Staying on top of the workplace revolution

The future of work feels closer than ever before. Technology, longer lives and individual expectations are tearing at the seams of conventional office life. The revolution is happening before our eyes.

 

The rise of self-employment, portfolio careers, the home office, the shared office all respond to the uncertainty of contemporary employment and answer a mood of self-determination in society as a whole; to be your own boss and chase your dreams. It is work not just as remuneration but as a component of identity and a path to self-fulfilment.

 

Office of the future

 

London Business School (LBS) alumnus Jack Huang is at the forefront of the change. In 2012 he founded Truly Experiences and quickly began hiring globally but without the usual expectation that people transplant their lives to be near the office.

 

“The whole idea of hiring people who can get to your office is outdated,” he says. “There are so many online collaboration tools – someone’s location is mattering less and less.”

 

However, even top talent gets ‘out of sync’, says Huang, who has come up with a solution to help teams who don’t chat at the water cooler. Remote teams can easily slip into batting solutions back and forth, he’s found, with no one selecting an option to solve a problem or seize an opportunity.

 

For Huang the answer is to set out a clear decision-making process. Decide how they are going to decide in advance.