Work has taken many shapes over the ages, from agrarian to industrial to the information-based jobs of today. With technology developing at an ever-increasing rate, the workplace is changing right along with it.
For one, organizational structures have changed. Companies with just one top-down chain of command are less common, as businesses become flatter and more decentralized. With looser hierarchies, workers have more access to directly contribute to projects and problem statements.
And just as management has become decentralized, so too has the flow of information. With dispersed points of control, information comes from almost everywhere—everyone has an idea and every idea has a platform. This wealth of data, though, should not discourage teams from looking inward and utilizing the years of experience their older colleagues possess. Conserving these strengths and then building on them can be a challenging task, but one with potential to pay off handsomely in the future.
Third, work is no longer just measured on an individual basis. Productivity is increasingly about what we do as a team, rather than just what one person can do on their own.
And finally, information must be accessible at all times. With high speed internet and social media, access to the right information at the right time is simply not up for debate.
Work in the cloud
According to an article in The Guardian, cloud computing has altered how we work. With businesses expanding globally and the need for crowdsourcing work at cheaper rates, there’s been a marked increase in the number of dispersed workspaces—people working from different locations—and the need to collate these bits and pieces into a cohesive whole. Combining these efforts while staying updated is a constant challenge.
So, what’s next? Artificial intelligence?
That same article also says that 45% of the jobs in the US are threatened by automation over the next two decades. However, though technological improvements have affected jobs in the past, they’ve always lead to the creation of new ones. This gives us confidence that, AI or not, work will always exist, though in altered shapes and forms.
So while we’re waiting to find out where the future is taking us, why not join our upcoming webinar and learn about a new product we’ve built—one that aims to cater to both current work trends and team structures, and the ones yet to come.
We’d love to hear your thoughts about how you think work will change in the future, so leave us a comment below and get the conversation started!
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