‘The more we think, the better we get at it’: John Hawkins, on gazing into space

It was Alfred Nobel who said, “If I have a thousand ideas and only one turns out to be good, I am satisfied”. While we can agree that it all worked out fine for the Swedish engineer – his name immortalised in his eponymous prize – a statistician might say that by Nobel’s own admission he seemed to be content with not putting 99.9 per cent of his time to proper use. Welcome to the world of ‘invisible work’, the theme and title of John Howkins’ latest, which examines what we’re doing with all that ‘downtime’ and its implications for today’s workplace.

Howkins, who is in his 70s, has the benefit of having a long career during which to consider the question. He’s been chair of the London Film School, chief adviser to HBO and Time Warner on technology issues such as satellite, video recording and multi-channel cable TV, and his work – as well as his earlier book ‘The Creative Economy’ – has helped shape business and government policy in Europe, China and South America. During this span, he’s spent a lot of time gazing into space assessing the value of gazing into space.

This is with specific reference to people who are creative or innovative – “the two are different, but I don’t make much of a distinction in my book” – to see what it is that “makes them work”. His findings are the basis of ‘Invisible Work’, which, put simply, says that the old models no longer apply, the revelations that drive innovation can strike at any time, and the people sitting next to you, ostensibly doing nothing, are probably working. It’s just you can’t see it. How we manage this, and our attitudes towards it, will play a role in the future of work: a set of circumstances that Howkins believes to be in a more advanced state of flux than it has ever been. This is, in part, because the benefits of the digital revolution – such as communications, artificial intelligence and the assumption of repetitive donkey work – have left us with more time to think: “The more we think, the better we get at it.” Although he doesn’t like the term, Howkins is now seen as a free-ranging ‘expert’ in what innovation is and “how that translates into the workplace”.

In the more recent phases of his career, Howkins has become involved in numerous tech start-ups in London, a set of experiences that means he has first-hand knowledge of the new work paradigm to accompany his hypothesis. What this means is that he has become convinced that work, rather than being about what goes on in the modern workplace, is “about what goes on in people’s minds”. He is careful to draw the distinction between the more abstract concept of work and the more concrete notion of what we call a ‘job’.

“I emphasise this because the ‘job’ is the means to do the work we want to do. In my book I look at what work is, why we do it and how we manage, measure and reward it.” During the course of ‘Invisible Work’, his analysis moves on to how this type of attitude to work “co-operates with the invisible work that goes on inside electronic devices”. In other words, from clocking-in and output statistics, we’ve evolved into something more nuanced, in that neither what goes on in our heads nor the electronics we are using can be seen by others. One of the results of this absence of tangible evidence or objective data is that we are exposed to the accusation that we are doing nothing and wasting our employer’s money and goodwill.

A generation ago, says Howkins, the model was that only a small fraction of employees were ‘trusted’ with the freedom to spend time thinking. “No-one really knows what the design engineers do all day,” was the cry of those handing in monthly reports that needed to demonstrate efficiency or target-hitting. “But now, it is assumed that perhaps half of the people in work do things this way.”

At this point Howkins observes an important correlation between those who have been through the university system and invisible work. He goes on to say that the value of tertiary education is not so much how it prepares us with knowledge of a discipline that might prove a useful leverage tool in the job market, but more that this is the opportunity for undergraduates to familiarise themselves with key concepts of invisible work, such as face-to-face network development, self-starting time management and blue skies thinking.

“So, university is a good preparation for the work that goes on inside our minds – you can call it the imagination or inspiration, or calculations that are very private to us. Nobody can observe this. You can look at me and have no idea if I’m working at all, let alone what I’m working at or, indeed, whether it is going well or badly. Perhaps if I’m kicking the furniture around, that might give you a clue. But, if I’m simply staring into space, then you will have no idea of what I am doing and, if I am typing away at a device, neither will you have any idea who I’m working with, or on what project. Or, if I’m making progress or stuck.”

What’s so important about this scenario is that it bears all the characteristics of the sort of work that “adds most to the value chain in terms of innovation, and that leads to an organisation doing something better than they did it before. It also is the type of internal thought process work that tends to give individuals the highest levels of satisfaction in their job.”

Furthermore, says Howkins, digital literacy has helped us to become better and more confident at it. The problem is that if you can’t communicate what you are doing, get stuck or are simply writing your next novel in your head, “this can lead to alienation between the individual and the organisation”.

Invisible work is a fact of life, says Howkins, and the only way for it to operate seamlessly is for the individual to assume the responsibility that goes with it, and for the employee to provide the context for it to flourish.

‘Invisible Work’ by John Howkins is published by September Publishing, £18.99