We grew up thinking that work meant doing stuff.
Writing, designing, executing, refining.
But what if work, tomorrow, means something else entirely?

AI is changing our relationship with "doing.” It asks less of our hands, and more of our minds.
Less execution. More direction.
Less producing. More orchestrating.
Execution doesn’t disappear — it shifts. It becomes the final act in a process driven by vision, intent, and clarity.

In the beginning, there was coding

The shift started quietly, when tools like Bolt and Lovable launched. Platforms that let you build software without writing a single line of code.

In January 2023, OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy tweeted:
“Right now, the hottest new programming language is English.”

That was the birth of a new mindset: vibe coding.
Describe the app you imagine. Explain how it should behave. Let the AI handle the logic, structure, and code.

You get an idea, spin up a prototype in minutes, test it, tweak it, ship it.

Vibe coding is already rewriting the rules for startups, product teams, and solo founders.
New products — even entire companies — are being launched in days.
And that begs the question: if software can build itself, do we still need developers like we used to?

Vibe Everything

What started in coding is spreading fast — to design, marketing, writing, and beyond.
A new approach is emerging: less hands-on craft, more high-impact direction.
Here’s what it looks like.

Vibe Design

As Jacob Nielsen recently pointed out, when anyone can generate an interface, the only thing that matters is how it makes you feel.

That’s the core of vibe design: it’s not about pixels, it’s about experience.
It’s saying: “Make it warmer. More human. A little more playful.”
And watching AI translate those feelings into layout, color, typography, and animation.

Designers aren’t stuck inside static tools anymore. They prototype real experiences in hours, test them in real time, and iterate instantly. Design becomes fast, fluid, and alive.

This isn’t automation. This is liberation.
From technical bottlenecks. From rigid tools. From old job titles.
Vibe design frees you to focus on what matters: emotion, story, and meaning.

Vibe Marketing

Greg Isenberg recently gave us a glimpse into the future of marketing. Spoiler: it’s already here.

A solo marketer, with the right AI stack, can now do in two days what used to take an entire agency six weeks. Personalized creative, real-time multichannel campaigns, dozens of A/B tests, instant data interpretation, all without touching a single line of code.

Speed goes up. Costs drop. Barriers disappear.

AI agents can now manage CRM sequences, generate custom copy, run competitor analysis, launch automated funnels, and optimize in real time.

In this new world, traditional agencies will lose ground to lean micro-teams armed with hyper-specific tools. Thousands of one-purpose AI tools are coming — each one designed to do one thing flawlessly.

And marketers? They’ll become system architects. Not execution machines. Their real job? Asking better questions. Building sharper strategies. Unleashing creativity at scale.

Vibe Writing

We talked about this in our first After Work Live with Paolo: writing, too, is going vibe.

It’s not just about asking ChatGPT to do the writing.
It’s about training it to speak with your voice, your tone, your perspective.

It’s learning how to infuse your style, your story, your thinking into the prompt, and letting the AI handle the output.

The real value of writing is shifting from the “how” to the “why”. Not the mechanics, but the message. Not the grammar, but the guts.

Writing becomes a tool for discovery, positioning, storytelling.

And yes — for certain things, the human touch still matters. There will always be pieces you need to write with your own hands. But much of the rest? You just need to set the vibe.

Don’t change your job. Change how you work.

Of course, all this makes people nervous. Programmers say: vibe coding is buggy. Designers defend their originality. Copywriters insist: “We’re still better than the machines.”

And maybe today, that’s true. But not for long.

The technical limits of AI are shrinking by the day. What we’re seeing now is part of a bigger pattern — what Kevin Kelly calls the cycle of technological substitution:

1. “A robot can’t do my job.”

2. “Okay, maybe it can do some things — but not the important stuff.”

3. “Well, it still needs me to train it.”

4. “Fine, it does my old job. But honestly, that job was never made for humans anyway.”

5. “Now that AI handles the boring stuff, my role is way more interesting — and more valuable.”

That last step? That’s where vibe working begins.

A new way to create, decide, communicate, and build. Powered by AI, but led by humans.

You start with an idea, a challenge, a need. You use AI to speed up the execution. But you never give up control.

Seen like this, vibe working isn’t a buzzword.
It’s a point of no return.

Those who learn it will thrive. Those who don’t? They’ll fall behind.

The new rules of work

For you

Vibe working doesn’t require you to know everything.
It requires you to know exactly what you want.

It demands clarity, speed, inspiration.
You need to communicate intent, and quickly validate what gets built.

Train to set direction, not to do everything yourself.
Learn how to work with AI as a teammate, not a threat.
Get really good at writing inputs that drive powerful outputs.
And most of all: build a personal identity — a recognizable voice, a way of solving problems that people remember.

Spend your time where your value shines.
Let the machine handle the rest.

For your organization

If you want to survive, you need vibe workers inside your company now.

But here’s the thing: the bigger, more centralized, and more managerial your structure is, the harder it’ll be to make space for this shift.

Start small.
Empower your teams with the right tools and real autonomy.
Launch internal challenges to spot your vibe natives, the ones already working this way.
Bring in freelancers and AI-native creatives who live on the frontier. Let them work with your people and transfer skills.

Once, these people were outsiders.
Now, they’re the blueprint for what’s next.

Your job? Bring them in from the edge. Let them lead. And redesign your org before someone else does it for you.

“We just can’t find the right people.”
How many times have you read this in articles or heard it from hiring managers?

It’s been repeated so often, it sounds like a fact.

But what if the so-called “skill gap” was just a convenient excuse?
What if the real problem isn’t a lack of skills, but a lack of jobs that are actually worth doing?

The Skill Gap Is a Myth. A Convenient One

The only thing supporting the idea of a “skill gap” is companies complaining they can’t find the talent they’re looking for.

In Italy, nearly half of planned hires in 2023 were deemed “hard to fill” (up from 1 in 4 in 2019). And it’s not just Italy: most developed countries are in the same boat. Italy ranks 69th out of 133 for ease of finding skilled workers. The UK is 71st, Germany 74th, France 75th, Japan 77th.

And yet, across Europe, over 23% of workers are overqualified, doing jobs well below their education and skill level. It’s especially common in more remote regions and Mediterranean countries like Italy, Spain, and Greece. And the trend is getting worse.

So what’s going on?
Simple: people accept jobs below their level just to secure some form of financial stability.

With youth unemployment near 15% and huge numbers of workers stuck in roles that have nothing to do with their education (OECD, 2023), the whole “we can’t find the right skills” story starts to crumble.

The Great Skills Bluff: Underpaying While Overasking

A 2014 study by Peter Cappelli showed how companies inflate skill requirements when there are too many candidates. It’s a trick designed to lower salaries and expectations.

So it’s no surprise that, as of early 2024, real wages across Europe are still below pre-pandemic levels. And with short-term contracts on the rise, it’s clear: the real issue isn’t talent scarcity. It’s companies not wanting to pay for it.

If There’s a Gap, It’s in Training

There’s very little actual evidence that a “skill gap” exists.
But there’s plenty of data pointing to a training gap.

European companies spend just 0.7% of labor costs on ongoing training (CEDEFOP, 2023).
And fewer than half of European adults regularly access professional learning programs (AES, 2023).

If businesses expect workers to show up fully trained but aren’t willing to train them, they shouldn’t be surprised when the talent pool comes up short.

It’s Not a Skill Gap. It’s a Mismatch

Peter Cappelli makes an important distinction: this isn’t a skill gap—it’s a mismatch.

The skills are out there. So are the jobs. But they don’t meet because something’s broken: low pay, job insecurity, inflated expectations, and a lack of serious investment in training. That’s the real issue.

The Fix? Unbundle Everything

Work is being completely restructured by automation, globalization, and technology. It’s becoming distributed: tasks go to whoever can do them, wherever and whenever they happen to be. Increasingly, those “people” are also machines.

Gary Bolles calls this shift unbundling—breaking traditional jobs into specific tasks that can be split, outsourced, and done flexibly.

It’s not the end of work. It’s the beginning of something more agile, more adaptable, and more aligned with people’s actual skills.

But for this shift to reduce the mismatch, companies and workers need to rethink everything: how they hire, how they train, how they match talent to opportunity.

The New Rules of Work

For Workers

• Think like a business. You’re not just an employee, you’re a solo enterprise. Keep learning. Keep sharpening your offer.

• Build a career portfolio. Stop chasing “the one job.” Be many things at once: designer, speaker, coach, writer. Diversify to stay resilient.

• Become a centaur. Use AI to amplify what you can do. Don’t fear it—orchestrate it. That’s how you make yourself indispensable.

• Show, don’t tell. Forget the long résumé. Offer your skills through real, short-term projects and prove your value up front.

For Organizations

• Cut the nonsense from job ads. Ditch the inflated lists of “requirements.” Hire for real skills, not lofty titles.

• Use AI to build global talent networks. Automation and distributed work let you find and manage great people anywhere, fast.

• Be faster and more flexible. Use digital platforms to hire across borders and time zones. Remove friction.

• Redefine management. Leaders should facilitate, not control.

• Design work around real problems. People aren’t task fillers. They’re problem-solvers. Build around that.

• Give teams autonomy. Let them figure out how to get the job done. That’s how agility happens.

• Make internal mobility easy. Let people move. Let them grow. Help them find the spot where they can do their best work.

• Be flexible on time and place. Embrace remote work. Embrace flexible schedules. Remove barriers that exclude great talent.

• Use tech to empower, not replace. The future isn’t man or machine. It’s man plus machine. Use tech to lift your people, not eliminate them.

Until now, the system worked like this: you learned what you needed for your job before starting your career. Or at most, in its early years. You studied, built your knowledge base, and then applied it at work.

Maybe you added a few technical skills along the way. Took some corporate training courses, half-listening while answering emails. Nodded through “professional development” sessions that felt outdated the moment they began.

Meanwhile, the world raced ahead. Fast. And your skills? Not so much.

Stop the World, I Need to Learn!

Here’s the thing: when schools and universities try to chase the latest trends, they almost always fail. Foundational education needs stability, it can’t constantly scramble to keep up with a world that shifts in real time.

And let’s be honest: no school, no university, no company can train you fast enough to keep pace with innovation today. The idea of a complete education, one that sets you up for life, is an illusion.

Instead, we need a two-track education system, one that works through different channels and at different speeds. Think of it like the two hemispheres of a brain.

First Brain: Thinking

The first hemisphere is foundational education, and it needs to go deeper than ever. It should focus on the liberal arts, timeless disciplines, and the classic pillars of thought—fields that don’t need constant updates but serve as the bedrock of civilization.

History, philosophy, literature, logic, mathematics, aesthetics, these aren’t outdated subjects. They’re what train us to think critically, analyze, interpret, and see the world with a sharp, discerning eye.

Traditional institutions still have a role to play here, but only if they stop treating education like a one-time event. Schools and universities should be lifelong partners, not just a box you check off at the start of your career.

Second Brain: Experimenting

The second hemisphere is practical education, and it’s becoming more self-directed, hands-on, and constant.

This kind of learning won’t come from schools or companies anymore. It’s shifting to individuals. And it’s not about following pre-packaged study plans. It’s about rolling up your sleeves, playing with tools, breaking things, fixing them, experimenting, and learning as you go.

No textbooks. No theory-first approach. Just real-world problems that demand real-time solutions.

Technical education will no longer be something you “complete” before starting your job. It will be something you do while working, shaped by curiosity, necessity, and trial-and-error.

The Centaur Professional

The professionals of the future won’t be choosing between structure and improvisation, deep knowledge and hands-on experimentation. They’ll need to master both.

They’ll have to train their critical thinking to recognize how the world is shifting, so they can adapt before they’re forced to.

At the same time, they’ll need an instinct for experimentation, a curiosity for new tools, emerging technologies, and unconventional solutions.

This is what Seth Godin calls the Centaur Professional—a hybrid worker built for the future. A mind grounded in humanistic thinking, but with powerful arms and legs, amplified by technology.

The New Rules

For You

A new wave of professionals is emerging, with access to tools more powerful than anything we’ve seen. Even more transformative than the internet.

The internet gave us access to unlimited knowledge. But then it drowned it in noise: SEO-optimized garbage, clickbait, misinformation. You had to work to separate signal from noise.

AI changes the game. It’s a great equalizer, an always-on, always-available knowledge engine that clears away the distractions and gives instant access to expertise.

So the real challenge won’t be finding knowledge anymore. It will be choosing to use it.

The future belongs to those who step into this new age of abundance, explore the vast knowledge available, and put it to work.

This isn’t just a challenge for professionals. It’s a challenge for the next generation of humans.

For Your Organization

Let’s get straight to it: give every employee access to pro-level AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity.

For the price of a few coffees a month, you’ll supercharge their productivity, and by extension, your company’s. It’s a better investment than free dental cleanings.

But giving people access isn’t enough. You also need to create space for learning and experimentation in your workflows.

Make room for those who push the boundaries, because they’ll be the ones leading your organization forward. If these people aren’t already inside your company (and they might not be), find them outside and embed them into your processes.

Once, the tinkerer—the experimenter, the “nerd” constantly questioning things—was seen as a corporate nuisance. The one who complicated workflows, annoyed project managers, and refused to follow the script.

Now, those people should be at the center of your organization.

Bringing experimenters from the edges to the core of your business is the smartest way to future-proof your company, and make sure people are the ones using machines, not the other way around.

A few weeks ago, Fiverr—yes, that Fiverr—unveiled Fiverr Go, a customizable AI tool built to turbocharge individual productivity.

Fiverr is all about people, talent, creativity. That’s their bread and butter. So when a major player like this announces it’s time to buddy up with AI, you should sit up and pay attention.

What they’re really saying? It’s not enough to just be human anymore.

So, who’s going to pay you now?

Here’s the question you can’t ignore: if AI can take on more and more work every single day, what’s the actual value of human effort anymore?

We’re not talking about just writing copy, creating visuals, or editing videos. AI can now brainstorm, research, plan, compose music, and translate into any language you can imagine. It does it all in seconds, and it does it for free—or close enough that it might as well be free.

So, let’s not sugarcoat it.

The old value game is over

Every technological revolution has the same outcome: the value shifts.

Remember what the internet did? It took the cost of distributing information and obliterated it. Sharing an article or a song online suddenly cost nothing. The floodgates opened, and now we’re drowning in content.

In that chaos, anyone with a smartphone became their own publishing house. YouTube alone sees over 500 hours of video uploaded every minute—that’s more than 34 years’ worth of content every single day.

And what do we do with all this content? We stopped paying for it. It’s everywhere, it’s free, and there’s too much of it. Those who once thrived by controlling distribution are done for. But that doesn’t mean the money vanished—it just moved.

The creator economy is booming, not because the content itself became valuable, but because the creators—their identities—are the only thing that stands out in the noise. What people actually pay for now is the person behind the work. The unique perspective. The story. The voice.

We no longer buy an article or a photo. We buy a worldview. A distinct style. A personality. Authenticity has become currency. Authority sells. A great story from a unique voice beats a thousand generic posts.

Now it’s your turn to sell yourself

This shift isn’t just happening in creative fields. It’s coming for everything: consulting, data analysis, finance, even medicine. AI is generating code, crunching numbers, diagnosing illnesses, and drafting entire business strategies.

What took teams of experts weeks to accomplish can now be done by a bot in seconds. Cheap. Effortless. On-demand. That’s why billing by the hour is headed straight for the trash. The old way of earning—trading time for money—is no longer a viable option.

No one’s going to pay you for “hours worked” anymore. What they’ll pay for is your perspective, your judgment, your ability to interpret context and inspire confidence. Your value lies in how you think, not what you do.

You won’t get hired to “complete tasks.” You’ll get hired because of your reputation, because people trust you to steer the ship. Your role will shift to adding meaning and direction to the flood of AI output.

You’re the only scarcity left

In a world where algorithms are cranking out infinite content, what’s scarce is you. Your humanity. Your originality.

When every image, every article, and every plan can be generated instantly, the rare and precious thing is your perspective, your unique way of seeing the world.

An algorithm can’t replace your lived experiences or your worldview. That’s your edge. In the economy of tomorrow, your story, credibility, and unique perspective will be the real currency. Work itself will be redefined around the most human qualities we have.

So, if you’re still thinking about tasks, you’re asking the wrong question. The question is: what makes you irreplaceable? What’s the one thing that sets you apart from even the best AI?

The new rules

For individuals

You need to double down on your identity. Build a reputation. Make a name for yourself. But most importantly, develop an original perspective. Find your unique angle. Ask yourself: what do I see that no one else sees? That’s where your value lies.

Don’t fight the AI—use it. Learn the tools. Automate the busywork so you can focus on what makes you stand out. Get good at orchestrating AI’s strengths to amplify your own. Make sure the technology highlights your individuality, rather than burying it.

For organizations

It’s time to rethink how you measure and reward work. Stop paying for hours. Start paying for impact.

Look beyond technical skills. Hire people for their vision and authenticity. Find the ones who bring unique value through their perspectives. Instead of task executors, you need idea curators.

The organizations that thrive in this new world will be the ones that understand the shift. They’ll pay people to interpret data, not generate it. They’ll pay for connections, insight, and meaning. They’ll reward individuals who can give life and context to machine-driven results.

This is the new game. And you better learn how to play.

In recent years, one of the most significant trends in business has been personalization.

Thanks to digital technologies and the growing availability of data on people’s behaviors and preferences, companies have been able to personalize products and experiences.

Everything is chosen, selected, and designed “just for you.”

While companies often offer the highest level of personalization to their customers, internally, they still operate in a completely standardized way. The same processes, the same policies, the same workflows, regardless of individual differences and preferences.

The Progression of Productivity

What does personalizing the work experience really mean?

It means moving away from pre-set, one-size-fits-all processes and workflows and embracing flexible, adaptable methods that can cater to each person’s unique needs and inclinations. It’s about giving people the freedom to choose where, how, and with which tools they work.

It was 1998 when Pine and Gilmore wrote Welcome to the Experience Economy. They explain how personalizing a product can turn it from a simple item into a service, and from a service into an experience. The more personalized a product is, the greater its value becomes, and we can charge more for it. An experience is the highest level a product can reach in terms of personalization, allowing it to achieve its maximum perceived value.

What would happen if we applied the principles of the Experience Economy to work? By progressively increasing the level of personalization in the way we work, we could transform standardized tasks—tasks reduced to mere commodities, done only out of necessity—into meaningful and transformative work experiences, generating greater value both for employees and the organization.

In other words, when an organization creates personalized work experiences tailored to the specific needs of its employees—rather than applying the same rules and policies for everyone—it can increase both productivity and the value it generates.

Start with the Team, Focus on Results

So, how do we implement such a transformation?

Start with the smallest unit: the team.
Then prioritize the outcome: the effectiveness and quality of the output matter more than processes and tools.

The team can decide autonomously how to work: remotely or in the office, scheduling meetings or working asynchronously, choosing tools, methods, and strategies. They can adjust their approach depending on the project and the goals.

A team is a small, agile unit that can experiment and adapt quickly. Moreover, a team responsible for a product or service is close to customers and the dynamics of the market, so it is in the best position to tailor its workflow to deliver results.

Company OS

So, is it a free-for-all? Does everyone just do whatever they want, and we meet at the Christmas party?

Of course not.

To do this, they need to implement an operating system: a platform that facilitates the exchange, tracking, and access to information.

This way, even while working autonomously, everyone can contribute to the organization’s goals, collaborate with other teams, and build on what has already been accomplished. They will also follow the company’s core values and have equal access to resources and opportunities.

Haier, the Chinese company that transformed its monolithic structure into an ecosystem of autonomous, independent micro-enterprises, built a digital platform to circulate internal information and exchange resources.

This platform allows each team to organize their work freely, guided only by the goal of delivering the best possible product to customers.

From this perspective, personalization is not just a strategy for talent acquisition or retention. It’s a business strategy that, in the coming years, could become essential for driving innovation and staying competitive.

In Practice

For You

Build your own workstyle. Reflect on your work habits, your preferred modes of interaction and learning, what you love doing, and what you dislike. Learn to ask yourself the right questions, then write down or note the answers so you can communicate them easily to others. This way, it will be easier for those working with you to adapt and implement personalized strategies that fit your needs.

What’s important is to emphasize that your workstyle isn’t a whim—it’s a way to express your talent in the best way possible, to set yourself up to do what you do best. In the future, the uniqueness of your workstyle could become your greatest strength, a distinguishing trait that sets you apart from other professionals and from the tools that will learn to do your job.

For Your Organization

Find the differences. As tools become more and more standardized, more powerful, and capable of automating tasks, what will truly make the difference isn’t so much the ability of a person to perform a task or follow a workflow.

What will matter more is the person themselves: the way they think, how they use the tools, but also their personal history, their unique experiences, and the things they have lived through that have shaped their one-of-a-kind approach to work.

For organizations, it will become increasingly important to recognize and value this uniqueness, which means creating room for diverse work methods.

For a long time, career growth was all about managing people. Success was measured by how many people you could tell what to do.

That’s changing. In the knowledge economy, the most valuable skill is managing yourself—understanding who you are and what conditions enable you to do your best work, collaborate effectively, and achieve results.

This isn’t my idea—it’s Peter Drucker’s. In 2005, he published an article in the Harvard Business Review called Managing Oneself. It lays out a real framework for self-management, with key principles and sharp questions designed to help you understand yourself and structure your work.

Back then, Drucker’s insight was revolutionary. Twenty years later, it’s an essential operating manual for anyone who works.

What can you actually do?

It sounds like a simple question, but it’s not. We often have a skewed perception of our own strengths, confusing them with what we enjoy or what feels easy.

Peter Drucker’s solution? Feedback analysis. Every time you make a decision or start a project, write down what you expect to happen. Then, 9–12 months later, compare your expectations with the actual results.

This method reveals what you’re truly good at—and what you’re not. And here’s the hard truth: some things just aren’t worth your time. Don’t fall for the myth that you should improve at everything. It makes sense to go from good to great, but trying to upgrade from incompetence to mediocrity is often a waste of energy.

So, if you want to focus on what you really bring to the table, ask yourself:

• What do I do well and naturally?

• Where do I achieve the best results?

• What activities consistently lead to failure?

How do you work?

Seems obvious, right? Not quite.

Most of the time, we adapt to tools and methods chosen by others. We squeeze ourselves into systems that don’t fit, forcing productivity into structures that work against us rather than for us.

Understanding how you work best—and making that clear to others—is crucial for building smooth, productive workflows.

Too often, these differences are buried under rigid processes. But knowing them can change everything—how projects succeed, how leaders lead, and how colleagues collaborate. It saves time, energy, and frustration.

Again, improvement should work with your natural tendencies, not against them. You won’t fundamentally change your nature—so ask yourself:

• Do I work better alone or in a group?

• Am I an advisor or a leader?

• Do I thrive as a decision-maker or as a mentor?

• Do I perform well under pressure, or do I need a calm environment?

• Do I function best in a large organization or a small one?

What do you believe in?

If it were just about avoiding the bad guys, it’d be simple. If your company makes you hate the person in the mirror every morning, you quit.

But values aren’t just a moral issue—they’re an operational principle. They shape how you make decisions in work and business.

Misalignment between personal and organizational values isn’t always obvious. But over time, it leads to frustration, inefficiency, and wasted energy. That’s why defining—and defending—your values isn’t just ethical; it’s practical. Even when it means walking away from something you’re good at or something that’s working. Because ultimately, it will lead you to something even better.

Ask yourself:

• What values are non-negotiable for me?

• Does the organization I work for share these values?

• What goals do I consider worth committing to?

What is your place?

Some people just know. At six years old, they say “doctor” when asked what they want to be—and that’s exactly what they become.

For others, it’s a process of discovery. They need to experiment, fail, pivot. Because sometimes, the place where we truly belong—the one where we operate at our best—isn’t the one we thought we were aiming for.

But we chase a goal anyway, forcing ourselves into roles and environments that don’t fit, that work against our natural strengths.

Often, knowing where you don’t belong is more useful than knowing where you’re headed. So ask yourself:

• Can I shape this role to fit me better?

• Can I manage relationships and processes in a way that aligns with my style?

• Are the expected results in sync with my values?

How do you contribute?

This is a modern problem. For millennia, work was obvious because there was no choice. Farmers plowed fields, craftsmen made goods, soldiers fought.

Even in the industrial era, work was clear-cut. Factory workers had defined tasks. Organizing work meant assigning roles—telling people exactly what to do.

But in the knowledge economy, no one tells us what to do anymore. That means one of the most critical skills today is the ability to choose: How can I contribute? What actually matters? How does my work create value?

It’s not just about what you want to do—it’s about finding the intersection between what you can do and the problems that need solving in your environment.

So ask yourself:

• What does the situation require?

• What are my strengths, and how can I use them best?

• What results do I want (and realistically can) achieve to make a real impact?

• Over what time span?

How do you collaborate?

Self-management isn’t just about you—it’s also about how you engage with others. No one drives an organization forward alone. We’re responsible not just for our actions but for our interactions.

And this isn’t just about being nice—it’s an operational strategy. Understanding the strengths, values, and working styles of your colleagues is essential to building something that actually works.

Equally important? Making sure others understand your way of working—what you do, how you do it, and what you expect. Because collaboration isn’t about forcing everyone into the same mold; it’s about aligning different operating systems so they can work together effectively.

So, ask others—and make sure they know your answers, too:

• What are you working on?

• How do you prefer to do it?

• What results are you aiming for?

• What resources do you need?

Knowledge workers are unmanageable in the traditional sense—their skills and working methods don’t fit into rigid organizational structures. That’s exactly why self-management is essential.

To work effectively, they need to understand their own operating model and communicate it clearly to others. Without this, they risk being trapped in outdated systems that stifle their potential. But when they take control of how they work, they can break free from rigid structures and create meaningful, high-impact work.

In practice

Today’s article is a practical framework for self-knowledge and self-management. It’s essentially an answer to a key question:

How can we present our work beyond the CV?

The first step is mapping individual capabilities and working styles—whether by answering Drucker’s questions or using similar frameworks, like the Manual of Me.

This kind of mapping doesn’t just help individuals articulate their strengths—it allows organizations to understand not just skills and experience, but also the operational strategies that define how people actually work.