The Washington Post carried a poignant illustration of the more subtle, but very palpable social costs fixed work schedules which not only constrain family coordination, but also concentrate use of shared community resources, namely roads. It described in detail the challenges of families sharing a simple activity of school sports.

“Late-arriving parents and coaches show up in suits instead of shorts, their hands clutching BlackBerrys instead of mitts. Kids, who wear their uniforms to school and can imagine nothing as terrible as a rainy day, are robbed of pregame practices and must wait to play until as late as 7:30 at night — almost a half-hour after the first pitch is thrown out for Nationals games at RFK Stadium. The children's games end at or past bedtime, leaving little room for homework and — worse to Little Leaguers — the traditional after-game trip for pizza or ice cream. And leagues struggle to sign up coaches, volunteers and umpires who can commit to arriving on time.”

Dynamic Work is all about preserving key assets: economic resources, environmental resources and social resources. Concerning the lattermost, Steve Doughty, Social Affairs Correspondent at The Daily Mail, has been running a number of pieces on attitudes and trends in two income families.

The entry of women in the workplace in the post-war era has been one of the major drivers of productivity gains of the twentieth century. Women have brought contributions to the economy, new opportunities for achievement and satisfaction for themselves, and higher living standards to their families. Doughty’s article “Number of stay-at-home mums drops 25pc in 15 years as they become 'a luxury'” highlights how much the trend has continued unabated in recent years half a century and two generations since Rosie the Riveter.

But these gains have not been with out their costs. Doughty’s piece “'Superwoman is a myth' say modern women because 'family life suffers with working mums'” highlights the stresses and trade-offs inherent in juggling work and home life. He quotes Professor Jacqueline Scott of Cambridge University: 'Some people are now starting to have second thoughts. In most cases, this appears to revolve around concerns that the welfare of children and the family are being compromised the more women spend their time at work.'

Innovative approaches to Dynamic Work is going to be one of the keys to bridging the gap between the demands for even further growth of two income families and the counter balancing demands for maintaining a healthy family life and household.

With $140/barrel crude oil and melting ice caps, the focal justifications for increased flexibility in the workplace have centred on the economic and environmental benefits. But a critical third resource is just as pivotal in the business case for dynamic work – people. While inexpensive energy and technological advances have been pillars of productivity growth, one of the greatest drivers to post-war growth has been new entrants into the labour force. Rosie the Riveter and a range of new occupations pulled the fairer sex into its ranks in the demands of wartime and the workforce never looked back.

The rise of women in the workplace has brought new freedoms and opportunities, but it has also brought with it new stresses and challenges. One of the best explorations of these challenges is Elizabeth Warren’s Jefferson Memorial Lecture at University California Berkeley “The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class” (see above).

Families are in essence now saying that they are largely content to provide two economic units in the workplace to continue to provide resources for growth and productivity, but with so much of the family human resource so engaged, something has to give on the business side. Without the resilience of a ‘homemaker’ to attend to the critical needs of ‘Family Incorporated,’ the businesses need to enable the flexibility for either of the adults to either (a) shift the timing of work, or (b) shift the location of work.

For example, if one needs to go home early to attend to a sick child/parent/boiler, they want to either be able to make it up in the evening or weekend or just shift the location of their work. This example is just one of many scenarios where the downside of having everyone of the adults in a given household working – either dual income or increasingly the rise of the single parent household – which are leading to increasing demands by these workers for a new mode of workstyle which is increasingly flexible and dynamic. The companies who exercise the vision and innovation to operate in these new modes will attract the best human capital at the most competitive prices.