Around the world, outdated hierarchies will crumble; notions of nine-to-five working will come under immense pressure; and those who in the past would have been disadvantaged will have the opportunity to join the global talent pool.
Over the coming decades, there will be positive upsides for each one of us. But there will also be significant downsides. The traditional jobs and careers of the past may have been constraining and frustrating – but they did bring a measure of predictability. The nine-to-five rhythm may have created annoying inflexibility – but at least it was a rhythm and not a continuous 24-hour barrage. Opening up opportunities for people across most of the regions of the world has enormous benefits – but it also puts under colossal pressure those born into what had previously been privileged regions.
Our world is changing at an extraordinary pace, and what will go are many of the beliefs about what work is and how it is performed. In its place are greater opportunities and more choice. It is the widening of the aperture of choice that creates the space that will enable you to write a personal career script that can bring you fulfilment and meaning.
But with this comes the necessity of actively making choices, and of being able to live with the consequences of these choices and the trade-offs they may require.
To create a great working future, you will be called upon to make a number of fundamental shifts in your assumptions, and indeed in your knowledge, skills, working practices and habits.
The first shift addresses the development of intellectual capital. While in the past, developing broad, general knowledge and skills may have been valuable, this will not be so in the future. In a joined-up, global and technologically enabled world there will always be thousands, perhaps even millions of people who know the same as you – yet can deliver it faster, cheaper and perhaps even better.
In the future, you will have to increasingly differentiate yourself from the crowd. You will do this by building depth and by putting in the time and resources to create a body of knowledge and skills – in other words, to achieve mastery. So the first shift will be from shallow generalist to serial master.
In a world where isolation is just around the corner, finding and keeping regenerative relationships will be key. But in a world where innovation and creativity are at a premium, then the diversity of networks will also play a crucial role. Success will come from the balance between the different types of relationships and networks that define your work. This will mean letting go of many of your preconceptions about what it takes to be a winner. This is the second shift that will be so crucial to success in the future. It is the shift from being an isolated competitor, to being an innovative connector.
The third source of capital or resource available to you is your emotional capital. What will be more crucial to the future development of emotional capital will be the choices you make and the consequences you are prepared to trade-off. Increasingly, the quality of experiences will trump quantity of consumption every time, and that words like 'happiness' and 'regeneration' will replace words like 'affluence' and 'luxury' as the touchstone of future working lives. So the third and final shift builds on sources of emotional capital through shifting from a working life dominated by voracious consumption to one that has impassioned production at the heart.
None of this will be straightforward. Much will require a level of focus and energy that frankly few of us have associated with decisions about the way we work. But doing nothing is not an option. Simply expending energy will take you on a path, but what is required in addition are conscious, articulated and purposeful actions around the three shifts. To be prepared to expand the focus and determination to be a serial master; to use energy and good will to become an innovative connector with a rich network of diverse and interesting people; and finally, to redraft the traditional working deal that has money and consumption at the heart to something more in tune with your emotional needs – that is the way forward.
Lynda Gratton (pictured) is professor of management practice, London Business School and speaker at the Singapore Human Capital Summit
