Signals from the future of work2 min read
Our internal workshop on future trends in work and learning provided insights on the rise of project-based teams and leadership, diminishing company loyalty, the importance of real-time feedback, and the impact of AI on talent development, and inspired us to innovate our product offerings accordingly.
We recently ran a future and innovation sprint workshop internally by looking at signals of the future in the areas of work and learning, and coming up with a concept note for our group of companies to challenge our service offerings. What makes these workshops so exciting is that we never know what will come from them.
In this session, we focused on the following:
- Employees expect real-time feedback, even from top management (Signal)
- AI changes the way talent is identified and developed (Signal)
- Project teams are taking over departmental teams (Signal)
- Leadership is changing to be more flat and more project-based due to the millennial boom, project-based teams, younger leaders, hybrid working, the gig economy, etc. (Signal)
We then crafted scenarios and narratives that could come about in the next 5 years if the above signals become disruptively real. This is the synopsis of our thoughts on probable future scenarios:
- Loyalty to the team and company will diminish as people commit to projects, not companies.
- Transactional leadership is on the rise which will create a low sense of belonging in a world where people work on different projects for different companies.
- When leaders are recruited it will probably be for a specific project so they will need a clear understanding of the vision, what is expected of them, the skills they need to have, and the same for the people working with them on the project team.
- Feedback on assessments will need to happen in real time.
Reflecting on these narratives, we realised they could become reality much sooner than we initially thought, so we came up with a few things that we need to implement within Aspire:
- Add real-time assessments and pulse checks into our array of services.
- Package workshops specifically for leaders of project teams. Knowledge experts will be less sought after (since AI equals the playing field), but applied learning and follow-through will become more important in the future.
- We need to be better prepared for “just-in-time” training & consulting for our clients.
- Establishing a technology leg to develop cross-functionality within Aspire or to partner with strong technical partners.
In closing
This exercise has the potential to inspire innovation and help you get ahead of your competitors. If you’d like us to facilitate a similar process with you book a free consultation by clicking the button below. We’d also love to hear your thoughts on the future of your work in the comments below.
