Creative mornings is a global initiative to inspire a monthly meetup of people interested in creative approaches to problem solving and life.

They’re free, happen early one Friday morning, so they don’t interfere too much with work, and they usually offer coffee and pastries.

This month’s meetup in Ottawa was about the ‘Future of Work(space)’ presented by Vinod Rajasekaran from Hub Ottawa.

Vinod’s vision of the future of work was inspired by Star Trek … looking at Star Trek as the model of a future workforce and mission. I really liked his list of future work qualities and wanted to remember them, to revisit them … so here are my notes …

The future of work is about connections

The mission of the enterprise was seek out new worlds, to connect.

Perspectives matter, empathy matters, perspective not power

Learn from diversity, don’t dominate it. The rainforest and coral reefs are some of the most evolved, most diverse ecosystems on earth, and perhaps still some of the most mysterious to us.

Empowering failure, not formula

Share what we learn from failing so that others can build from our mistakes too. Speed us up by building on collective understanding, both positive and negative. Document mistakes.

Peer learning

The future of work is built on sharing knowledge openly and constructively - like Wikipedia. It is fluid, transient, evolving and collective. Not hoarded for personal gain.

Meaning before money

Vinod worked in the defense industry where there was lots of innovation, but no personal meaning for him, and in the NGO sector where there was lots of meaning, but little innovation.

Care about hosting PEOPLE, not making space for them

We’ve lost the art of hosting each other, with trust, openness, gratitude, resilience.

Mobilize social help

Reach out, get organized, exchange with people who see the world differently, ask for help through networking.

Finally, Vinod quoted a line from Interstellar:

‘We used to look up at the sky and wonder about our place in the stars, now we just look down, and worry about our place in the dirt’.

We all had to fill in a name badge, where we wrote down ‘who’s the boss’ … in my case, I wrote the environment - which connected a little literally with that quote, but there’s a lot of power in the metaphor.