We’ve identified the key meta-trends most likely to reshape work in the mid-2020s and beyond. We’ve then split these into two sets of five meta-trends, and following on from our previous post on this topic, this blog looks at why it’s pivotal to stay abreast of shifts and undercurrents emanating from the second of these groups.
As we explored in one of last month’s blogs, a suite of interconnected macro trends is converging to change how we live and work in the 21st Century, accelerating complexity and ambiguity in today’s markets.
Ambitious leaders increasingly need to understand the interplay between these trends to be able to make better strategic decisions.
Foresight – the ability to judge correctly what is going to happen in the future and plan your actions accordingly – has never been more key to commercial resilience.
Our trend analysis is designed to help build a clearer picture of the mercurial ways in which the world of work is changing. It provides expert-mediated, distilled trend intelligence, enabling better strategic planning
It also reveals a wider panorama of trends and meta-trends that will either substantially destabilise commercial opportunity if unaddressed, or present significant commercial advantage when optimally leveraged.
Our expert analysis isn’t designed to be prescriptive – when looking at emerging and future sociocultural trends through a broad lens, invariably contradictions and counterarguments will arise.
Meta-trends are complex and require consistent review, re-evaluation and update.
Also, it’s worth pointing out that none of these meta-trends exist in isolation – many of them are interconnected to a degree.
We’ve split them largely into two sets of five meta-trends, and in this post, we’ll examine why it’s pivotal to stay abreast of shifts and undercurrents emanating from the second group:
1] Shifting attitudes towards work
2] Next-generation talent ecosystems
3] Reskilling emergency
4] New operating & organising models
5] Culturally dynamic workplaces
1] SHIFTING ATTITUDES TOWARDS WORK
How populations perceive work evolves over time to accommodate the nuances of updated socio-cultural attitudes.
Each new generation entering the labour market brings with it a fresh set of hopes, dreams, aspirations and behaviours.
These arise from the prevailing cultural narrative of the time and are influenced by the messages we hear in the media, in music and entertainment, in education, in our social circles and more.
Unfortunately, the commercial world has been much slower to evolve its own attitudes towards employment. Many business operating and organising models in play today were designed in the last century, for economies that were skewed far more towards manufacturing and production.
Smart, future-proof organisations must adapt to accommodate the emergent preferences and needs of divergent demographics.
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Register for our free webinars exploring the meta-trends transforming the future of work.
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2] NEXT-GENERATION TALENT ECOSYSTEMS
As successive economic cycles re-shape labour markets, the range of employment types diversifies.
Every economic cycle subtly reshapes the labour market. The financial crisis of 2007-2008 had more of an impact on the labour market than many of us realise, as it sounded the death knell for both the notion of job security and the concept of ‘a job for life’.
Since 2009, job precarity has been on the rise, as employment security has been sacrificed in the pursuit of shareholder returns and profit maximisation. The modern corporate workplace is all too often a merry-go-round of organisational restructuring and streamlining as a result.
So, in fast-paced and uncertain markets, organisations will increasingly need to nurture talent ecosystems that select for optimal resilience and agility.
3] RESKILLING EMERGENCY
How we learn at work must match the pace at which skills and performed tasks evolve and obsolesce.
As technology continues to bring game-changing transformation to how we live and work, learning becomes a continuous cycle of ‘endless newbie’.
In the past five years, the conversation about the impact of technology on the very nature of work has skyrocketed.
Ever-increasing computing power and falling costs of production create the perfect springboard for digital technology to revolutionise 21st Century organisations.
And yet, while the topic of digital transformation might pepper most boardroom strategy conversations today, it lacks adequate parallel conversation about the urgent need for workforce upskilling and reskilling.
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Download an executive summary of our Foresight Focus report containing the ten meta-trends we track.
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4] NEW OPERATING & ORGANISING MODELS
The shape and structure of organisations must adapt to meet and withstand the uncertainties of 21st Century markets.
As with the other trends outlined in our Foresight Focus report, COVID-19 has accelerated the requirement for 21st Century business to rethink, redesign, test and measure new operating and organising models.
The 2010s saw a variety of alternative operating models evolve, such as holocracy, decentralised organising and Teal. Each of these came into being to address a growing number of shortfalls in mainstream operating and organising models. While each offers its own set of merits, none has reached the critical mass in adoption required to shift the status quo.
And so, we remain stuck with a fundamental issue – which is that most operating and organisational models in play today can actually hinder, rather than optimise, productivity, because they were designed for an entirely different economic landscape.
Our expert analysis suggests that organisational imperatives will transition away from ‘command and control’, towards optimally agile ‘sense and respond’ operating models.
5] INCLUSIVE WORKPLACES
The 2020s will bear witness to substantial re-sculpting of global demography, with ground-shifting implications for both employment and the wider workforce.
By 2025, 25% of workers in the UK and the US are expected to be over the age of 55, and that segment of the workforce is proving to be the fastest growing in many advanced economies.
This demographic shift is set to entrench yet further – looking further out to 2050, there’ll be one person aged 65 and over for every two persons aged 20-64 in developed economies, compared to one for every three today. In parallel, those aged 50 and older will form 45% of the population, versus 37% today.
This is fuelling a talent shortage, with boomers reaching traditional retirement age at a rate faster than younger cohorts are able to take their place.
Smart organisations of the future will need to nurture multi-generational, culturally dynamic workplaces.
WHY HAVING ACCESS TO FORESIGHT IS NO LONGER A ‘NICE-TO-HAVE’
Modern leaders need to be able to see round corners. And having access to foresight can help decode the future of work, helping organisations to shift to new organising models and approaches for agile market responsiveness.
Within the next five years, the very essence of how we create value and trade with one another will undergo great change, entirely recalibrating the shape and nature of business, domestically and globally.
Successful organisations of the future will be increasingly customised and shapeshifting in nature – if they’re to successfully navigate complex and fast-paced market dynamics.
This will require entirely new approaches to organisational leadership and management.
So, plurality of perspective will be an increasingly key boardroom imperative for sustained commercial resilience, improved market preparedness, risk mitigation and enhanced competitive edge.
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Business transformation isn’t the latest software or project tool. Lasting organisational change happens conversation by conversation...
So, if you’d like to explore anything we've touched on in this blog or discuss any other aspects of the future of work, please do get in touch.
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