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The Professional Development for the Future Project, undertaken in 2003-04 within the Australian Flexible Learning Framework Professional Development Program, investigated professional development for the future, taking into account the way people maintain and upgrade their professional skills within a knowledge economy. Individual and team processes of knowledge workers were investigated along with ways in which these processes can be informed by contemporary theories on learning networks, chaos and complexity, knowledge management and systems thinking. The project had six research phases. Phase three, 'Contemporary theories and thinking: implications of thought pieces', involved four external theorists in the knowledge work/knowledge management field. These theorists were Ranulph Glanville, Robert Poell, Karl-Erik Sveiby and Robert Woog, with Poell, Sveiby and Woog each being invited to write a thought piece describing groundbreaking approaches to professional development in the knowledge era. This paper by Sveiby presents three theories for organising effective knowledge work: the knowledge perspective with sub-theories of intangible assets and the knowledge organisation; the theory about a knowledge-based strategy; and the theory about collaborative climate. The paper also contains recommendations for effective professional development of knowledge workers.