Earlier this week I had the privilege of participating in a Twitter Chat as part of Steelcase’s 100 Dreams project, the company’s inspirational year-long anniversary project. We were pleased to see that our conversation reached an audience of more than 80,000.

It was meaningful to share ideas for the next 100 years as part of Steelcase’s anniversary project. But the live online chat yesterday also gave me the opportunity to reflect further on how Steelcase’s values map to my own beliefs on culture and leadership.

Steelcase is committed to scaling its values and being intentional about forging deep connections in this interconnected and interdependent world. Through their innovative use of space and design, Steelcase fosters an environment where employees can express their full character and creativity and meaningfully interact. I know this to be the case since my company LRN is furnished with Steelcase’s office furniture products.

The 6^th century Greek philosopher Heraclitus wrote that “Character is fate”. What character is to the individual, culture is to the organization. Steelcase creates the freedom from closed doors and walled offices and the freedom to create open spaces and expansive offices where employees have the freedom to dream, innovate and collaborate in pursuit of a shared values and mission.

Steelcase is a unique company. It is a special honor for me therefore to be part of 100 Dreams.

“I have to go to work now.”

For many of us, that’s a common phrase. We say it routinely, without realizing that the words “have to” cast a shadow on what is in reality a prized part of most of our lives. Particularly for knowledge workers; work is an opportunity to bring out the best in ourselves and others, to uncover our deepest aspirations, to unlock the promise that exists within each of us, to turn ideas into reality, to ultimately move the world forward.

When we asked people of many ages, enterprises and geographies to help commemorate our centennial by imagining the future, work is implicit in most of their dreams as an essential, abiding component of a meaningful life. Susan Szenasy, for example, expresses the vision of a future in which “work and life have come to be valued as a holistic understanding of what it means to be creatures that value connectivity, accomplishment, creativity, and beauty.”

Like Susan, many dreamers expressed the belief that the work is here to stay, but the work of tomorrow can be more fulfilling than the work of today. “I see a peaceful, powerful transformation of how we work and play, educate and amuse. Empowerment of the individual. The sharing of dreams and beliefs, knowledge and creations,” says Donald A. Norman.

Which is not to say dreamers believe work will or should ever become effortless. Ten-year-old Chloe in Denver, USA, has already reached an important realization: “What would life be without challenges? That just wouldn’t be any fun.”

A hemisphere away and several generations removed from young Chloe, Abdulrahman Al-Jeraisy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, shares a similar insight gleaned from a long life and career: “We come to understand there is a struggle in every dream.”

Work is changing rapidly due to advances in technology and globalization, and there has never been a time when insight and innovation were more in demand. At Steelcase, our focus is studying work, workers and workplaces, understanding evolving patterns, and leading with solutions that can effectively stage the drama of unprecedented accomplishment that’s fast unfolding in our ever-more connected world.

There’s a lot to be done. Let’s go to work!