The future of work.

The future of work is not about Hybrid working

I see most of the debate on future of work more focused on the future of work locations than of “work” in a holistic view.

There are three key changes:

1. Moving from Tasks to Outputs

2. From Jobs to Project roles

3. From Individual to Teams

Traditional Jobs are a collection of tasks, that come from the industrial area conception of division of labour to optimize standardized repetitive actions. Coordination comes from a hierarchical organization that controls those tasks.

Most of those tasks have been, or will be automized, or performed by specialized shared service organizations.

The value-added work will be output focused projects, done by teams than need to coordinate themselves horizontally rather than vertically.

Once a project is finished then individuals will work on other projects were the expertise can be leveraged.

Project now are a combination of internal and contracted talent, and with ne need of more flexibility that mix will be more in favour of contracted talent.

I believe a broader debate on “work” can help shape the organization of the 21st century.