Teamership: The internal gig economy
The principles of the gig economy impact individuals and organisations. Photo by Sargis Chilingaryan on Unsplash
There has been much written about the rise of the gig economy - where workers are engaged on an ad hoc basis, when and where work is needed. In our day to day life, we are engaging with the gig economy when we use a rideshare like Uber or get our food delivered by Deliveroo. The people doing the work that we see aren’t employed by those companies, they are engaged by that company and paid per job. We’re all still figuring out the best way for this to happen while balancing the needs of those workers, the companies and consumers. The point is that the idea of the gig economy being more commonplace is here and likely to stay.
For many larger organisations, this may feel like it’s a long way away - or that it is happening at the fringes of operations. Those companies are more likely to be outsourcing large functions of their business to partner organisations – either local or international than engaging people for ad hoc pieces of work.
Smaller companies are more readily outsourcing parts of their business that are essential to their operation, but not the core reason for existence – for example, I partner with awesome small business owners for my bookkeeping and graphic design. Many larger companies retain these functions in-house for a number of valid reasons. I would argue, however, that this doesn’t mean that they are not operating in a gig economy.
This is because work is being done away from the traditional hierarchy and structure of the organisational chart. Teams are popping up more rapidly than ever and without formal hiring or procurement processes. Up to 75% of teams that people are a part of don’t exist on the org chart.
The people that get chosen to work on these teams are those that others want to work with. Due to a combination of their technical skills, their interpersonal skills, their experience and their connections, some individuals are selected to be on projects, while others are not.
This is effectively an internal gig economy.
The implications of this are significant for individuals and organisations.
For individuals to continue to work on interesting and influential pieces of work that allow them to grow personally and professionally, they need to be attractive to these emergent teams. Likewise, if organisations wish to ensure that the full potential of their diverse workforce is given the opportunity to contribute, they need to go beyond formal approaches and ensure that there are ways of making sure that the full range of diverse talents that their people possess are included in these opportunities.
The need for Teamership behaviours from individuals is driven by the need for multiple teams at organisational level. The need for Teamership at organisational level is driven by the need to attract, engage, retain and develop talented people to work on important projects.
A few questions for you to consider this week:
How many of the teams that you are on at work do not exist on the org chart?
What would make someone choose to work have you on their team?
Do you make your teams attractive for people to choose to be a part of?