Redesigning Work

Type and Format

• Type: This source is a book .
• Format details:
  • Published by Penguin Business (an imprint of Penguin Random House).
  • First published in 2022 .
  • Typical retail listings describe it as approximately 240–270 pages in length (exact page count varies slightly by edition and format).
  • Available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook editions.
• Where it lives:
  • Homepage
  • Google Books

The People Behind It

• Lynda Gratton is a professor of management practice at London Business School , where she has focused on the future of work, organizational behavior, and human resource strategy.
• She is the founder of the research consultancy HSM Advisory , which works with companies on “future of work” and people strategy issues and provides many of the cases and data in the book.
• Gratton has written several influential books on work and organizations, including The Shift and The 100-Year Life , which similarly explore how demographics, technology, and social change are reshaping work and careers.
• She is recognized globally as a thought leader on work design and has been listed among the top management thinkers by Thinkers50.

Catalog of Notable Works

• "Understand" — Lays out how leaders should rigorously gather data on how work is currently done, what employees value, and how networks and knowledge flows operate before changing anything.
• "Reimagine" — Encourages leaders to creatively envision future work arrangements, including hybrid models, by experimenting with time (when work happens) and place (where it happens), grounded in business strategy.
• "Model and Test" — Advocates building and simulating alternative work designs, pressure-testing them against core principles such as fairness, productivity, and inclusion before broad rollout. ^[pvvf8d]
• "Act and Create" — Focuses on implementation: how leaders role‑model new behaviors, co-create with employees, adjust HR systems, and ensure new ways of working become embedded rather than fads. ^[pvvf8d]
• "The Four-Step Process for Redesigning Work" — An integrative framework Gratton popularized (and later outlined in MIT Sloan Management Review) that runs through understanding people and jobs, reimagining work, modeling and testing, and acting so the redesign sticks. ^[pvvf8d]
• Case study chapters (various firms) — Interspersed throughout the book are case-based chapters showing how specific organizations applied hybrid and flexible work redesigns in different industries, offering concrete examples for practitioners.
• "The Great Redesign" — Connects the book’s ideas to the broader shift toward skills-based organizations and new talent models, arguing this redesign transforms how companies plan, deploy, and develop people. ^[2poiyc]

Why It Matters to Innovators

• It provides a four-step design framework (Understand → Reimagine → Model & Test → Act & Create) that innovators can treat like a playbook for redesigning jobs, workflows, and collaboration patterns, not just office layouts. ^[pvvf8d]
• Gratton insists leaders start with data on how work really happens —mapping networks, flows of knowledge, and what people value—before making changes, which aligns with evidence-based Organization Design and reduces the risk of shallow “flexibility theater.” ^[pvvf8d]
• The book reframes hybrid work as an opportunity to experiment with time and place as design variables , enabling new combinations of synchronous/asynchronous and on-site/remote work that can unlock productivity and autonomy. ^[pvvf8d]
• It highlights how skills and capabilities , rather than fixed roles, should drive work design—connecting closely to skills-based talent models and internal talent marketplaces that support continuous Business Model Innovation . ^{[ktv4qx] [2poiyc]}
• For corporate innovators, it’s a practical guide to change adoption : Gratton details how to involve employees in co‑creation, adjust HR systems, and use leadership role‑modeling to ensure new ways of working stick rather than being discarded at the first downturn. ^{[pvvf8d] [95btjk]}

Best Starting Points

• Redesigning Work — Penguin Business page — Best overview of the book’s promise and audience, with a concise description you can use to decide if it fits your current project.
• Redesigning Work — Google Books — Provides a searchable preview of key sections so you can skim the framework and case studies before buying.
• The Four-Step Process for Redesigning Work (MIT Sloan Management Review article) — Gratton’s article that distills the core methodology from the book into a short, practitioner-friendly summary. ^[pvvf8d]
• The Great Redesign: Redesigning work and how talent connects to it (Thinkers50 / HSM Advisory piece) — A complementary article that situates the book’s ideas in the broader move to skills-powered organizations. ^[2poiyc]

Adjacent Sources

• Lynda Gratton — Profile of the author and her wider body of work on the future of work and organizations.
• The 100 Year Life — Another Gratton co‑authored book on longevity and careers, which complements Redesigning Work ’s perspective on work design.
• The Shift — Gratton’s earlier exploration of long-term trends reshaping work, useful background for the assumptions built into Redesigning Work .
• Future of Work Reports — Research series on structural shifts in work and labor that provide macro context for Gratton’s firm-level design focus.
• Hybrid Work Design — Concept entry unpacking hybrid models of time and place in organizational design.
• Organization Design — Core conceptual toolkit that underpins Gratton’s practical four-step methodology.

Sources