The future of business is changing - is it time for your business to evolve?

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Geriatric managers, cyber-wars and virtual collaboration: the future of business is changing – is it time for your business to evolve?
 
A new report by the Chartered Management Institute predicts what it may be like to work in the year 2018. Futurologists, academics and industry leaders identified the most important issues for management and leadership; asking what do we need to do today, to enable tomorrow?

Imagine you wake one day to find a cyber-war has broken out, or how about finding out your company director is 120 years old? Sound like an episode of Doctor Who? These are just two unexpected alternative futures that could become a reality.

The UK is fast becoming a knowledge economy underpinned by technology. In the future, terrorist attacks could turn cyber, launching an assault on the technology that stores our personal and business data. The loss of intellectual property and organisational memory could result in a stalling economy, and the collapse of businesses. To protect against this we will need a cyber-army of security to act as anti-bodies against attack, advances may include nation-wide early warning systems and ‘intellectual property banks’ (providing multiple backups).

Life enhancement technologies could increase the average age to 120+, creating a generation of geriatric workers. Such a scenario poses both challenges and opportunities; the need to tackle a new range of health issues could be offset by the ability of older workers to enhance talent, through mentoring, and increased knowledge capital.

The report also predicts more probable future scenarios. One trend is the expected continuing decline in traditional working structures, with more organisations becoming ‘wholly’ virtual. There will be even greater reliance on technology to enable sophisticated collaboration, simulating interpersonal contact. The potential dangers of a depersonalized workforce, fuelled by a sharp decline in face-to-face contact, should not be underestimated. Intelligent organisations will utilize shared office spaces to facilitate regular face-to-face contact, without the overheads or geographical restrictions of a permanent office space.

What do we need to do today, to enable tomorrow?

Trends point to a multi-generational, multi-cultural and dispersed workforce. Successful organisations will seek to furnish their employees with the skills and tools they will need to succeed in such an environment. 

  • Technology will need to support knowledge capture, sharing and collaborative working structures.
  • Interpersonal skills will be essential for effective collaborative and virtual working. In this context coaching and emotional intelligence will become key development requirements.
  • Flexible working structures will require flexible facilities that provide temporary office spaces, meeting spaces, and access to state of the art communication technology.
  • As face-2-face working declines, employees will have to learn to communicate in a context of reduced social and non-verbal cues, and become adept at selecting the appropriate communication technology for the task.
  • As the line between work and home life becomes more blurred employees will increasingly demand support for work life integration. Organisations need to be prepared to support these changing needs through their structure, policies, and resource provision

 
This article was written by Bluestone Talent Management.

Looking to the past, and the future, it seems the only certainty in the business world is change. Business psychologists Bluestone Talent Management can help your business evolve, providing people development solutions that capitalise on the future.

For information on our virtual/collaborative working programmes, including virtual leadership development and effective team collaboration, contact: Rosalie @ Bluestone Talent Management on +44 (0)20 8334 8082 or visit our website:  www.bluestonetm.com