The ability to organize is our most valuable social technology. Organizing affects an enterprise’s efficiency, effectiveness, and ability to adapt. Modern organizations operate in increasingly complex, dynamic environments, which puts a premium on adaptation. Compared to traditional organizations, modern organizations are flatter and more open to their environment. Their processes are more generative and interactive – actors themselves generate and coordinate solutions rather than follow hierarchically devised plans and directives. Modern organizations search outside their boundaries for resources wherever they may exist. They coproduce products and services with suppliers, customers, and partners. They collaborate, both internally and externally, to learn and become more capable. In this book, leading voices in the field of organization design articulate and exemplify how a combination of agile processes, artificial intelligence, and digital platforms powers adaptive, sustainable, and healthy organizations.

Digital technologies have made it possible for people to work from literally anywhere in the world, as long as they have the right devices and Wi-Fi (Torten et al., 2016). At the same time, the number of self-employed workers is growing rapidly. This group usually does not have an office in a firm they can go to every day, to work. Digital technologies open up an array of possibilities. Working is possible anywhere and anytime. Self-employed workers can choose to work from home, a rented hot desk in a co working space, in coffee-shops, hotel lobbies, and even on the beach in a sunny resort on a beautiful island. In this chapter, the focus lies on self-employed workers who work in hotel lobbies that were not primarily designed as co-working spaces.