Disclaimer: I ve known Prashant for over 7 years and have worked closely on many projects. Biases are natural but I will try to keep this article as objective as possible.
Context for the book – With 2 years of Covid-19 behind us we are now living in a world very different from what used to be a year ago. Large events such as conferences are being scheduled, people have started traveling for work and leisure, employers are open to people working from office. Government, employers and society are equipped with sufficient training, knowledge and tools to deal with another variant of the virus and everyone is expected to be act responsibly and stay vigilant.
Future of Work – How work gets done post pandemic is about creating an environment that is flexible, adaptive, responsible and inclusive which to me is what book aims to highlight as ‘Future of Work’.
What the book is – Change is inevitable and the book talks about ~30+ such change ideas that will influence Future of Work. All of them may not be applicable to you but some of them maybe highly relevant. The book is not about prescriptions or how to guidelines. The considerations listed are ideas you may chew on to see whether it helps you improve your organizational work culture.
It discusses about how physical products are going to be conceived and tested first virtually before being prototyped. Every product will need to offer some sort of online experience replicating the “touch and feel” as people’s attention and energy are online. Often times, the internet is the only place they go for product discovery. The book also refers to ‘persuasive technology’ from BJ Fogg which talks about influencing user behavior by proactively leading them to outcomes you want than being reactive. While this has been used for decades at facebook, google or amazon, traditional businesses have an opportunity to do so in their organization with the current tools available. The concept of super-humans is mentioned that talks about a case where instead of humans just instructing machines to do routine tasks via automation, a hybrid avatar will exist which are basically machines reaching out to humans for seeking inputs to work on more complex tasks. While the world is moving away from physical work attributes like dress code, physical location wherever possible, there is a need for something else to be in its place to create a sense of belonging, purpose and engagement. The culture of organization becomes paramount here and will need structure and tools that helps propagate itself.
I wouldn’t call this book a practitioner’s handbook but ideas and references made me think and research on how it may impact me and my customers.
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