Gig Mindset is a different kind of book on the gig economy. Almost all gig economy books focus on how to become a freelancer or some form of independent worker.
But Gig Mindset is about how companies and workers can use freelancers and other gig workers to save time, access needed skills and increase productivity.
In other words, instead of focusing on how to become part of the supply of gig workers, it covers the advantages of using gig workers.
The author, Paul Estes, was a busy Microsoft executive trying to balance work with life.
So to save time, he decided to off-load a few personal tasks to a virtual assistant.
This worked out so well he started using the virtual assistant at work and this quickly mushroomed into using a variety of freelancers in his work.
This led to him working on Microsoft's 365 freelance toolkit, a set of software tools that help corporations hire, work with and manage freelancers.
And it also inspired him to write this book.
The core of the book is about what Estes calls The T.I.D.E Model for integrating freelancers into workflows:
- Taskify — Break your roles and responsibilities down into a list of specified tasks and sequential steps.
- Identify — Clarify which work tasks you must do personally, and which tasks can be delegated to experts who can do them better than you.
- Delegate — Find the right experts in the Gig Economy, communicate your expectations, set milestones, and establish reporting and check-in systems.
- Evolve — Continue to grow and to find new and better ways to get more out of the Gig Economy for you and your company. This is where the real magic happens.
As Estes found in his work, approaching your job in this way increases productivity and improves work outcomes.
This is an important book because of it's focus on how to use nonemployee talent. Anyone who employs freelancers or works with a firm that uses nonemployee labor will find it useful.
But freelancers of all kinds will also find this book useful. It nicely explains how they can effectively work with clients and fit into corporate workflows.
Our firm has long used a similar approach to integrate freelancers and other suppliers into our workflows. So we felt like part of the choir while reading this book.
We highly recommend it.
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