovate Or Else | Fast Company
Author:Gregory Ferenstein
