Day 174 - the future of work
November 20, 2019What is the future of work? What does that even mean?
Buzz word, fad, trends….(indifferent eye roll) yet more snake oil, now turned snake lotion kickstarter.
Whatever your take may be, it's going to impact you a lot sooner than climate change..and in some ways, it already has.
Think of the present…
Are you a part of a large organization?
Are any of the following familiar?
Engagement surveys
Annual performance appraisals
Team building exercises
Voluntolding (mandatory volunteering).
Congratulations, you've had the misfortune of experiencing tools from an era where productivity was measured by the individual output of 'workers'. These tools I mentioned are sometimes commonly referred to as "Best Practices".
If you've had to implement them, then you've simply followed a rubber stamped process by way of policy based on legalese that few understand (read: dehumanising). If you've experienced bad policies....you're either enforcing them and still have a job, or you've been made to suffer until you exit, or you’d built up enough courage and savings to leave on your own terms.
So what does the future hold?
TLDR: Problem solving even over repetitive tasks
TLDR: Creative contributor even over corporate consumer
TLDR: Empathy and Collaboration even over siloed frustration
We believe the following to be true:
Workplaces and tasks are by definition going to change changing, and there won't be excuses allowing for repetitive tasks to terrorize a person's day. - The age old question of "What came first the chicken or the egg?" (Read: what comes first? Job experience? or an experience on a job?) will be answered by a generation that has grown up handling it's own social media marketing, automated banking/accounting, etc.
What it means to design is rapidly evolving, conversations espousing Agile and Human centred design have democratized tools necessary for innovation. This will impact what leadership is, isn't and what it needs to be for organizations (read: teams) to be successful.