CONVERSATIONS WITH
SETH MATTISON
There are massive changes coming to the
spa industry’s workforce, changes that will
only be accelerated by the upheaval of
the COVID-19 pandemic. Seth Mattison,
thankfully, is here to help us navigate them.
Mattison is a worldrenowned
expert on
workforce trends and
the generational change
we’re currently
experiencing in the
workforce; his work
tracks how shifting
demographics will
necessitate a new style
of leadership. In his
book, The War at Work,
Mattison details how
reimagining leadership
and talent management
for the 2020s is the key
to building stronger,
more effective teams.
Pulse: The War at Work is different from the typical business book: it’s a narrative
told from the perspective of a C-Suite executive. Why did you decide to
structure the book this way?
MATTISON: The reason my co-author Joshua Medcalf and I decided to write
The War at Work as a parable is because most business books are terribly boring
and left only partially read. I read a statistic that said roughly 40 percent of nonfiction
books are read to completion. I have countless business books on my shelves
at home that are only half-read. Some I never made it past the first chapter!
Our primary focus with this project was to get people to read it and because
the premise of the work is fairly complex and nuanced, we didn’t want lose
people in the weeds of the research. Organizational psychology, network theory
and systems thinking don’t typically make for great bedtime reading for the
average leader out there.
With the intention of making the content digestible for everyone, Joshua and
I partnered with a fabulous Hollywood screenwriter to bring our research to life
through the power of a great story. A story with characters that everyone could
relate to, plot twists and even a surprise ending.
It made the project so much more fun and our hope is that it’s fun for people
to read.
P: What do you mean when you talk about hierarchies vs. networks at work?
M: Every single day we drink from a firehouse of information talking about
“new ways of working” and our steady march towards flatter, more agile
organizations. Hyper-connected, digitally charged and deeply empowering,
it promises to usher in a new era of work. However, what’s often left out of the
conversation is the fact that the structures, and more importantly the deeply
embedded culture of hierarchy, often still exist in our organizations manifesting
in subtle and sometimes explicit ways. Today these two forces, “hierarchies”
and “networks”—or what we might refer to as “structure” and “agility”—are at
battle with each other.
50 PULSE ■ JUNE 2020