It’s Charles Darwin’s birthday. The ‘survival of the fittest’ guy -- except, he didn’t actually say that. Darwin said survival is not about sheer strength. It’s about adaptation to your environment. Paying attention to clues, threats, information. Listening…with all your senses. Being open to changing the way you do everything, maybe even how you think of yourself. Are you a fish, or, since you grew legs, something else?

Ah, but when we’re most threatened, we resort to our comfort zone. We want to go back to the way things used to be when we were in control -- or thought we were. Line everyone up and dictate. Do as you’re told.Instead, the best way to survive is to pay close attention to the changes in the environment and adapt – innovate, try it a new way. Experiment and see what works now. Make it up.

We’re certainly in a threatening time. It’s a good time to try things differently. In fact, it might mean our survival.

Darwin saw the world as a ‘bottom-up’, user-generated world. He would have loved watching the wiki-revolution.

There is a shift – to cubicle-free work – and it’s a force of change that is undeniable.A bottom-up user-generated trend if there ever was one.Away from 9-to-5 workplaces to ways of working that are not places at all.

Where do you think it will head? Where should it? Give us your wild ideas.

Darwin would love overhearing the conversation. Maybe he is.