OTHER INTERVIEWS & RESEARCH

The Six Secrets of Effective Remote Working and Collaborating

A distributed workforce is becoming the reality for (almost) every company. However, effective remote working and collaboration habits are not self-evident and generally differ substantially from what works in-office. An enabling environment combines open and adaptable mindsets with active and equitable communication supported by seamless connectivity, video capabilities, and other relevant applications. Effective practices center on componentizing work and measuring impact, preceded by clear discussions about expectations, habits, and tools during hiring, on-boarding and transition training. Click here to read the rest of the article.

Updating Education for the Evolving Job Market: Learning at the Pace of Life and Work

A technology-stimulated, connected, and accelerated marketplace is generating different roles and additional skills requirements for us as workers. The traditional model of completing our lifelong education needs before we enter the workforce is now obsolete. On-the-job experience must now be supplemented as business and technological requirements evolve significantly and rapidly. Compelling new multilevel learning options are emerging to cater to the new necessity of updating important knowledge and capabilities at work. Click here to read the rest of the article. Interview with Anant Agarwal, CEO and Founder of edX, and Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT.

Future-proofing Factors: Top Traits and Practices of a Sustainable Corporate Ecosystem

Low productivity, burnout, low engagement, heightened competition, faster product/service iterations, retention concerns – these pressures and more are burdening businesses and senior executives. What deliberate steps is your company taking to create a sustainable work environment and ecosystem? Essential traits and practices for future-proofing your organization’s success encompass inclusive mindsets and integrating and nurturing a diverse set of employees. Click here to read the rest of the article. Interview with Anka Wittenberg, SAP’s Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer.

Openness: A Winning Management Strategy for the Future of Work

Historically, information—and access to it—has been a key instrument of power in most circles of society and business. It has been manipulated successfully by those at the top to direct and control people below them. An inverted model is now finding increasing traction where data is widely-shared, feedback actively sought, and even constructive debate welcomed. The open information flow, accompanied by more distributed responsibility, supports compelling innovation, collaboration, and responsiveness. Click here to read the rest of the article. Interview with Jay Simons, President of Atlassian.

Supporting the Growing World of Independent Contractors: Standard Components of All Future Careers

Freelancing and consulting are the core employment options for over 35 million Americans – some involuntarily, but a growing number of people are voluntarily making this work-related lifestyle choice. The range of socially and professionally acceptable work options has expanded substantially, with win-wins for both parties, as workers gain flexibility and corporations benefit from focused resources fulfilling targeted needs. However, the ecosystem surrounding 1099 workers is still missing vital elements compared to the employer-centric environment supporting full-time employees. Click here to read the rest of the article. Interview with Kathleen Utecht, Core Innovation Capital.

Unlearning to Live with Change: How to Hire, Respond and Succeed in an Evolving Environment

What roles and tasks do you need to hire for and for how long will those be relevant, as your business evolves at an accelerated pace? How can you identify the right people? How can they be prepared for the changing needs of the marketplace? “Unlearning” traditional ways of working might seem outlandish. However, it might well be the easiest way for new and existing employees to step away from traditional practices and adapt on a sustainable basis for a radically new and evolving business environment. Click here to read the rest of the article. Interview with Dom Price, Work Futurist and Head of R&D at Atlassian.

Transforming the Employee Experience: From Leadership to Engagement—Top Down and Bottom Up

Few companies have managed to create a compelling experience for their employees yet. Not many have really focused on it. Now, the spotlight is on workers and their environment as corporations battle for key talent and struggle to retain their younger employees who question traditional working arrangements. It takes a coherent and comprehensive effort to make a significant and sustainable change in the way your company operates with an authentic emphasis on your workforce and their working reality. Click here to read the rest of the article.

Art Vs. Science: Harness The Creativity Of Your Organization Through Technology

The art of transformation. Technology is becoming more deeply embedded and integrated into companies’ core functions and operating practices in addition to being a facilitating tool. However, it is not just about what technology you utilize, but also how you leverage it to transform and evolve your business. It is not just about the data you gather – big or small – but what you do with it. Click here to read the rest of the article.

Does Your Leadership Have What it Takes To Succeed In The Digital Economy?

The “reality” of business is in flux, with technology as a primary driver. Digital transformation has taken over as the resounding phrase, which has emerged as our digital economy awaits the fundamental integration of technology. Who really understands this new environment, and who is leading the way forward effectively? Click here to read the rest of the article.

Are You Investing in Your Long-Term Future? New Study Shows the Critical Role of Technology

Technology advances are perhaps the most significant catalysts and drivers of the evolution toward Future-of-Work environments. Companies that are slow to adapt, adopt, and integrate technology are losing substantially more than just the benefit of more efficient and effective ways of operating...Click here to read the rest of the article.

Millennial Reality: Technology, Meaning, And Management Unburdened By Legacy

Millennials approach things differently. Unburdened by “traditional” perspectives, they are freer to consider unlimited possibilities and unconstrained opportunities. When challenges arise, they may confront obstacles and demand change in order to make progress. No surprise—this is the endlessly repeated cycle of generations, and the essence of youth. Click here to read the rest of the article.

The Real Promise of Integration: New Data Shows How HR Technology Yields Strategic Talent Benefits

A essential goal of the Future of Work is strategic and customized integration. Integration that encompasses work and life, our personal and professional selves and environment, purpose and profit, and seamless technological applications and devices enabling, facilitating and supporting it all. Click here to read the rest of the article.

Productivity and Performance with a Distributed Workforce: Control, Choice and Communication

Face-to-face time is so 1990s. We used to use technology to bridge gaps mainly with traveling employees or select distant vendors and partners. Today we need to facilitate daily dialog and collaboration with a significant and growing number of remote internal and external workers and third-party experts. Click here to read the rest of the article.

Riding A Dinosaur: Are You Resisting Or Embracing The Future Of Work?

Just as in the Pleistocene Era, when the most recent Ice Age started, we are currently experiencing a confluence of forces that is bringing about undeniable, unavoidable, and transformative change. Societal evolution, coupled with accelerating technological developments and a vast cohort of workers espousing new working concepts and profiles, requires our attention and adaptation. Click here to read the rest of the article.

Future of Work – The Living of Organization: Management, Motivation & Motion

One is perhaps never so inspired as by another for whom out of the box thinking is so completely natural and obvious. Carey Smith, the CEO, or Chief Big Ass of Big Ass Solutions (no kidding!), is inspiring to listen to. Influenced by bosses in his early working years, who treated him with a generosity of spirit and respect that belied his youth, Smith’s management philosophy and practices are compelling in a myriad of ways, and far from traditional. Click here to read the rest of the article.

The Future of Work: The Co-Evolution of Humans and Robots OR I Heart My Robo-Assistant

“I’m sitting at the kitchen table sipping my coffee and reading the paper in my apartment. It’s a lazy Saturday. My ‘bot, Bob, took the dogs for an early morning walk, made my coffee, retrieved my paper from the mail box and put away the dishes that he cleaned after dinner last night. After filing this week’s work papers and giving me a list of movies and plays I might like to see this week, he will put wash and put away my clothes from yesterday.”….I interviewed SAP’s Kai Goerlich, who is their Thought Leadership IoT and Digital Futurist, to discover what the future might hold. Click here to read the rest of the article.

Future of Work: Talent Shaping and Shapes, Circles and Pools

The linear, continuous and compounding career has disappeared. No dispute. However, while the ‘high potentials’ continue to receive attention and direction, few companies have made much progress to fill in the void with new — personalized and ‘latticed’ — career models and pathways for the bulk of their employees. Click here to read the rest of the article.

Future of Work: Bold Moves – Salary Self-Setting and Passion Pitching

No matter whom you talk to, you will quickly find out that there are few people with solid solutions as we move into a very different way of working. Some people have more information, more data points, some have more understanding based on research and or specific trials (and some errors), and some are going with their gut in new directions, being bold and seeing what happens. Click here to read the rest of the article.