The Shift: The Future of Work is Already Here
Lynda Gratton
An unhysterical look at the future of employment.
We are now facing a revolution in the way we work. A substantial schism in the past which is so great that the work we do will change – possibly so that in two decades our working lives will have been so REWORKED that they are unrecognisable.
This is not just about the impact that a low carbon enonomy will have on the way we work. It is also about how the nexus of technology and globalisation will work together with demographic and societal changes to fundamentally transform much of what we take for granted about work.
Why will things change so quickly? What will these changes look like? Who will benefit and who will suffer? How do we navigate our career through these times?
Lynda Gratton, Professor at London Business School, is the perfect person to answer these questions. For the past three years she has worked with companies around the world to draw up a picture of the Future of Work.
In this book Professor Gratton looks at the forces which are changing how we work; explains the potential impact on our future working life; and gives us guidelines on how to thrive in a REWORKED world.
THE SHIFT
THE FUTURE OF WORK IS ALREADY HERE
LYNDA GRATTON
For my mother Barbara’s grandchildren
– the ‘regenerative generation’ –
Carla, Max, Christian, Frankie, Dominic, Hunter,
Freddie, Tilly, Jasmine, Eve and Summer
Contents
Cover (#ua4612f34-d455-5a50-a115-7aa92844d697)
Title Page (#u6e11393e-e574-5155-a965-2046958815ac)
Preface - Tomorrow’s work begins today
Introduction - Predicting the future of work
PART I - The Forces That Will Shape Your Future
Chapter 1 - The five forces
PART II - The Dark Side of the Default Future
Chapter 2 - Fragmentation: a three-minute world
Chapter 3 - Isolation: the genesis of loneliness
Chapter 4 - Exclusion: the new poor
PART III - The Bright Side of the Crafted Future
Chapter 5 - Co-creation: the multiplication of impact and energy
Chapter 6 - Social engagement: the rise of empathy and balance
Chapter 7 - Micro-entrepreneurship: crafting creative lives
PART IV - The Shift
Chapter 8 - The first shift: from shallow generalist to serial master
Chapter 9 - The second shift: from isolated competitor to innovative connector
Chapter 10 - The third shift: from voracious consumer to impassioned producer
PART V - Notes On The Future
Chapter 11 - Notes to children, CEOs and governments
Endnotes
Bibliography
Learning more about The Shift
Acknowledgements
Index
About the Author
Copyright
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
Preface
Tomorrow’s Work Begins Today
It all began with one of those simple questions that teenagers have a habit of asking. Seated at the morning breakfast table, I found my train of thought interrupted by my eldest son Christian who, 17 years old and fresh out of school, was clearly pondering his future.
‘I’m really keen to be a journalist,’ he remarked to his brother and me.
His brother Dominic, two years his junior, perhaps inspired by his lead, followed on with ‘And I’m thinking about medicine.’
Both sentences were spoken with sufficient query that I took them as questions rather than statements of fact.
Having been a professor in a business school, and an advisor to companies for nigh on three decades, I consider myself something of an expert in the why and how of work. Of course, I am also the first to acknowledge that my sons, being teenagers, are unlikely to have much interest in my opinion. But it struck me on that busy morning that I did need at least a point of view about the future of work. The challenge was this: what was my point of view? I began to realise that, despite my years of advising companies and researching work, all I could muster that morning was a rather half-baked, old-fashioned set of assumptions, combined with ‘tidbits’ of data that seemed both hopelessly out of date and extraordinarily incomplete.