fanfare for the future workplace:will the future collaborative workplace result in the demise of...

8/12/2019 Fanfare for the Future Workplace:Will the future collaborative workplace result in the demise of GDP?

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Fanfare for the Future Workplace : Will the future collaborativeworkplace result in the demise of GDP?

A few months ago when I presented my thoughts on the evolution of money & technology at a TEDxevent, I ended my talk on a Hitchcockesque note.

I asked my audience what they thought was going to be the definition of a career 15 years in the future,when 50% of our current jobs in the manufacturing and services sectors will be replaced by dexterousmachines and self- learning AI capable of assimilating information at rates exponential to humancognitive capacities.

This question was not meant to present a doomsday scenario, but rather to entice my audience tocontemplate on the future of the workplace.

The workplace of today:

Before we head off into the future, lets look at how the global workplace landscape is currentlyevolving. A decade ago, employees were worried about losing their jobs to outsourcing. Todaycompanies like Amazons Mechanical Turk , ODesk and LiveOps can gather teams on the cloud toperform research, sales, marketing and almost any other task.

Companies like Accordion Partners are redefining the face of the investment banking industry byfurnishing free-lance financial experts who work with a plethora of competing Wall Street companies,

providing them with technical expertise on a project to project basis.

The extended workforce is gaining breakneck momentum, with a number of Fortune 100 companieshaving doubled their outsourced talent pools in the last two decades. Technology is further adding tothis transition, allowing companies to hire talent irrespective of mobility, location or borders.

This trend isnt reserved to a certain sector either. Engineers, tech specialists, healthcare workers andbusiness professionals are all part of this transition, working with companies on specialized, knowledge

To teach is not totransfer knowledge

but to create the possibility for the

production orconstruction ofknowledge

Paulo Freire.
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intensive projects. It would be safe to say that companies now have access to a buffet of talent whichthey can mix and match to address the preferences of their customers.

Even the social aspect of working in an office has not been spared. Internet sites now allow individualsto rent cheap office space within an organisation for a short time. By doing so, the extended workforcecan enjoy the social aspects of work and develop their networks concurrently, further leveraging theirinfluence on social sites such as LinkedIn.

These changes are providing companies with flexibility and adaptability. Rather than spending animmense amount of time and resources on training their employees, companies now have agile, highperformance, skilled talent at their beck and call.

Simultaneously this trend is changing the professional lives of free-lance contractors as well. They nowhave a chance to work on multiple projects, in different domains and with different companies. Thequality of their work creates their online reputation, which in turn, results in them securing their next job. This encourages them to perform, while being able to enjoy complete flexibility in their personallives.

So what does this mean to the future of the workplace?

If we were to observe the contributions to GDP of the three primary secto rs in todays economy of thedeveloped and developing nations, the figures show the dominance of the services sector.

However on taking into account the emerging trends in the workplace, it would be sensible to infer thattechnology, global connectivity and intelligent social media will ensure that the global workplace oftomorrow will be one that is an inter-connected knowledge based archetype, rather than a servicebased one. This fact has been validated by many intellectuals including Joseph Stiglitz & Eli Broad.


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If we are to adapt to a knowledge based economy the next question in this line of thought would be toask what defines knowledge. Is it the capacity to absorb facts and figures and be a walking pile of data?Or is it the capacity to link together different pieces of information by having the monkey-wrench ofexpertise as a sidearm?

First lets concentrate on data. We are on the cusp of transforming our relationship with computers andmachines. By the year 2030 it is estimated that over a 100 Trillion sensors will be in every part of ourhouses, offices and even on our person, incessantly measuring and assimilating data whilstsimultaneously interacting between themselves.

With the rise of quantum computing and cognitive computing, the possibilities of what insight this datawould provide rise exponentially, mirroring the speed of quantum processing. Intelligent AI such asIBMs Watson will further be able to leverage on this information and will transform every aspect ofwork. Production, teaching, medicine and even security will enter the realm of this digital universe.

As this transition occurs, a number of questions arise: Is information and data accumulation akin toknowledge? Are these machines of the future going to make our places of work obsolete along with us

in the process? If so, what will we be doing in order to earn a living? And what are the skill sets that weneed to develop in order to survive in this future?

Thinking: The Skill Set of the future

These questions do seem pessimistic in nature. But in reality they do offer a future of optimism. Assmart machines take over routine manufacturing and services jobs, there will be an increasing demandfor the kind of skills that machines are not good at Namely, thinking.

Thinking is a process that cannot be quantified. It is based on curiosity, blemished by experimentationand is incapable of being codified. As the division of labour between machines and humans continues tobe renegotiated, it is our inherent ability to come up with Eureka! moments and our adaptability to

situations that will emerge as our greatest skill set.

Thinking encompasses a wide array of subjects. No computer will be able to comprehend desire, to feelor to empathise. And as we move towards a more collaborative and interconnected society, it will bethese skills which are inherently human that will become our greatest skill set. Knowledge will bebased on our learning abilities and our creativity to be able to use this connaisance to find imaginativesolutions to the challenges at bay.

It is in this ambience that the extended workforce will truly flourish. Research shows that diversitywithin an organisation is the core competency for successes. The ability to manage diverse teams whilstrespecting a variety of cultures will be the pivotal factor that will enable organisations to redefine

efficiency in this new paradigm.Taking these parameters into consideration, a hypothesis of the future workplace begins to emerge:We will increasingly be immersed in a workplace comprised of formal employees, consultant partnersand a global grid of contractors, all working in tandem with the public to provide innovative solutions tothe needs of the future.
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Not only will this change the way we work, it was also lead to the creation of new jobs. A study initiatedby the Institute for the Future , summarises a few of the future jobs that will be at our disposal:

An element of commonality in all these jobs is the manifestation of our inherent capacity to adapt andmake sense of the environment around us. In other words, our ability to think. Yet, it is often seen thatthis fundamental ability is often ignored in the current educational system. Or is that about to change?
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A revision of our educational system:

In 2013, Sugata Mitra won the TED prize for his talk on Self Organized Learning Environments (SOLE). Mitra highlighted that the current education system was manufactured 300 years ago, in order toaddress the needs of the industrial revolution. His talk resonated the elemental need to develop theelements of creativity, intelligence and insight in our current education systems, which were alsoexpressed by another education legend Sir Ken Robinson in an earlier TED talk.

The point that both these educators were trying to convey was that the trail of monotony found in thecurrent education system, and its emphasis on teaching students to be capable of doing repetitive tasksrobs us of our capacity to self-learn and thus our creativity in the process.

Apart from this grim reality is the fact that the current education system is a costly business. Studentsdoing a Bachelors or a Masters Degree end up incurring vast sums of debt. The reasons for the highcosts are quite stark. Degrees have become an exclusive commodity, the price of which is fuelled by lowadmission rates, well qualified students, the promise of high starting salaries and a clamouring sea ofapplicants.

To render the situation even more macabre, the skills learnt at school are not in unison with the needsof the changing workplace. At a time when innovation is the mantra in most organisations, the skillslearnt by these students are not always in cohesion with the required skills of the future workplace.

As mentioned above, the workplace of the future, is going to be one in which the extended consultantwill play a crucial role. In hiring these consultants , companies will ask a single questionWho is the bestperson for the job? Hence, the begetting question that we need to ask ourselves is how do we becomethe best person for a task? Would it be asinine to contemplate that only experts would have a chance ofestablishing themselves in this new ambience?

I argue that this will not be the case. The solution evidently lies in our education system. Our education

system needs to be overhauled only from an economic standpoint, but also in terms of its pedagogyand the variation of subjects, as exemplified by the Jobs of the Future infographic.

Fortunately for us, educators and innovators are already taking a step in this direction.

Evolution in the education system:

As with the previous section of this article, it would be useful to relook our education system, in order todetermine what are the game changing methods and technologies being considered today. Just astechnology is giving the workplace a facelift, education, thankfully as well, has not been spared.

I. MOOCs:

The biggest game changer in the education system is the development of Massive Open OnlineCourses or MOOCs. A MOOC is primarily defined by 4 attributes:

M A very large number of participants per course O Content delivered online

O Low cost/ free content, & no admission stipulations C Structured content with periodic assessments
https://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_build_a_school_in_the_cloudhttps://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_build_a_school_in_the_cloudhttps://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_build_a_school_in_the_cloudhttps://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativityhttps://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativityhttps://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativityhttps://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativityhttps://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_build_a_school_in_the_cloud


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The advantages of this new method of online teaching are multi-fold:

1. There is a reduction of fees and an increase in outreach of courses.

2. Students can now learn most of mechanical subjects at their own pace and without the need ofexpensive faculty.

3. As most MOOCs also have forums that are created by the students, they can now gain anexperience in learning collaboratively and develop their contacts and networks.

4. Employees can now see graduates as co-workers or entrepreneurs, rather than ill-preparedassembly line workers in a knowledge economy.

As a direct consequence, MOOCs also allow faculty to concentrate more time on their research. Hence,instead of paying for research, via student fees, a greater allocation of funds can now be siphonedtowards research thus reforming the cost structure at universities.

A research report by the Wharton Schoo l further shows concrete evidence to this breakthrough. While

the current annual cost of creating a journal amounts to approximately $400,000 , the cost of creating aMOOC, which allows for a greater reach, is about $11.20 per completing student. Not only does thisencourage us to rethink the cost structure at schools, it also allows us to reconsider the productivity andcontribution levels of academics to society.

II. Nano-Degrees:

As the Internet of Things moves towards the Internet of Everything, the evolution in technology iscreating a dearth of technical skills. In a recent report by the McKinsey Global institute , it was statedthat by 2018 the United States alone might face a 50%-60% gap of between the supply and demand of

people with an advanced training in data analysis, statistics and machine learning.As the need for specialists in the fields of data mining, cognitive computing, web based services andcontent curation begin to increase, the public sector is now entering the field of education providingshort courses in the form of Nano-Degrees. The leader in this domain is Udacity, which is currentlyproviding Nano-degrees in Front-end and Back-end Web Development, iOS development and Dataanalysis.
http://mackinstitute.wharton.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Terwiesch_Ulrich_Threat-and-Opportunity-of-MOOCs-for-MBA-Programs.pdfhttp://mackinstitute.wharton.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Terwiesch_Ulrich_Threat-and-Opportunity-of-MOOCs-for-MBA-Programs.pdfhttp://mackinstitute.wharton.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Terwiesch_Ulrich_Threat-and-Opportunity-of-MOOCs-for-MBA-Programs.pdfhttp://www.mckinsey.com/features/big_datahttp://www.mckinsey.com/features/big_datahttp://www.mckinsey.com/features/big_datahttps://www.udacity.com/nanodegreeshttps://www.udacity.com/nanodegreeshttps://www.udacity.com/nanodegreeshttps://www.udacity.com/nanodegreeshttp://www.mckinsey.com/features/big_datahttp://mackinstitute.wharton.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Terwiesch_Ulrich_Threat-and-Opportunity-of-MOOCs-for-MBA-Programs.pdf


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The advantage of Nano-degrees is their focalised nature. Rather than going through an entire course,these degrees focus on a core module and offering a learning style that is extremely collaborative andadapted to the current workplace. Students are given a real time project which they all need tocomplete by performing multiple tasks. At the end, the tasks are amalgamated with the aid of thecourse guide, thus leading to the end of the project and the reception of a qualification certificate.

Unlike MOOCs, Nano-degrees are paid qualifications. However the cost is quite marginal at around$150 making them increasingly affordable. What MOOCs and Nano-degrees do share is the receptionof a validation certificate by an institution or a university, formalising the applicants participation andperformance.

III. Learning Analytics:

As education becomes increasingly digital, teachers and school leaders have access to an increasingamount of data. This data, which is primarily created by the students, now offers educators thepossibility of creating models which discover methodologies and tools for predicting and tailoringcourses based on each students profile.

One of the leaders in this domain is a Dutch public organisation called Kennisnet (Dutch for KnowledgeNet), which is dedicated to ICT-innovation in primary and secondary education as well as in vocationaltraining. Kennisnet provides educational content and information to teachers, pupils and parents andprovides IT led educational processes that provide technical and practical support for several innovativeeducational aids.

Learning analytics can be seen as a formative aid to help students discover which learning pattern bestsuits them while they are still in school. Hence, in this way each student can then develop theirindividual self-learning methodologies and share these techniques on a collaborative platform. Theteachers role would be one of providing guidance rather than instruction

By capitalising on our innate curiosity, students in the future will not only be able to self-learn but alsoto innovate. In an education system that is based on curiosity, experimentation and sharing, innovationand entrepreneurship will no longer be a facet but rather an evident characteristic. MOOCs and Nano-degrees will then offer the possibility of developing a specialization in a subject, allowing individuals tobecome experts in a subject of their choice.

The end of GDP?

The findings in this report highlight the initiatives that are already underway in bridging the gapbetween the collaborative learning space of today and the collaborative workspace of the future. It alsoprojects that as technology continues to make giant leaps, the future concept of work will be

transformed to celebrate our inherent creativity and sociability.But this necessary transition, which has already begun, also poses some serious questions with regardsto how we ought to look at the future. A collaborative education system will lead to the creation of anextended workforce. This would lead to the creation of a collaborative economy which will set the stagefor a new paradigm of economic growth and prosperity.

But are the statistics and parameters used today to measure the productivity of a country, capable oftaking into consideration this collaborative evolution of our societies? How will we be able to measure
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our growth if the fine lines that were used demarcate nations and businesses begin to blur? What arethe parameters that need to be adjusted to gauge our prosperity? And who is going to be doing themeasuring?

Today the measure of an economys competency is measured in terms of its GDP. But the biggestcontributor to GDP today is the services industry. And the collaborative economy of tomorrow willtransform the services sector of all countries. Hence, in retrospect, would it be safe to say that usingGDP to measure a countries position in the global map is an outdated concept?

Would it not be safer to say that there is an increasing need to establish norms and indicators thatmeasure a countries holistic development which also encompasses human development?

Conclusion:

The findings of this study prove that the future of the workplace will be not only effect education andsociety but the way we think of work as well. There is still a long way to go, but the changes in thefoundations are already becoming apparent.

As MOOCs and Nano-degrees gain more popularity and traction, businesses will need to reconsider theway they look at these qualifications and the way they hire people. This would mean redefining the skillsets required of personnel, reanalysing the importance of their cultural adaptability and measuring theirexpertise and knowledge as indicated in their journals, blogs and social media contributions. In otherwords, it would reshape the future of HR.

New social indicators that are representative of our future society also need to be considered. It wouldbe counterproductive and foolhardy to continue to use an antiquated system of measurement, whenthe quantity to be measured in no longer the same.

The questions asked in this article are not meant to be an effort of establishing a methodology of

ending my thoughts on a Hitchcockesque note. Rather, it is an invitation to think, as the answers tothese questions will have solemn ramifications that will reshape our future.

After all; thinking will be the skill set of the future

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