There have been quite a lot of books about the future of work lately. With our clients, we have covered “Hacking work“, “Workplace 2020” and touched on books such as “Out of our minds“, which is about our education system not ready for the new world of work (the economic crisis is chicken feed compared to the future education crisis).
The shift
“The shift” looks at the five forces that will fundamentally change the way we work in the next ten to fifteen years: globalisation, society, demography, technology and energy.
Revolution
We are now facing a revolution in the way we work. The work we do will change, possibly so much so that in ten years our working lives will be unrecognisable. The beginning of the book describes work life in the 90s. It already has transformed and we haven’t noticed (internet, 24/7 interruption, speed of response, information overload, etc.).
Fundamental transformation
This is not just about the impact that a low carbon economy will have on the way we work. It is also about how the nexus of technology and globalisation will work together with demographic and societal changes to fundamentally transform much of what we take for granted about work.
Two scenarios
Gives two scenarios; the dark one (isolation, fragmentation, loneliness), which is very grim and the bright one (impact, energy, empathy and balance) which is very utopian. It then suggests how we should prepare. Gets a bit fluffy then; wording such as “serial mastery”, “innovative connector” and “impassioned producer”. More utopia and Star Trek. The author is an optimist, I am too.
You listen to my review on Newstalk here
