As the business landscape evolves, companies are seeking ways to unleash new forms of value creation. Increasingly, they are discovering that the key to doing so lies in redefining work itself. It’s not enough to simply replace one routine task with another, or to move employees into a different part of the organization that hasn’t yet become subject to automation. Redefining work means fostering the human capabilities needed to create value in fundamentally different ways.
The scientific definition of work reveals that it’s more than just putting out effort. It’s about energy and how it is transferred. Science defines work as the amount of energy (also called momentum) an object has gained or lost by moving a certain distance. It’s the product of force and displacement, where the direction of the force and the direction of the displacement determine whether the work done is positive, negative, or zero.
A simple example is a spring exerting a horizontal force F on an object that moves with a velocity v = (kx, ky, kz) through space: The total work done on the object in its trajectory is W = -int(F
In more general systems, the principle of conservation of linear momentum states that the sum of the forces that act on an object in any direction at any time must be equal to the net change in its linear velocity and angular acceleration. The result of this is the work done by these forces, which must be negligible if the system is to remain static.
Work can also be done on a free (no fields), rigid, and conservatively forced body without changing its kinetic or rotational energy, by displacing it in a conservative field such that the work is equal to minus the changes of its potential energy Ep. This is known as the Newton’s second law of motion and is given by W = -int(Ep
The concept of work applies to many different kinds of physical and social activities, including pushing a car or writing an essay. But it’s not the same as working hard, a phrase that’s often used to describe someone who is motivated by more than money or status. To be considered work, it must involve a significant amount of physical or mental effort in exchange for some sort of reward, such as a paycheck. Even playing tennis, however, can be seen as work, since it requires a lot of effort in exchange for the joy and satisfaction of doing something that matters. This broader meaning of work is reflected in the way that people perceive their lives and find purpose in them. And it’s why redefining work is so important.
