Forget for a minute that the Future of Work Exchange exists. Forget, just for the next several minutes, that you might be a regular reader of content related to the Future of Work movement. Let’s step back for a minute and answer a question: why are we so focused on the Future of Work?
The “future” means the months and years ahead, right? So, why do we insist that the Future of Work is so critical right now? Futurists often regularly discuss what is up ahead and which trends may affect business operations given the current trajectory of the economy, the labor market, global issues, etc.
The major difference between discussing the “typical” future and conversing about the Future of Work is this: the world of work and talent is in a current state of perpetual transformation. Predicting who will win the next Super Bowl comes down to analytics, the prevalence of injuries, and a handful of outliers (such as above-average seasons from under-the-radar players). We can typically narrow down the winners to several teams (but, unfortunately, never come quite as close as predicting the winner, or else there would be many, many more millionaire football fans).
Predicting what will happen next in a business world that has been through incredible change over a two-plus year period? Not so easy.
The coronavirus itself is a gigantic outlier. New variants emerge regularly and will cause disruption no matter how global governments respond. Business leaders cannot anticipate how the labor market will continue to change given the continued ramifications of the Talent Revolution (aka The Great Resignation).
We’re so focused, right now, on the Future of Work because our “future” isn’t months or years away…it could be tomorrow or next week. We, as both people and professionals, have never before experienced such disruption, change, and transformation as we have over the past 25+ months.
Remember when we were talking about “returning to normal” way back in the summer of 2020? Do you remember when, towards the end of that tumultuous year, when executives began clamoring for workers to return to the office? Remember when the arrival of the Pfizer, Moderna, and J&J vaccines all gave us collective hope that 2021 would be the last year we’d have to contend with shifting goals for the pandemic?
We are collectively focused on our future state of work because there is so much at stake. We, as business leaders and business professionals, must work everyday to ensure that our enterprises are prepared for what happens next. Whether it’s an unforeseen event that will continue to affect the labor market, or economic progression that enables businesses to take more risks, or even a great next step towards “victory” against a seemingly-never-ending pandemic, executives and their workforce know their future is tomorrow.
