As the new century reaches its teenage
years, organizational leaders are left wondering: what more will change? Will
the adolescent years of the next century be as unpredictable as the adolescent years of
a teenage son or daughter? Organizational leaders and strategists alike are
looking toward the future to find the trends that will shape the workplace in 2010. Here
are five trends they've found so far.
Dan Pink, author of the popular book, A Whole New
Mind, believes that we've moved past the information age and are into
the conceptual age. As the economy continues to push organizations to cut costs, it
seems that anything that can be outsourced has been outsourced. As Thomas Friedman
first revealed in the book, The World is
Flat, even traditionally stable jobs such as those
of lawyers and accountants are being outsourced to countries that can offer
the same service at a lower cost. Futurist, James Canton, predicts that outsourcing will be
a main component of organizations in the future. Pink argues that these jobs
represent left-brain thinking (logical and
repetitive) and that as they continue to be
outsourced, they will trigger a rise in demand for
right brain work (creative and meaningful). Leaders have been asking "can it be
done cheaper?" and "can it be done by a computer?" for several years. This has
lead many to ask, "what's left to do?" In
order to remain competitive, organization leaders will need to develop several
competencies within their organizations. Pink
describes these as design (engaging the senses),
story (including the narrative behind products), symphony (gaining big picture
thinking), empathy (engaging emotion), play
(adding humor to the workplace) and meaning (finding organizational purpose). |
