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Reinventing Jobs
Ravin Jesuthasan & John Boudreau
In a sentence
A practical four-step framework for leaders to deconstruct jobs into tasks and optimally combine human and automated work rather than asking which jobs robots will replace.
Reinventing Jobs cuts through the hype and fear about AI and robotics to give leaders a disciplined, actionable method for applying automation. Instead of the dead-end question 'which jobs will automation replace?', Jesuthasan and Boudreau show that the real payoff comes from deconstructing jobs into their component tasks, understanding the value of improved performance on each task (return on improved performance, or ROIP), matching each task to the right type of automation (robotic process automation, cognitive automation, or social robotics), and then optimally recombining human and automated work into reinvented jobs. Drawing on decades of consulting and research across banking, oil and gas, healthcare, insurance, manufacturing, and retail, the book extends this logic to the organization, to leadership, and to individuals' own careers, offering a language and framework for the constant, nuanced work of perpetual reinvention.
The four lenses
- Science
- Statistics
- Systems
- Strategy
The model
A causal/framework model in which deconstructing jobs into tasks and characterizing task attributes and return on improved performance drives selection of automation type and role, which combine to produce optimized human-automation work, ultimately affecting strategic outcomes; organizational alignment and leadership practices moderate whether work-level optimization yields organizational value.
Job Deconstructiondesign lever
The practice of breaking a job into its component work tasks so that automation compatibility and payoff can be assessed at the task level rather than treating the whole job as an indivisible unit.
Task Characteristics (Repetitive/Variable, Independent/Interactive, Physical/Mental)contextual condition
The three-dimensional profile of a work task describing how repetitive versus variable, independent versus interactive, and physical versus mental it is, which together determine its compatibility with different automation types.
Return on Improved Performance (ROIP)psychological state
The relationship between the level of performance on a work task and the strategic value it creates, expressed as one of four prototype curves: reduce mistakes, reduce variance, incremental value, or exponential value.
Automation Type Selectiondesign lever
The choice among robotic process automation, cognitive automation, and social/collaborative robotics for a given task, based on task characteristics and the required payoff, recognizing that types often converge.
Automation Role (Substitute, Augment, Create)design lever
Whether automation substitutes for human work, augments human capability, or creates entirely new work that could not exist without combining humans and machines.
Optimized Human-Automation Work Combinationbehavioral pattern
The reinvented job or process resulting from combining deconstructed tasks, ROIP analysis, automation type, and automation role into the optimal balance of human and automated work.
Organizational Alignment (Structure, Power, Rewards, Culture, Information)contextual condition
The degree to which organizational elements such as structure, decision rights, accountability, information sharing, rewards, and culture are redesigned to support reinvented human-automation work.
Leadership Practices for Perpetual Reinventiondesign lever
Leader behaviors that orchestrate constantly reinvented work, including transparency, trust-building, continuous reskilling mindset, deployment via work architecture, and enabling-skill development.
Worker Trust and Transparencypsychological state
The extent to which workers trust leaders and the organization enough to openly share how their work is evolving and where automation could replace or augment their tasks.
Strategic Outcomes (Cost, Risk, Quality, Speed, Innovation)outcome metric
The organizational results sought from automation, including reduced cost and risk, improved quality and speed, greater agility, customer responsiveness, and innovation.
How they connect
- job deconstruction → predicts task characteristics
- job deconstruction → predicts return on improved performance
- task characteristics → influences automation type selection
- return on improved performance → influences automation role
- automation type selection → predicts optimized work combination
- automation role → predicts optimized work combination
- optimized work combination → predicts strategic outcomes
- organizational alignment → moderates strategic outcomes
- leadership practices → predicts worker trust transparency
- worker trust transparency → influences optimized work combination
- leadership practices → moderates strategic outcomes
The story
The reader A leader (CEO, CHRO, CIO, or manager) who wants to apply automation and AI in their organization to gain competitive advantage without needlessly disrupting or misusing their workforce.
External problem
AI and robotics are arriving fast, and the leader must decide where, when, and how to automate work without a reliable method for doing so.
Internal problem
They feel stuck, anxious, and caught between apocalyptic and utopian hype, unsure whether they will make costly mistakes or fall behind.
Philosophical problem
Framing automation as simply 'which humans will robots replace?' is plain wrong—it is a dead-end question that ignores how work and automation actually evolve.
The plan
- Deconstruct jobs into their component work tasks.
- Assess the return on improved performance (ROIP) for each task.
- Identify automation options (RPA, cognitive automation, social robotics).
- Optimize work by choosing the best human-automation combination and reinventing jobs.
- Redesign the organization and leadership to support reinvented work.
- Apply the framework to your own career and engage workers in perpetual, transparent conversation.
Success
- Optimal, nuanced combinations of human and automated work that advance strategic goals.
- Reduced cost and risk with increased speed, quality, and innovation.
- An agile, engaged, continuously reskilling workforce and a future-ready organization.
- Leaders who orchestrate perpetually reinvented work with trust and transparency.
At stake
- Wasteful, harmful generic automation that cuts costs but creates unforeseen problems.
- Missed strategic benefits from deep, systemic change.
- A workforce that is insecure, resentful, disengaged, or unavailable.
- Disruptive, painful, poorly timed job losses that damage the organization and community.
Questions this book answers
- Which job tasks—not whole jobs—are best suited to automation?
- What is the payoff of automating a given task (how does performance create value)?
- What kinds of automation are possible and which fits which work?
- What does the optimal combination of human and automated work look like?
- How does reinventing jobs change the organization, leadership, and individual careers?
Glossary
- Job Deconstruction
- The analytical practice of separating a job into its discrete component work tasks so that automation compatibility and value can be evaluated at the task level.
- Task Characteristics (Repetitive/Variable, Independent/Interactive, Physical/Mental)
- The three-dimensional attribute profile of a task that determines its compatibility with automation types.
- Return on Improved Performance (ROIP)
- The functional relationship between how well a task is performed and the strategic value that performance creates.
- Automation Type Selection
- The determination of which automation category best fits a task given its characteristics and required payoff.
- Automation Role (Substitute, Augment, Create)
- The functional relationship automation takes toward human work: replacing it, enhancing it, or generating new work.
- Optimized Human-Automation Work Combination
- The reinvented job or process that results from combining task characteristics, ROIP, automation type, and automation role into the best balance of human and automated work.
- Organizational Alignment (Structure, Power, Rewards, Culture, Information)
- The degree to which organizational design elements are reconfigured to support reinvented human-automation work.
- Leadership Practices for Perpetual Reinvention
- The set of leader behaviors that orchestrate continuously reinvented work through mindset, ability, reward, deployment, and development shifts.
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