Unique(s): praise for uniqueness and the companies that make it possible

This post is a review of a French book that has not been translated into other languages but that’s no reason not to share here its message and the thoughts it inspired me.

It’s been a very long time since I’ve talked about a book here and the pile of books I promised myself to read and review here is starting to reach an impressive height. Better late than never I decided to start re-feeding this column and the first book I’m going to talk about is Unique(s) by Alexandre Pachulski.

All unique? So what?

We are all unique. It’s a statement that no one will dare to argue against and it’s when we express our uniqueness that we are both better at what we do and more fulfilled.

So far we are all in agreement.

But how to make this uniqueness exist in a company built to be scalable thanks to individuals who all fit into a single mold? For a company to understand the interest of building itself in a way that values and exploits the singularity of each individual, it is necessary to rethink the notion of work: it is only by leaving a standardized vision of it that we will push the company to reinvent itself.

But before reaching this point, the subject of this transformation, the employee, us, you, me, must first be aware of his singularity and of the interest he will have in valuing it rather than shamefully hiding it.

And why, moreover, should we ask this question now when we have succeeded very well otherwise? Because, like it or not, Artificial Intelligence is already here, in the world of work, and its footprint will only grow in the future. This raises the traditional question of whether AI will coexist with humans or replace them and, for the first hypothesis to be realized, what humans have that AI will never be able to imitate or replace. And the answer to this question is simple: it is its uniqueness.

The Individual, Work, the Business.

Here you have the 4 parts of Alexander Pachulski’s book:

The individual: how does he build his singularity, how can he be aware of it, how can he affirm it.

Work: moving from a job that is imposed on us, where we follow a trajectory defined for others by fitting into a mold, to a job that is fulfilling because we play our own role in it.

The business: because it is the business that organizes the meeting of the individual and the work

Technology: how to make it an ally so you don’t have to fear it

The Journey towards one’s own uniqueness

I am not going to summarize the book and its contents here because Alexander Pachulski avoids the trap of stating his truths chapter by chapter leaving the reader to digest them and make them his own.

What he proposes instead is more of a journey with, for each of us, food for thought on one’ s own personal construction, one’ s conception of work, of the company one wants to join or build, of one’ s relationship to technology.

Everyone will read the same thing and come away with a different interpretation: their own.

But in the course of the journey, one will also have learned things or learnt to question things to which one did not pay attention any more with regard to angles and new elements of reflection brought by the author.

And finally, what makes Unique(s) unique is the frame of reference that Alexandre Pachulski uses to build his storytelling. Stories from life and the office? No. Alexandre is a fan of the 7th art and has an outstanding cinematographic culture. Each step of the reflection is therefore referenced to a movie: its history, its context, its imagination, its characters are used to allow the reader to reflect and project himself…but in a universe disconnected enough from reality to force him to take a step back because he cannot apply a ready-made recipe.

The circle is closed because it is all the singularity of the author which is found in the …unique tone of the book…….

Enjoy your reading!

Bertrand DUPERRIN
Bertrand DUPERRINhttps://www.duperrin.com/english
Head of People and Business Delivery @Emakina / Former consulting director / Crossroads of people, business and technology / Speaker / Compulsive traveler
Head of People and Business Delivery @Emakina / Former consulting director / Crossroads of people, business and technology / Speaker / Compulsive traveler
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