Let’s start with the Tidal
Waves. These are implications of the future, which will roll out with enormous
force whether you like it or not. Take flexible working for example. The
combination of technological advances and ever increasing globalisation means
that many people are linked up with different time zones and can make choice
about when and where they work. The 9.00 to 5.00 routine has been swept away
years ago, and home working is rapidly becoming the norm. I know your CEO feels
uncomfortable because he/she does not know what home workers are up to. But
what we are talking about here is a tidal wave – inevitable, forceful, and
momentous. People want to work flexibly, technology allows it and it is
becoming a choice which many expect. So – keep up with the flow, adapt, learn
and enjoy!
Next are those changes which are
inevitable, but Tricky. What I mean by this is that they are inevitable, but
it’s not going to be easy to make them work. An example is virtual team
working. The combination of globalisation and technology plus the need to
reduce carbon footprints means more work will be done through people working
virtually, and often in teams. Working virtually is tricky as our research has
shown (take a look at our revamped website at www.hotspotsmovement.com on Friday to learn more about this).
Some of the old rules of team working are not appropriate, and we are only just
learning what combination of face –to –face and technology really works. Plus of
course, the technology supporting virtual working is wobbly to say the least.
The FOW project leader Julia Goga-Cooke is still furious about the difficulty
we had getting Monday’s meeting broadcast to 50 people across the globe (WebEx
– you are in our bad books!). What do you do when these changes like virtual
teams are tricky? You experiment, run pilots, learn quickly, collect lots of
feedback and adjust rapidly.
So that takes us to the third
category – which I have called The Contested. Tricky is tough – but actually,
everyone knows the future is about working virtually and about working in
teams. It is going to be hard to get there – but there is a broad consensus
around the place that we need to get to.
The contested are those areas
and issues which will be impacted by future forces but where there is currently
no consensus about how they will develop. Take executive pay for example. For
decades, there has been a belief that the talents to be a CEO are very rare and
the impact they make on corporate performance is very strong. That’s why, the argument
goes, CEO’s are paid on average 531 times the blue collar workers pay (up from
42 times in 1980). However, if we reflect on the five future forces –
globalisation for example is uncovering talent pools around the word, which no
longer makes these executive competencies rare. At the same time, social
technology has enabled ‘wise crowds’ to make the decisions only CEO’s could
have made in the past. Plus of course increasing market turbulence will impact
on the control the top team actually have on profitability. All these factors
suggest that senior executive pay needs to change. Yet very few HR teams, or
consultants, or CEO’s are prepared to talk about this. This is an example of
what I would call a contested change.
It’s contested because it is
deeply embedded within the norms, values and power base of the company and as
such is not amenable to easy conversion. So what to do about the contested? I’d
make three suggestions. First, take a dispassionate view of the subject. For
example, David Bolchover’s recent book ‘Pay Check: are top earners really worth
it’ is a no holds barred description of the data around executive pay and is a
must read for anyone interested in the topic. Next, begin a conversation,
create a task force, create a buzz which surfaces the ‘undiscussables’. That
might be as far as you get. Or you could get to the third phase – make a stand.
The contested rarely change without this!
So, thinking about the future of
work, let me ask you these three questions:
* What do you see as the inevitable tidal waves
– which have there own momentum?
* Where are the tricky areas which require more
thought and experimentation?
* Perhaps
most importantly – what are the contested areas of your company – I’ve focused
on executive pay – but there will be many others.