work

The future of work is human

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If I had to list four things that bring out my inner geek, they’d be:

Work
Technology
Psychology
Education

I can’t remember the dates of any historical events, my knowledge of sports and sporting prowess is limited and if you want to know what stocks and shares to invest in…..buy the ones I’ve just sold. But give me any of these four topics and I’ll talk, ignorantly but passionately, for hours.

Each in its own right is a things that stirs the proverbial loins, but what about the point where all four intersect? Is there a relationship between them?

We know that technology is changing the way in which our children interact with the world. It is also starting to change the way in which they learn and work at school. So what is going to be the impact on the world of work when these young people get to employable age? Is technology changing the way our brains work and function and what do we need to think about in how we design work, teams and organisations?

Are we already starting to see the impact of the way that we use technology on our behaviour in the workplace? Our choices, decision-making, attention, concentration, speed of communication?

Late last year the CIPD started a piece of work to explore the future of work from a variety of different angles. The aim being to move the debate on from the normal, often predictable themes and to take a different approach. There are a number of work streams and groups exploring all sorts of angles, you can read more about it here.

As part of this, I want to look at these questions. To go beyond the “robotisation” arguments and look at the relationship between human performance and technology from a psychological and behavioural perspective, the good, bad and indifferent.

And this is where I need your help.

If you’d like to be part of this work, or if you know someone who you think might be, then I’d love to hear from you. Ideally I’d like to pull together a group of people from a range of backgrounds to exchange ideas, thoughts and theories with the view to presenting the findings at a “Big Tent” event in October.

There is no specified time commitment, geography is unimportant and I haven’t even worked out the process (yet). I just want to bring together curious, passionate, thoughtful people to help explore the themes and ideas. So if that sounds like you, if this piques your interest, then get in contact and lets see where the conversation takes us.

HR can make the world a better place

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Imagine if you could make the world a better place.

Imagine if you could go to work and contribute to a more harmonious, more secure, safer and happier world. Would that appeal?

How about if you could do that by working in HR?

We spend so much of our lives in work, our experience of the world is so often dictated by our experiences in the workplace. If we’re happy, if we’re sad, if we feel safe and secure, or manipulated, used or ill at ease.

Our ability to be able to provide for ourselves, the safety net that provides us with support when we are at our lowest points, ill, caring for dependents, dealing with the changes that life brings upon us. These things make all the difference.

A positive work experience becomes a positive social experience and a positive life experience. And this positive effect spreads further than the inside of our enterprises, it spreads in to society as a whole.

But what’s more, when we think of the role that works play in society then we can play an even bigger part in the world.

Fairness in society is driven significantly by fairness at work. A sense of purpose, a sense of belonging, a sense of participation and self-determination. All of these things drive the psychological wellbeing of employees and of society as a whole.

Fragmented societies, societies that are based on injustice, control, fear and division for the purposes of power are fertile ground for extreme reactions, for insurrection and disorder. They are repeatedly the start of a chain reaction that challenges the balance of the world.

Is it too much to suggest that HR can make the world a better place? I don’t think so. Work forms such an intrinsic part of the fabric of society, it holds such an important place in the everyday lives of us all. Why would it not have a greater effect on the equilibrium of the world as a whole?

Work shapes our lives and if we can make work better we can make lives better. But it also
shapes society and, yes, if we can make work better we can, and should, make the world a happier, stable more secure place.

The purpose of work

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Ask yourself the question, “what do I live for?”

Your family, your friends, your lover, that glass of wine or pint of beer on a Friday night, to run, to cycle, to fly, to serve?

When push comes to shove, if you had one thing that you could keep in your life, what would it be?

My guess is, not work.

Of course, there’s always a group of rare individuals out there that have managed to align their vocation so completely and totally with their passion that they may disagree.

But not many.

The fact is that most of your colleagues, your employees, the people who serve you your over priced coffee in the morning, work for no higher reason than their paycheck.

Is that a problem?

The purpose of work is not to create purpose, but to afford people the opportunity to find it elsewhere.

You may find meaning in religion, Bob in accounts finds in his music, Brenda the CEO in elaborate pony-play and I might find it in the bottom of a glass. Who are we to judge which is right?

Our job is to create sustainable good work, that allows our employees to live their lives outside of work, rather than create an artificial environment of belonging within our walls.

Work is work. Just that. Nothing more.

And that’s absolutely ok.

 

The future of work is…

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A recent fad appears to be making predictions about the future of work. Made by the same demographic that watched Tomorrow’s World in the 70s and proclaimed that by the year 2000 we’d all be going around in flying cars and eating meals in the form of pills.

The excitement is real and genuine, every time a high-profile organisation does anything goofy, we hear “that’s the future of work”. Which totally misses the point. This isn’t about,

  • Social connection
  • Collaboration
  • Mobile technology
  • Holacracy (I can’t even bring myself to say it)

At the end of the day, the basis of work is an exchange of labour for reward. Not much changing there any time soon.

Too much of the debate is led by the middle-income, middle class, semi professional demographic. Who, it seems to me, are forecasting what they would like to see happen rather than basing it on anything solid.

So what are the trends that we are definitely seeing?

But none of these things are new. We’ve seen them all before. In fact, they represent the trend for significant parts of the history of work and employment.*

  • A gap between rich and poor
  • The skilled and the unskilled
  • Regional wealth
  • Longer working life and the dependence of the infirm*

In some ways, you could argue that the last fifty years have been the blip. When we look at the future of work, we need to look a little bit further afield…..

But it isn’t forward, it’s back.

And there’s not a single, shiny new management trend in sight. Just a significant challenge for all of us involved in the world of work to face up to.

*UPDATE: Thanks to @FlipChartRick for seeking clarification on this point. The use of the word “trend” is perhaps a little loose and reality might have been a better choice of words.