Future of Work – Now?

This is quite possibly the most buzzed about concept floating around the thought leader circuit, as each tries to position their brand as visionary and the next thing. Gosh we love a next thing in safety (hat tip here for an interesting read on this subject). We are seduced into wanting to believe that the answer lies just over the hill, just out of reach but it has a name (thanks category management) and there is a path to get you there, “follow me” they say.

I’m very optimistic about the future, yet fully appreciate that as the velocity of change increases we have to accept that a feature of technology is that it generates inequality, it’s not a bug that can be fixed. Humans just won’t be able to keep up in numbers necessary to maintain competency, especially with the exponential nature of AI coming to the fore. Read Peter Diamandis blog posts, it is as scary as it is thrilling. Don’t just think 10x, think adding another zero to the end.

Andi Csontos last night tagged me in EY’s latest offering around the future of work. It is a video which runs for 11 minutes odd, a welcome departure from those already pervading the management industry from short chunked messages or fluff pieces (no sources offered) which I am suspicious when reading. I’m a long form content snob and prefer to immerse rather than skim across the top.

I was impressed to see not the normal Koolaid talk around techno swooning but a measured approach surrounding the by-products of technology in the workplace. It also avoided the vitriolic romantic notion that technology will create a utopian society and that it is silver bullet which we can sit back, and let Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk solve our issues.

Three things which I am a fan of which the EY video expands upon:

• Integration (not disassociation)

• Interconnectedness between levers

• Humanisation of the Workplace

 

It gave a call to action to jar people from their slumber and shout “The future is already here — it’s just not very evenly distributed”.

I challenge you to reflect on the piece and for Safety Professionals – What role will we play?