WHAT will the world of work be like in 2025 and what
preparations do we need to make? What is certain is that it will not resemble
the present any more than the world of work today resembles that of 1990.
With a team of 200 people from 40 international companies,
Lynda Gratton looked at five factors that will influence the future in profound
ways.
These are technology, globalisation, demography, sociology
and energy. They have had a profound effect on our work lives over the last 20
years, and we can safely assume that they will be no less game-changing in the
next 15.
From the data Professor Gratton amassed she developed a set
of scenarios, possible stories of how the future may unfold. The
"Default" set of scenarios is most likely to unfold if we, as
individuals, do not take deliberate action.
The more positive "Chosen" scenarios are likely to
unfold if we choose to act rather than simply react. Each of these scenarios
she portrays as a day in the life of the person working in 2025.
One default scenario is encapsulated in the working life of
Jill, who lives in London. She wakes up to electronic messages, participates in
multi-continental virtual meetings and packs her day full of activity with
spare moments filled with responses to incoming messages.
It is a tightly packed, fragmented day. Jill will never
become an expert in anything because expertise demands reflection and
observation, and she has no time for either.
Rohan is a neurosurgeon living in Mumbai. From his apartment
he participates in surgery on a patient in China and communicates with his
Cantonese-speaking team in Hindi via high-speed translation. This is followed
by a similar intervention in Chile and later one in London.
By the end of the day he has not left his apartment or
interacted in person with another human being. Gratton calls this scenario
"Isolation".
Briana is a 28-year-old high-school dropout from Ohio, who
spends most of the day playing computer games. She works four hours a day, five
days a week flipping hamburgers and has to compete against well-educated,
highly motivated people her age from India and China.
She's part of the new breed of excluded people. In 2025
exclusion will not be a function of geography, but rather of a lack of talent
and motivation.
If we choose to shift the way we operate, the scenarios for
the world of work can be significantly different.
In an extremely fast-changing world we need to become what
Gratton calls "serial masters" rather than the shallow generalists
for whom there will be ever diminishing opportunities. The second shift is from
being "isolated competitors to innovative connectors".
Companies and people are currently in competition with each
other for advancement and reward. The future, Gratton explains, will have to be
built on the collaboration and cooperation of people at every level.
Third shift is from the mindset that I work to be paid,
which I use to consume, which makes me happy - to the mindset of an impassioned
producer, rather than a voracious consumer.
Those who make the shift will be able to enjoy the Crafted
Scenarios. Here we see people co-create important solutions to difficult
problems, and making life choices to be socially engaged with their own
families, with the wider society and the environment.
Here we see multitudes of serial masters,
micro-entrepreneurs all flourishing.
The Shift is a very thought-provoking and incisive book on
the future of work.
Readability: Light
--+-- Serious
Insights: High
-+--- Low
Practicality:
High ---+- Low
* Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on
leadership and strategy.