Work is energy transferred or changed in form. It can increase the potential energy of a particle in a field, change its kinetic energy from moving it, or compress the internal energy of a gas to create a new form of energy. The SI unit for work is the joule, J.
Almost everything we do in our daily lives involves some kind of work. However, there are some situations in which we exert a force without actually doing any work. This is because the way we think of work in everyday circumstances differs from the scientific definition of work.
One difference is that a scientist defines work as the product of a force and a displacement. This means that the more precisely an object is displaced, the greater the amount of work done. Another difference is that work can be positive, negative or zero, depending on the direction of the displacement relative to the direction of the force. For example, if the displacement is parallel to the force (as when an object moves down a hill), the work done is zero. However, if the force is directed at an angle to the displacement, then some of the force does negative work.
For example, when a person pulls a heavy object across a table with a rope, some of the tension in the rope causes the objects to move. This movement, in turn, creates some friction on the surfaces of the rope and some work is done. In fact, the work done is equal to the total force divided by the total distance moved.
Other examples of work include pushing a large box across the floor with a cart, lifting a child over your head, and flying in a plane. Obviously, some of these things are very hard to do and require substantial effort. However, a lot of work is also accomplished by people who seem to do very little. For example, writing an exam or carrying a heavy load on level ground are both activities that most people would consider to be very difficult and require considerable effort. However, in the scientific sense, these activities do not constitute work.
Redefining work is the process of shifting all workers’ time, attention and energy away from executing routine, tightly defined tasks and toward identifying and addressing unseen problems and opportunities. This is a much larger and more expansive endeavor than adding employee suggestion boxes, 20 percent time or innovation/entrepreneur centers to current jobs.
For redefining work to succeed, it must involve cultivating and drawing on intrinsic human capabilities to undertake work for fundamentally different purposes. It must also include empowering frontline workers to identify and address unseen challenges and opportunities, as opposed to merely replacing some routine tasks with automation. Neither reskilling current employees to perform different forms of existing work nor moving some standout workers into management or product design positions will capture the full potential for creating value for customers and companies.