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The Work Design Collaborative (WDC) has grown out of a groundbreaking research and development project, "The Future of Work" that began in early 2002. Jim Ware and Charlie Grantham joined forces and recruited several corporate sponsors to address questions about how the changing workforce, new technologies, and new workplace designs were changing the very nature of work.

WDC now represents the combined interests, resources, and experiences of Jim and Charlie over the past 25 years. Our partnership has grown out of 10 years of collaborative research and consulting in information technology, human resources, and facilities management (for more detailed descriptions of our personal backgrounds, please read our bios).

One important milestone in our development has been the design and creation of a new business model we call the "Hollywood model" in acknowledgement of where we first came across the concept. We operate as "Executive Producers" who commit to turn a "story" idea (a business problem or a project concept) into reality. We then assemble the cast, crew, and other resources needed to make the "production" a reality and to create positive, cost-effective change.

Currently our major "production" is the Future of Work research program and all its activities. We're also investing heavily in a "Third Places" business venture, in developing new methods of workplace and workforce planning, and in several other workplace strategy and transition projects for individual clients.

We have also been active in CoreNet Global, the professional association for real estate and facilities executives; in IFMA, the International Facilities Management Association, and in IEDC, the International Economic Development Council. We speak frequently at national and local meetings of these and other professional associations.

In 2007, with the help of Cory Williamson, we published Corporate Agility (American Management Association), a book that chronicles our research over the past five years and describes the case for radical change in the way organizations plan and manage their networks of workplaces and their workforces.

We are also serving as Executive Directors of the Workplace Innovation and Performance Network (WIPN) that is managed by Executive Networks. For more information about WIPN and to apply for membership, please contact Mike Dulworth, CEO of Executive Networks, at +1 415.812.6952.

Today we are at the core of a continually growing network of practitioners, thought leaders, researchers, and consultants - all of whom are committed to providing organizations and individual knowledge workers with physical, social, and technology-based work environments that are both cost-effective and personally satisfying.

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