Whilst various aspects of the digitally based society with its impact on new business behaviors, and models, get the attention the really big question is how will the people in enterprises be working. It’s a strange omission given that the digital revolution is seen as being driven by peoples’ use of technology as consumers, arguably the counter balance must be that enterprises changing the working capabilities of their staff to support these new business environments.
A digital enterprise has faced radical change in their business model due to technology and consumer expectations. So using new technology to make the current business model ‘better’ in the manner of the last twenty years isn’t enough. Instead the future of work will be defined by radical shift in the manner in which ‘work’, or more accurately we should perhaps say ‘value creation’ is organized. If we can improve our definitions of what ‘the future of work’ might be in terms of radical change to how an enterprise functions then we can define the skills and cultures that are needed in those staffing an enterprise.
Straight forward enough, but too much of the research on the future of work concentrates on small enterprising units that react and follow markets etc., you know the picture from a thousand sources. However in real life big enterprises are not going away as they have the power, position and assets to re compete in new ways, for them the question is what and they can adopt radical change in working practices. For several years now John Seddon, a British physiologist specializing in service sector industries has been painting a powerful picture of big enterprise reorganization around customer service and flexibility http://vimeo.com/4670102.
Anyone who has seen a John Seddon presentation has never failed to be gripped by the power of his analysis and logical redefinition, (as well as the humor in his explanations of what goes wrong). Amongst the fans for his approach are at least two major technology companies who are developing various tools and capabilities for the new working place. So lets assume John is right, or at least in the right direction and ask the question about ‘working’ skills and culture.
To deliver the capability to own, and resolve, a complex issue is certainly going to call for the technology tools that are high on the list from Big Data insights to Collaboration suites, Apps to Mobility, and yes even Clouds. All these technologies are about people and ‘working’ in new ways that empower people to go beyond the current confines introduced by enterprise applications linked to rigid departments. But this is not a call for technology product training, instead its attitude and capability development of people that we require. John Hagel noted this in a powerful piece on Forbes entitled ‘the empowered employee is the world ready’ http://www.forbes.com/sites/ciocentral/2012/02/09/the-empowered-employee-is-coming-is-the-world-ready/ and quoting directly from this work he noted;
But what would this require? Well, it makes people the center of the enterprise. Rather than striving to squeeze people into their assigned roles and tasks, it means addressing how the enterprise will need to change in order to help people develop more rapidly and achieve ever higher levels of performance. That’s a powerful combination – people and performance – and it’s the foundation of the post-digital enterprise
In order to achieve our Digital Enterprise there is a need to focus in parallel on the conscious development of a new Working culture and the Workers themselves. As well as drawing up the technology specifications with product comparisons it means starting to define the ‘working’ capabilities of the people to use these empowering tools in the radical new business models. We need to recognize that enterprise change is driven by the rate at which people can successful work in new ways.
It’s never too soon to start developing new profiles that define personal behaviors that go with abilities to use personal initiative, take responsibility with accountability for complex issues and their resolve, with accompanying personal motivational factors. Start considering how to reward these new workers and their abilities to interact with others as well as individually succeed, as these factors will be as important as their technology capabilities.
