The future of work and the future of the workplace is unravelling in a global environment where, it is reported that, 70% of the companies on the Fortune 1000 listed 10 years ago have vanished and in an environment where no business is too big to fail or too small to succeed, where technology and society are growing at a faster pace than organisation and corporation can catch up.

 The digital economy has given rise to a business environment where the workplace as we know is broken, where our age old assumptions are no more relevant and the metrics of success are being redefined and where the clarity of words we use to discuss business, standbys like marketplace and competitive advantage, are redefined and rendered almost meaningless.

 The future of work and the future of the workplace is here, it is not clearly defined but it is distributed within our local workplace and the global workplace of the global enterprise. Work is clearly evolving and new technologies and behaviors are changing the structure and make up of our organisations and the workplace. The future of work and the workplace in the untethered work & workplace and I dare say the untethered organization.

  •  The era of “the always-on” workforce is upon us, brought on by mobile technologies.
  • The work day is no more an 8 hours a day work day anymore.
  • The number of mobile-connected devices per capita will reach 1.5 by 2020.
  • Local & global Coworking hubs are emerging to support untethered work locations.
  • Ubiquitous connectivity & mobility has created an untethered workforce.
  • There is collaborative overload in our workplace and interaction is increasing
  • Collaboration is turning into a value system and making us cooperators in getting work done.
  • The rise of the Nomad Class - creative professionals who live, work and play without the traditional constructs of time or place making talent mobile.
  • Digital technologies are disrupting business introducing new business models, new services and products and redefining organizational agility.
  • Business meets Design as customer journeys is crucial to an enhanced customer experience.

Read The Future of Work & Workplace is Untethered for more in-depth introduction to the concept of the untethered workplace or browse through the slide deck on Slideshare on: An Introduction to the Untethered Workplace.

The Deloitte building- The Edge in Amsterdam dubbed as: The smartest building in the world by Bloomberg - housing the headquarters of Deloitte is an example of organisations that are edging towards the untethered workplace.  Where no one has a fixed location of work – Hot-Desking rules the space; Qi Wireless Charging, sensor-packing LED lighting; Preference knowing App for light and temperature makes it one of the smartest buildings in the world.

Today and more so in the future global organisations are expected to quickly deliver the right team, with the right experience and expertise, to every client, anywhere in the world. Corporations such as consulting firm McKinsey have no headquarters in the traditional sense. Their worldwide managing director, elected by the partners, chooses his or her home office, currently London – an growing trend

Global companies are creating global workplaces without borders with global talent where large diversified team working together from different locations time zones are enabling companies to grow more quickly, learn faster, and deliver smarter products and services. They will in the future be leveraging the network effects of a platform – open and inclusive - with a strategic focus. The workplace is and organizations are becoming more boundary-less, agile, global, and transparent.

The way we are working is changing fast and traditional career paths look less and less relevant. Lots of different jobs as technology releases us from the nine to five grind.  Human cloud” – a vast global pool of freelancers working with internal talent members. The best of people power is combined with the best of corporate power. Work will be done with participation of people outside the company – free agents; consultants; experts & peers.

Many of our information systems are flooded with AI. In the immediate future you will see analytics, algorithms, big data and automation are likely to enhance productivity and decision-making, automating & migrating tasks to machines or robots & mastering big data. Our workplaces will move into a Cognitive Era for Collaboration wherein teams -Talent and organization leaders will form strong social and community relationships and master the ethics of collaboration with machines developing new ground breaking models for governance.

Cisco recently released the Digital Ceiling - the convergence of building system together with PureLifi will herald the first step to enhancing the user experience in the workplace and give rise to the “Digital Building” ushering better workplace experience for the users. The digital buildings of the future will transform the workplace into a flexible, collaborative environment that helps empower today’s digital workforce and increase employee engagement and productivity, and enhance innovation.

One of the greatest challenge in the digital, global untethered workplace is: To rethinking performance management & create a compelling employee experience. The challenge is how do you manage a teams that are scattered all over the world and at the same time ensure that thousands of people know what to do, cooperate to get it done, and experience it as personally fulfilling.

The other challenge in the digital, global untethered workplace is: To create workplace services and settings that are extensions and components of the work itself. Adaptive Environments that interact dynamically, not passively, with the work flow/process. Workplace – operationally flexible & scalable; evolving to remain fluid and flexible bringing people together- Freedom of Inclusivity.

Our ever increasing digital, global environment is shaping the world in which we work, but more than that, it is shaping the evolution of organisation through its influence on the workplace forcing business leaders have to rethink the future vision of the workplace.

Is your organisation evolving towards the untethered workplace? I would like to hear from you.

A Slide deck on this blog post is available for view on Slideshare: The Evolution of the Untethered Workplace

Philip Thomas - Optimizing Project Delivery Services; Workplace Experience Strategist; Design & Circular Thinking; Evangelist for disrupting the AEC Industry.

I do write on Enhancing Client Experience; Project Management; Design Thinking and Circular Thanking; The Untethered Workplace – The Future of Work & the Workplace of the Future and on Disrupting the AEC industry.

To read more on these subject go to our Blog page on our website: www.optumplus.com