Friday, 6.20 am
Sheffield, U.K.
It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters. – Epictetus
Imagine it’s ten years from now.
What would you go back and tell yourself ten years ago to do – what advice would you have for the you that you are now?
Or, if it’s easier, what would you tell your kids they should do now so that they’ll be ready for the world that will be in ten years?
I think there are four shifts that are happening today that will unbalance and unsettle the way we do things.
It’s either going to be a fun ride or very worrying, depending on how you see what’s coming.
Let’s go through the four shifts that could be coming.
1. Work anywhere
How will the work you do change?
Is there anything that requires you to be in a particular place at a particular time that you don’t have control over?
As a doctor, for example, is there anything really stopping you from having consultations on the phone, or on a video call?
If you’re a cleaner perhaps you go to different buildings at times that suit you to get your job done.
Working from a fixed location is not a function of the kind of work but a function of the power relationships between two people.
If you need the money and the person employing you wants to control your time then that leads to an unbalanced relationship based on power and coercion.
These exist. And they suck.
But if you’re lucky enough to find people who want to work with you that are willing to negotiate then you could work from anywhere.
That doesn’t suck.
Over time people tend to choose options that don’t suck or suck less over those that do.
As a result the shift towards working from anywhere is going to be a hard one to stop because people will drift in directions they like.
2. Digital intertwining
There is a line in the film “Men in Black” about how the employees of the agency only wear and use approved things.
That seems a waste of resources now, when we all have digital devices capable of doing work.
There is a noticeable shift as large corporations try and control information and how you use it.
Part of this is down to security and those kinds of worries.
But these kinds of controls also stifle innovation and collaborative working, which is then picked up by startups and independent operators.
The opportunity for innovation comes in the digital intertwining of capabilities rather than in the control of them.
You can lock people in a room and give them computers that restrict what they do.
Don’t be surprised if they do their jobs but create little new value.
Let people work on what machines they want in what way they want.
Have an agreement with them on what needs to be done and trust them to deliver.
And if it doesn’t work out don’t work with them in the future – drift towards reliable trustworthy people.
That’s the way it’s always worked.
3. Smart integration
Everyone is figuring out what this AI thing means for them.
And one thing it means is that you can supercharge the way you work.
Or you can go down a rabbit hole.
You need to decide how AI can help you do what you need to do.
It’s like having a good research assistant that charges pennies per hour.
I did some research recently, testing out a range of queries, and it cost around 30 cents.
There is an argument that many tasks that you currently hire people for will be better done by people that also know how to use this technology.
Team sizes will be smaller, output will be greater.
And that’s the definition of productivity.
It’s not something we’re going to roll back.
4. Service design
The first three changes mean that it’s going to be much harder to assign a value to the time of the person you work with.
They can do the hours they want where they want, and you don’t need to control that or pay for it.
They can use their own tools and integrate with yours to get things done.
They use AI to help them get more done faster and better.
They what exactly are you paying for?
It’s not 8 hours a day is it?
And if you’re that person you need to switch from thinking that you provide a set number of hours to thinking that you provide a series of benefits – a set of services.
That means you need to understand what service you provide and design it so that it works around you and what you have and can do.
Instead of applying to a job that tells you what to do you should try and be in a position to offer a service to someone that has jobs that need to be done.
That’s a different way of thinking but it’s a way to keep yourself relevant in a world where the alternative is competing with a machine that does what you do for pennies.
5. The push back
The speed at which any shift happens depends on the rate of adoption and the rate of pushback from vested interests – those who stand to lose if things change.
You can see that happening as CEO’s try and change what’s happening to fit their mental models of how things should be happening.
Leaders are not always right.
And sometimes they persist in trying to hold back the tide.
We should be a little more thoughtful about the decisions we make for ourselves.
Cheers,
Karthik Suresh
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