Logotel launches Weconomy UFO to explore a new business model

Imagine new forms of work, organization and balance, to improve well-being. Because, with the transformations triggered by Covid-19, the old models have stopped working. And most companies have already said they don’t want to go back to the past. The hybrid model – which mixes presence and remote, physical and digital – will soon become prevalent. But it hasn’t taken shape yet. In a situation of indefiniteness, possibilities and elements of risk coexist. With this awareness, the exploration of UFOs, the fifteenth issue of Weconomy, begins. Acronym which, in the interpretation of the book, means Unidentified Future Organizations. If the design of the world of work is changing, the design of organizations must change. And UFO is also an invitation to managers, scholars and designers to re-imagine the problems and challenges they face: in collaboration, in learning, in managing change, in creativity and in redefining what it means to be productive today. It certainly isn’t the same as scheduling multiple meetings, sending multiple emails or saving multiple documents on the cloud. We believe instead that these metrics are fallacious, because they lead to the increasingly frequent phenomena of burnout and isolation. Fears that we can no longer hide. Human Resources Forum 2021, Favini: “The new frontiers of work seen through the eyes of Logotel: here is UFO” “With UFO, we have set ourselves an ambitious goal: to put aside any technological recipe on smart working, to systematize the new ecosystem of relationships that we are seeing arise in hybrid environments. And thus investigate the emergence of new forms of bonds between people, work teams and communities ”, says Vincenzo Scagliarini, editorial manager of the project. The book collects insights from the business sectors in which the most relevant transformations are taking place, collecting over 30 testimonies and building a continuous dialogue with the world of research, coming into contact with authors such as Vanni Codeluppi (consumer sociologist, Catholic University), Thomas Hylland Eriksen (social anthropologist, University of Oslo) and Luciano Floridi (professor of philosophy and information ethics, University of Oxford). To then stimulate the debate with companies, deepening the affinities and differences in the approaches of traditional organizations (such as Enel and Intesa Sanpaolo), of companies with a long history of innovation (including the European Space Agency and Cisco) and of companies remote-first (like GitLab and Xero). UFO’s research work was also possible thanks to two years of experiences and experiments born in Logotel – independent design company, which has fueled Weconomy for 12 years – which has nourished the multidisciplinary and book perspective, expressed through the contributions of Gianluca Alderuccio ( Creative & Brand Director), Jessica Aroni (Partner and Learning Coordinator), Daniele Cerra (Partner and Digital Innovation Officer), Nicola Favini (General Manager) and Alice Manzoni (Senior Manager Design). “From the first lockdown, in fact, we started to imagine new ways to respond to the needs of our customers, communities, organizations and institutions. We immediately understood that, faced with the urgencies of blocked markets and a collaboration to be reactivated between distant collaborators – physically and mentally – we could not launch ourselves into planning an ideal and distant future. We had to acquire a multi-focal vision: to respond to today’s needs and lay the foundations to face the next major transformations, committing ourselves to providing better prospects “, explains Cristina Favini, Chief Design Officer of Logotel and founder of Weconomy. readers to navigate and interpret the changes, in UFO we have engaged in a systematization work that analyzes three dimensions: that of the ME (the new needs of people); of the WE (the perspective of the work teams, focal point of the collaboration); and the Super-WE (the distributed ecosystem that involves organizations, communities and territories). These three dimensions have shaped UFO’s relational approach, designed to thrive hybrid and distributed organizations. And it is based on: – The expansion of networks of influence, to generate new forms of closeness and presence – The consolidation of interdependent bonds, to re-read the hierarchies and the need for coordination – The design of rituals that – starting from new rhythms of collaboration between people and teams – allow exchanges, sharing, and well-being in an ecosystem that is less and less dependent on spaces and working times.Weconomy is one of the longest-running Logotel projects dedicated to fueling the debate on perspectives of a collaborative, inclusive and sustainable economy. Active for 12 years, it has always been free and covered by a creative commons license. All 15 issues of the project are available online on weconomy.it, in paper format, on the Android and iOS app and soon in podcast version.