The downfall of these giants is just a tip of an iceberg. It says a lot about the change facing the future of the workforce and our generation. Digital is the main force disrupting industries. We can see it in daily life. Digital has brought us much good as a consumer. Uber, Airbnb and Amazon - they have brought us unprecedented mobility, economic value and convenience. However, they come at a cost of shaking up the ways businesses have been operating. In the wake of it, workplace and workforce are bound to experience significant shifts. As an evolutionary product, we evolve as the situation demands of us. To project where the future of work is headed to, we look at the challenges coming our way in the foreseeable future.
1. Extreme competition
Digital technology has triggered a wave of globalization. A company could now tap into talent pools beyond its local region. The is evident in the booming Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry. When a customer dials the hotline of an English-speaking firm, it’s likely that connected to someone in the Philippines or India.
It does not stop there with Artificial Intelligence (AI) coming into the picture. It helps us to be less reliant on manual labor. With the proliferation of online learning platforms, there is less need for face-to-face teaching. Platforms like Khan’s Academy, Udacity and Coursera and have contributed to the increasing literacy rate in many parts of the developing world. Which also means a more packed playing field in the employment market.
Competition drives productivity when we have enough resources and space for everyone. But now, with an influx of players in the field, an adequate distribution to individuals hardly exists. That puts our survival under threat. This is when collaboration needs to take over. When faced with scarcity, a mindset of abundance is needed to achieve a state of harmony. Collaboration takes an understanding of each other. We need to support each other in finding our niche. In finding our niche, we expand the resourcefulness of the existing playing field. That brings more space and resources for ourselves. One man’s garbage is another man’s gold. It takes time for us to truly embrace this shift after having been immersed in the competition after competition throughout our life. But that’s the way to go.
2. Huge demand for innovation
There’s no time like today whereby crowdsourcing of skills and ideas is of paramount importance. Business survival today is no longer determined more by size than its ability to innovate. The story of Kodak bespeaks that. One-man-show is detrimental to the shaping of an innovative culture. It is when everyone is empowered to operate on the same level as any leader in a workplace an exchange of ideas can be facilitated.
Google, one of the pioneering future shapers, has benefitted much from its organizational structure. The cross-functional and flat organizational structure places a high premium on employees participation. Employees can meet and share information across teams and report directly to CEO Larry Page without going through middle management (Smithson, 2017). Such structure sends across a strong message that each employee is respected and trusted for their ability and ideas. That enables the whole company to operate in the mindset of contributing to a common cause - company’s success. Innovation naturally comes into the picture. It’s essentially a result of tapping into everyone’s latent knowledge and wisdom in search of a solution. On the other hand, the conventional vertical hierarchy essentially tells the employees to just mind their own business. That creates a culture of fear and conformity.
The Moore’s Law tells us innovations will be a commodity in the future as the number of innovative products increases exponentially. As the pace of evolution levels up, Darwin’s ‘adapt or die’ will ring even truer. Indulgence in an internal game of power will spell the demise of a company. It’ll be time for a flatter organizational structure. That also means the workforce needs to be prepared for such empowerment.
3. Social issues - famine, poverty & conflicts
We may have made significant progress in the medical field but armed conflicts, natural disasters and bulging urban population continue placing a significant strain on the planet’s resources. The capitalist lifestyle that incentivizes consumption undermines ongoing efforts to rectify the mess plaguing our planet. The profit-driven model characterizing the way companies run also has an adverse effect on our wellbeing. It feeds on to an unsustainable way of living. After exhausting oneself at work, one spends money to recuperate be it mentally, spiritually or physically. Essentially, we are stuck in a rut. It puts us on a survival mode.
We’re part of the problem until we start contributing to the solution. We need more projects to solve a world’s problem, not more profit-making machines. We need to gradually shift away from the grasp of capitalism. It may have served us well in the past but it has failed to keep up with the changing needs and context. We need more social entrepreneurs. It’ll be a time when businesses need to do good to make money, not doing good while making money.
All we need to know
Three things we can do to prepare for the future of work:
1. Learn to collaborate while being in a competition
We’ll still share the same playing field but we need to learn to use that as a foundation to expand it to different forms of playing field. That can only happen when we are not having an identical demand for the resources. That is, find our own niche and help others do so. The world is round, it’ll get back to us eventually.
2. Practice ownership
We’ll face a world in which company survival is dependent on how fast and well it adapts. Employees will be empowered to the same level as any leader within an organization. We need to be prepared. It’s time to start taking more ownership. Initiate things and fail. It’s more important to get ourselves accustomed to the culture of ownership.
3. Identify how best we could do good
Doing good will no longer be a choice but a practical need. Social entrepreneurship will be increasingly mature. Ability to do good will be well rewarded. Start searching for one social issue that concerns us the most. Be as knowledgeable about it as we can. Start doing something that will bring everyone a step toward the solution. Essentially, understand how best we can be of contribution.
Reference
Nanterme, P. (2016, January 17). Digital disruption has only just begun. World Economic Forum. Retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/digital-disruption-has-only-just-begun/
Smithson, N. (2017, January 28). Google’s Organizational Structure & Organizational Culture. Panmore Institute. Retrieved from http://panmore.com/google-organizational-structure-organizational-culture
1. Extreme competition
Digital technology has triggered a wave of globalization. A company could now tap into talent pools beyond its local region. The is evident in the booming Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry. When a customer dials the hotline of an English-speaking firm, it’s likely that connected to someone in the Philippines or India.
It does not stop there with Artificial Intelligence (AI) coming into the picture. It helps us to be less reliant on manual labor. With the proliferation of online learning platforms, there is less need for face-to-face teaching. Platforms like Khan’s Academy, Udacity and Coursera and have contributed to the increasing literacy rate in many parts of the developing world. Which also means a more packed playing field in the employment market.
Competition drives productivity when we have enough resources and space for everyone. But now, with an influx of players in the field, an adequate distribution to individuals hardly exists. That puts our survival under threat. This is when collaboration needs to take over. When faced with scarcity, a mindset of abundance is needed to achieve a state of harmony. Collaboration takes an understanding of each other. We need to support each other in finding our niche. In finding our niche, we expand the resourcefulness of the existing playing field. That brings more space and resources for ourselves. One man’s garbage is another man’s gold. It takes time for us to truly embrace this shift after having been immersed in the competition after competition throughout our life. But that’s the way to go.
2. Huge demand for innovation
There’s no time like today whereby crowdsourcing of skills and ideas is of paramount importance. Business survival today is no longer determined more by size than its ability to innovate. The story of Kodak bespeaks that. One-man-show is detrimental to the shaping of an innovative culture. It is when everyone is empowered to operate on the same level as any leader in a workplace an exchange of ideas can be facilitated.
Google, one of the pioneering future shapers, has benefitted much from its organizational structure. The cross-functional and flat organizational structure places a high premium on employees participation. Employees can meet and share information across teams and report directly to CEO Larry Page without going through middle management (Smithson, 2017). Such structure sends across a strong message that each employee is respected and trusted for their ability and ideas. That enables the whole company to operate in the mindset of contributing to a common cause - company’s success. Innovation naturally comes into the picture. It’s essentially a result of tapping into everyone’s latent knowledge and wisdom in search of a solution. On the other hand, the conventional vertical hierarchy essentially tells the employees to just mind their own business. That creates a culture of fear and conformity.
The Moore’s Law tells us innovations will be a commodity in the future as the number of innovative products increases exponentially. As the pace of evolution levels up, Darwin’s ‘adapt or die’ will ring even truer. Indulgence in an internal game of power will spell the demise of a company. It’ll be time for a flatter organizational structure. That also means the workforce needs to be prepared for such empowerment.
3. Social issues - famine, poverty & conflicts
We may have made significant progress in the medical field but armed conflicts, natural disasters and bulging urban population continue placing a significant strain on the planet’s resources. The capitalist lifestyle that incentivizes consumption undermines ongoing efforts to rectify the mess plaguing our planet. The profit-driven model characterizing the way companies run also has an adverse effect on our wellbeing. It feeds on to an unsustainable way of living. After exhausting oneself at work, one spends money to recuperate be it mentally, spiritually or physically. Essentially, we are stuck in a rut. It puts us on a survival mode.
We’re part of the problem until we start contributing to the solution. We need more projects to solve a world’s problem, not more profit-making machines. We need to gradually shift away from the grasp of capitalism. It may have served us well in the past but it has failed to keep up with the changing needs and context. We need more social entrepreneurs. It’ll be a time when businesses need to do good to make money, not doing good while making money.
All we need to know
Three things we can do to prepare for the future of work:
1. Learn to collaborate while being in a competition
We’ll still share the same playing field but we need to learn to use that as a foundation to expand it to different forms of playing field. That can only happen when we are not having an identical demand for the resources. That is, find our own niche and help others do so. The world is round, it’ll get back to us eventually.
2. Practice ownership
We’ll face a world in which company survival is dependent on how fast and well it adapts. Employees will be empowered to the same level as any leader within an organization. We need to be prepared. It’s time to start taking more ownership. Initiate things and fail. It’s more important to get ourselves accustomed to the culture of ownership.
3. Identify how best we could do good
Doing good will no longer be a choice but a practical need. Social entrepreneurship will be increasingly mature. Ability to do good will be well rewarded. Start searching for one social issue that concerns us the most. Be as knowledgeable about it as we can. Start doing something that will bring everyone a step toward the solution. Essentially, understand how best we can be of contribution.
Reference
Nanterme, P. (2016, January 17). Digital disruption has only just begun. World Economic Forum. Retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/digital-disruption-has-only-just-begun/
Smithson, N. (2017, January 28). Google’s Organizational Structure & Organizational Culture. Panmore Institute. Retrieved from http://panmore.com/google-organizational-structure-organizational-culture