The Future of Work Is Now.

Whatever your expectations were — whether a Utopian 4-hour workweek dream, a Dystopian robot-filled hell, or anything in between — the ‘Future of Work’ seemed far enough away that most people put off dealing with it. Meanwhile, the nature of work itself continued to evolve, with the emphasis shifting from routine work producing hard assets to non-routine projects creating intangible value in the form of knowledge, IP, and brand equity. However, even as technology advances increased the volume of data exponentially and sped up the pace of change, the urgency wasn’t there.

Few companies were therefore prepared or equipped to pivot rapidly as COVID19 lockdowns took effect. Most organizations experienced a shock transition — without warning or adjustment period they were forced to adopt and integrate new platforms and applications and adapt rapidly to new ways of working. The speed, connectivity, and data accessibility enabled by these technologies disrupted the manual and mechanical constructs and constraints of our previous existences, transitioning us quickly to digitized, boundaryless, and integrated interactions. The Future of Work had arrived.

New options, settings, and requirements are sufficiently different that it is important to make significant revisions to the rules of engagement at work which have governed our leadership styles, influenced our mindsets, dictated our approaches and determined the social contract. Extraordinary disturbance to the business environment has generated a rare period of inflection that presents a crucial…