From 24/7 access to digital ubiquity, the ways that we find information, process data, learn, and make decisions are rapidly changing — transforming us and our relationships with screens and with each other.
It’s also changing how we work.
A new article looks at five trends shaping the future of work. In it, author Jacob Morgan points to:
- Consumers in the workforce
- Collaborative technologies
- Cloud computing
- Millennials on the rise
- Mobility
The real essence of Morgan’s piece is that our relationship with technology is changing, and organizations are going to have to adapt to this reality. We’re more connected so I don’t have to go through 7 layers of management to talk to someone in another department or another office: I’ll just e-mail, text, Skype, or otherwise reach out directly. Where earlier technologies (e.g., the telephone) facilitated conversations, today’s technologies are ever-present.
We’re already collaborating; it’s the companies that need to keep up.
This is the reason social business is important.
In talking about what I termed “consumers in the workforce,” Morgan writes:
Much of what we are seeing inside of our organizations as it relates to “social” collaboration is being fueled by what is happening in the consumer web… The technologies in the consumer web help encourage and support new behaviors such as creating communities, being open and transparent, sharing information and ideas, easily being able to find people and information, and collaboration. These behaviors (and technologies) are now making their way into our organizations and are helping shape the future of work.
A lot of food for thought–and action.
Photo by Bablu Miah (Flickr).
