The Journal
Explore The Workforce Current issue by issue: practical insight into building-trades workforce systems and labor-management relationships.
New here? Start with these three issues
Trust Is the Real Collective Bargaining Agreement
Understand why trust between negotiations shapes what happens at the bargaining table.
Workforce at the Speed of Strategy
Examine the gap between strategic ambition and the time needed to develop capability.
The Front Line is Where Strategy Becomes Real
See how supervisors and crews turn enterprise priorities into everyday decisions.
Browse by topic
- Labor-Management Relationships — Bargaining, trust, representation and the everyday decisions that shape working relationships.
- Workforce Planning & Delivery — Building the capability, capacity and coordination needed to deliver the work.
- Apprenticeship & Craft Development — Training systems, career pathways and developing the next generation of craft professionals.
- Frontline Leadership — Turning strategy into decisions, resolving problems and leading where the work happens.
LATEST ISSUE
Labor Relations Under Pressure
Read this issue →: Labor Relations Under PressurePressure reveals the strength of a labor relationship. When urgency rises, clarity, speed, candor, boundaries, and recovery become critical. The real test is whether management and labor can respond to pressure, preserve legitimate authority, and resolve difficult issues without undermining…
The issue collection
What makes a labor relationship work between negotiations? Current 015 examines the everyday routines that connect commitments, decision authority, communication, and follow-through—and how recurring confusion can prompt a review of those connections.
CURRENT 014 | LABOR RELATIONS AS ENTERPRISE CAPABILITY Can a Labor Agreement Adapt? The tension between stability and necessary change. MICHAEL SHUE A labor agreement is designed to create stability. It turns…
Every organization needs escalation. The mistake is treating it as costless. This issue introduces The Travel Test™ for deciding how far a problem actually needs to travel.
Why management and labor can interpret the same workplace event differently—and how The Interpretation Chain™ helps leaders diagnose what is actually driving the dispute.
When commitments fail under pressure, credibility suffers. Examine what makes a labor-management commitment durable after the meeting ends.
The outcome of bargaining is shaped long before anyone sits down at the table. Everyday interactions build expectations, institutional history and credibility—creating the environment in which negotiations eventually take place. Bargaining Begins…
Strategy does not create results on its own. Execution happens at the front line, where priorities become decisions, behaviors and performance. Current ● 009 examines the conditions leaders must create to turn…
Strategy can change in a quarter. Human capability rarely can. Current ● 008 explores why workforce capability should help shape strategic decisions—and how leaders can preserve options before urgency removes them.
Capital can move faster than capability. Investment can be approved quickly, but the skilled workforce required to execute it takes time to recruit, train, develop and lead. Current ● 007 examines why…
AI may be digital. Its infrastructure is not. Behind every data center is a physical chain of facilities, power, grid infrastructure, equipment, construction—and the skilled workforce required to build and sustain it.
America’s skilled-worker shortage may be overlooking a workforce we already trained. Veterans bring discipline, technical experience and mission focus—but translating military capability into civilian careers requires stronger bridges between service and industry.
America’s workforce challenge is not simply a shortage of talent. It is a career-choice gap shaped by what young people see, understand, and believe is possible.
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