Studies by Catalyst and McKinsey have shown convincing correlations between gender diversity in leadership and bottom line results. Catalyst has shown higher returns among companies with more women at senior levels and on boards of directors. McKinsey has found that European companies with a higher proportion of women in top management outperformed their competitors on both qualitative and financial measures. These experts do not profess that there is a causal link between having more women and the bottom line. But, as the McKinsey report notes, the facts “can only argue in [favor] of greater gender diversity.”

Since industrialization took hold in the mid-1800s, the shape of work in the U.S. has remained consistent, in that an employer hires a worker to do a pre-defined job. Sometimes the person hired is good at doing the job and sometimes they are merely acceptable. And of course, there are times that a worker completely fails in accomplishing what the employer needs done.

Experiments all around us are challenging this work model. Cutting-edge management types are inverting the model, so instead of asking employees to fit themselves into a pre-designed job description they ask what the employee needs to be satisfied in their work and then they fit the work to the person. And they call this “engagement.”