Less and More: Future of Work Trends

From Northwestern University Medill School Future of Work Conference Future of Work is Less and More LESS a) Less Employees (per dollar of revenue): New AI startups are generating 2.5 million dollars of revenue per employee. b) Less Scale: Most companies will become smaller. Scale is less necessary in an AI age outside of some categories. AI is the sling shot that allows David to compete with Goliath c) Less Jobs: The fallacy is that job and work is not the same thing. 39 percent of the global work force do not have a full time job d) Less Managers: As the world moves from vertical to matrix to networked eco-system and work is increasingly done in asynchronously by distributed workforces the need for old style managers who allocate, delegate, monitor, measure and check-in is in free fall. Companies want people who create, build, sell, mentor, make, inspire. e) Less Space: Work is distributed and more and more people will work from anywhere and there will be less and less office space. MORE a) More Speed: The speed of change is so fast that doing is critical versus cogitating. Fast failing versus navel gazing. The fear of failure has to be reduced. b) More Non-AI Differentiation: While AI will be key it will be like electricity. Key to compete but not a differentiating advantage. The firm will have to find more edges than AI. c) The More AI the more HI will matter: AI will replace a portion of many jobs and do many tasks better. People will have to embrace, adapt and complement but humans and talent will be the edge. It will he AI+HI versus only AI or HI. d) More Investment for Training: One of the key differences will be training and developing people. Investing in AI tools and doing M and A deals without a significant investment in education and training is doomed. As half life of knowledge declines up skilling of expertise is key. Learning will be the new superpower. e) More Opportunities: Power is moving to small and talent. This year six million new companies were launched in America all starting with a blank sheet of paper, easy to purchase AI, access to market places for every type of talent and buyer. f) More Courageous Leadership: Like never before this is the time for more courage and more willingness to reinvent. Leadership will be key. g) More Versatility: Different types of go to market models as well as different approaches for different types of talent. Companies cannot talk about personalization if they do not create different options for their employees and agile and differing organization structures built around client, talent and market competition. h) More Trust and Integrity: Trust and Integrity will be key both for Brands and leaders. i) More Career Ownership: Every individual must invest in their career. HR and L&D are critically important enablers to career growth but they work for the company. More here: https://xmrrwallet.com/cmx.plnkd.in/gQac6BrD