The rapidly changing landscapes of work and people
In the field of managing business and leading people we either change with the times and surf the dizzying waves of technology or perish. Those senior and middle managers today who still use the traditional ways of managing their businesses and leading people are bound to become extinct like the dinosaurs; too big, too powerful, and too dictatorial. They are too slow in making decisions, too traditional in their approaches and too conservative in their tactics and strategies. They are oblivious to the emerging realities unfolding each day. If they do not change, they will be changed because they are the odd ones standing very obviously in the unfolding world of the millennials and Genration Z, the whiz kids who are digital, disruptive, borderless, too fast and too daring. We should have known better.
More than half a century ago, or in the ‘60s, leadership and management guru Alvin Toffler wrote a masterpiece that was six decades ahead of its time, it was called Future Shock. He followed it up with another bestseller, Powershift, and then The Third Wave which essayed the shifting from agriculture as the first wave, industries as the second wave and information technology as the third wave. Two weeks ago I attended a convention of HR managers (I was 2014 president of that organization, PMAP) and there, along with 1,500 young and dynamic people leaders and managers, we discussed the changing landscape of work.
The convention chairman began the two-day convention with an overview summarizing emerging forces driving changes in the work place, the profiles of people, and the ways of dealing with business owners and their management teams (mostly Baby Boomers) and the human capital who are very young, extremely empowered, disrespectful of traditions, and difficult to find, not to mention to motivate, control, discipline, and retain. Also that convention defined different threats and opportunities business leaders should learn and master, or perish.
What forces characterize these changes? First, is innovation as defined in the movie ‘’Tomorrowland’’. Then speed and velocity as shown in the movie “The Fast and the Furious”. Then artificial intelligence, as illustrated in the movie “I, Robot”. Then the urgent need for analytics because of the overwhelming data we need to process, which is in “The Fault in Our Stats” (or Statistics, Instead of Stars). Also, the need to restructure our companies from purely linear and bureaucratic to matrix of teams and task forces, united by temporary mandates, not by traditional lines of authorities, as exemplified in “The Matrix”.And there are many more variables all indicating flexibility, experimentation, adaptability to changes, tolerance for ambiguity, the courage to question the status quo, and the daring to change the rules all the time.
The days of the Baby Boomers and Generation X are almost over. The millennials and Generation Z are here to claim supremacy. We better learn their speed and velocity or we shall be reduced to relics and statistics. The future shock is here. The power has shifted and the third wave is engulfing us. The landscape of work is changing and we need to be attuned or disappear.