Startups have open offices – mostly. Everyone from the twenty year old founder to the twenty one year old employees are all sitting around in open cubicles. It is a visible symbol of a non-hierarchical work culture. In a country where hierarchy is everywhere, this comes across like a breath of fresh air and becomes a great draw while hiring. But are they really productivity boosters (because the boss can keep an eye on you) or creativity enhancers?
When trade unions resisted computerization, they were assured that computerization would create more jobs – only with different skill requirements. Education has been the answer for people to move from the blue collar workforce to a white collared job. Robots are now coming after the white collared jobs too. Books like The Rise of The Robots by Martin Ford document an increasingly bleak future. When information technology is combined with easily accessible machine intelligence is that new industries that come up will never be labor intensive. How do we prepare for that jobless future?
Disruption is a leadership phenomenon. Past success is the most effective predictor of future failure. Most disruption occurs not by making the wrong choices, as much as failing to choose at all. When the Ritz Carlton's head of training professes to be unaware of Airbnb, or when the publisher of a newspaper depicts future strategy in terms that disown past strategies we can begin to see the magnitude of the challenges ahead. What is needed is close to a complete reworking of our leadership model.
Even a small connection to the people who benefit from your work not only will improve productivity, it makes everyone happier. The single strongest predictor of meaningfulness is the belief that the job has a positive impact on others. That may be a terrific way to rethink your talent strategy.
Powerful digital engines are everywhere, capable of the continuous production of new knowledge to feed new ideas. But, where are you? Are you still an analog leader in a digital world?
Entrepreneurs are irrational. Their dreams are always greater than their resources. In the digital age the notion of entrepreneurship is getting redefined. Why is it so?
