Designing a “Free-Range” Workplace

I can’t stop talking about the book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari.  I reference it like I used to talk about Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond.  It’s just so comprehensive, and so juicy that it can fit into any conversation.  I won’t give too much away, but there is a part in the book where Harari talks about the Agriculture Revolution (ca. 10,000 years ago) that struck me.  He isn’t all that crazy about it.  Most historians emphasize that this point in time was a really good thing for humans.  We didn’t have to roam around hunting, gathering and foraging, thinking about “what’s for dinner”  all the time.  With domesticated plants and animals, our ancient cities were born, along with increased crop yields, drought tolerance, and easier harvests.  The human population exploded globally, so at least from a “perpetuation of our species” perspective, times were really good.  But Harari points out that from an individual worker perspective, the move from forest to field was overall pretty miserable.  According to him,