Working, Not Flagging

The new internationalism has been made possible by work environments that make it easy.

I, an Irishman living in England, spent Tuesday and Wednesday sharing a platform with (amongst others) a woman who works for a French company describing her work in Belgium, an Italian describing his (excellent) work for his Swiss-owned cable company, someone whom I think was Croatian describing his work for a Norwegian mobile operator, an Egyptian describing his work in a telco in Saudi Arabia, and an Englishman working in Germany doing projects in Greece. We were speaking at a conference organised in the Czech Republic by an amazingly efficient producer who is half-Finnish and half-German and based in Estonia.

This growing comfort with international working is, I think, one of the most profound changes in business that I have witnessed over the past 10-15 years. Part of the change has been the EU's role in creating what it originally set out to be - a 'common market' - by enforcing a relaxation of international controls between its (seemingly ever-increasing) numbers. And part of the change has been the increasing willingness of people of all ages - but young people in particular - to uproot themselves and go somewhere else for work, recreation and learning.

These forces would not be enough, however, were it not for the creation of platforms like this conference for people to come together - and the acceptance of English as a (forgive me) lingua franca for common working. In other words, the need for change is not enough - people will only commonly change the ways they work if these new ways of working are made as easy as possible.

Just like any other change, in fact...

Mike