Rahaf Harfoush is a Strategist, Digital Anthropologist, and New York Times Best-Selling Author who focuses on the intersections between emerging technology, innovation, and digital culture. Rahaf was part of President Barak Obama’s digital team that masterminded the role of social media in his 2008 election campaign. She is the Executive Director of the Red Thread Institute of Digital Culture and teaches “Innovation & Emerging Business Models” at Sciences Politique’s school of Management and Innovation in Paris. She is currently working on her fourth book. Rahaf is a member of France’s National Digital Council. In 2021 she joined The Oxford Internet Institute as a Visiting Policy Fellow.
Her third book, entitled Hustle & Float – Reclaim Your Creativity and Thrive in a World Obsessed with Work, was released in 2019. She has been featured by Bloomberg, The CBC, CTV, and Forbes for her work on workplace culture.
1) How to rethink our relationship with productivity?
- Measuring performance and productivity is not per se a bad thing, quite the opposite. The problem lies in the outdated model still in use despite owing its ideological origins to the industrial revolution. As such, it inadequately meters performance, recognizing only non-stop working while ignoring the negative impact this has on creativity. According to such a model not actively working equals wasting time.
- In today’s knowledge economy, productivity equates to the creativity required to problem solve. It is impossible to be creative non-stop.
- A work culture that glorifies lack of sleep and always on is harming the very qualities needed to perform well. A new model to measure performance must incorporate downtime/rest/vacations – all vital to maintain an effective level of creativity.
- Presenting ‘new’ models in the form of experiments to be judged on their results is an effective way of beginning to change mindsets. Recent experiments of a 4-day week in Iceland and New Zealand yielded improved employee wellbeing with no drop in productivity.
2) Is the Great Resignation phenomenon vindicating the thesis of your book?
- The pandemic incited many to re-think their relationship with work. For some there has been a recalibration of priorities and the conclusion that work is not the only thing that defines success.
- However, for others, home working and the consequent blurring of work/life divides has led to an increase in unhealthy work habits.
3) How will the culture of work evolve in the post-pandemic era.
- The future depends on how willing we are to have uncomfortable conversations around the importance of work and what constitutes reasonable employer expectations.
- Beware of wellbeing-washing. Workplace policies must address the root causes of stress and burn out and the corporate attitudes that feed into them.
- These attitudes vary according to context and culture, but the iteration of the American dream and its celebration of a relentless work ethic has been exported by global companies like Amazon.
- One of the biggest problems standing in the way of change are the irrational opponents ready to nay say the data for ideological reasons and those who take the attitude “I suffered so must they”.
