#hackingwork

HackingWork: Why good work means breaking the rules 3.30pm, Friday 11 March 2 / 5

Josh Klein and Bill Jensen's exploratory book on benevolent business hackers deserved a better platform than this. Jensen was scuppered by a failed presentation (the piece embedded below) that would have provided some much needed visual focus to his overview.

• Management have the most technical support and the most delegation, yet the main workforce in any business in typically more burdened with inefficient process and obstructive tools. Employees are increasingly breaching company policies, particularly the firewall, to take advantage of more efficient and collaborative tools - like Google Docs over PowerPoint. It is immensely stupid, Jensen said.  "All the stupid processes are not protecting me, but making me take longer to do my job and serve customers." Hacking Work would like to see itself as a tiny spark that ignites change - like the Arab spring - all in the name of doing great work. 

• For government, the leap to open technology will be the most difficult, particularly in the post-Wikileaks environment. "The government wanted to promote the Twitter philosophy going on Iran, but the aids in the Pentagon had to run out to the parking lot to load Twitter because it wasn't allowed by the firewall. That's an unbelievable amount of stupidity. We've got to re-educate everyone."