The world is changing faster than ever. It is changing socially, politically, technologically, economically and ecologically.
But most people don’t like change. They tend to keep what they know and feel comfortable with. While this may seem normal, it only brings immobility.
To move forward we must embrace change, as the only absolute constant in our life.
We are on the verge of a fourth industrial revolution. Linked to this revolution there are several developments (socio-economic, geopolitical, demographic) such as artificial intelligence, robotics, genetics, biotechnology. Each of these developments intensifies each other and expands in multiple directions.
Over the past twenty years, these developments, combined with other issues (climate change, gender equality, wealth distribution) have generated global uncertainty. Within this scenario, it is possible to identify some driving forces of change: technological, demographic, social, environmental and geopolitical.
Considering the current capacity of hyper-connection, the almost instantaneous and frictionless diffusion of new ideas and the combination of these aspects with the driving forces (rapidly changing demography, change of values and attitudes, political uncertainty, exponential progress in the technology) the next decade promises to be a further historical transformation.
An imminent change that brings, on one hand, the promise of future prosperity and job creation and, on the other hand, the challenges that require proactive adaptation by governments, companies and individuals.
Global connectivity, smart tools and new technologies are just some of the drivers that influence the way we think about the work and skills needed to maintain a high level and continue to be productive.
With an increasingly complex commercial landscape, knowing what changes are taking place is essential to keep up with the evolution of the sector.
Knowing that companies are starting to consider this, being aware of the drivers of change can help professionals retrain to obtain the necessary skills required by company leaders for the new workforce.
These drivers have already had an impact on the talent landscape, disrupting business models, radically changing the workplace but also challenging institutions to support workers.
Over the past 35 years, life expectancy has increased by 10 years worldwide.
This trend changes the perspective of careers and learning practices. Multiple careers will become the rule and lifelong learning to keep the professional level high will become a constant.
To keep up, organizations will also need to rethink their career paths by creating more diversity, adaptability and flexibility.
Collaboration will no longer be limited to humans. Humans working alongside machines and robots will be a common sight.
The advent of intelligent machines will establish new expectations and performance standards in the workplace.
There will be a new form of human-machine interaction that will exploit mutual strengths and that will lead to a new level of collaboration.
In the long term, globalization will lead to greater exchanges and integration beyond geographical borders.
Communicating with colleagues in all corners of the planet will be the norm for all companies, large and small.
Growing interconnectivity will put diversity and adaptability at the center of organizational operations. We will witness major changes in cultural integration and a strong need for cultural sensitivity.
Social outcomes reporting has become more common, with many annual reports now including the Community Impact section.
In the coming future communities will expects greater transparency as to how resources are utilised.
In this context transparency means a strong commitment to measuring and reporting on sustainability impact as core part of developing a truly outcomes-focussed culture.
Social technologies drive new forms of production and value creation.
Through social connections it is now possible to reach the type of scale previously accessible only by large organizations. Doing things that go beyond traditional operational boundaries and collaborate from the micro to massive scale.
Learning these social tools to work on these scales it will be critical in the coming decades.
The ability to master algorithms and artificial intelligence systems will mean having a great advantage in the new era of work.
Organizations will need to train their employees. Natural language processing skills will need to be improved to make it transparent and efficient.
In addition, the transition of the workforce will have to be managed well by HR, based on the principles of collaboration and ethics.
The world is facing major global challenges. Although some are more urgent than others, such as ensuring access to clean drinking water, promoting ethical market economies and fighting emerging diseases, the ultimate goal remains to achieve a sustainable development.
Sustainability means having the potential to maintain long-term well-being. It requires the reconciliation of environmental, social equity and economic demands also referred to as the “three pillars” of sustainability. There are a two major approach in order to achieve sustainability.
The first approach directly concerns the management of the environmental issue. This approach is largely based on information emerging from research on earth and from environmental sciences.
The second approach concerns the management of everything related to social needs, which implies the consumption of resources but issues related also to the cultural behaviors and technology disruption.
According to research on future scenarios, the environmental ecosystem will undergo significant changes. Climate change is actually only one of the causes that will lead to such effects, such as natural environments, plants and animals.
A direct consequence will be the acceleration of biodiversity loss in some areas. This impact will affect many communities and sectors that depend on natural resources, including agriculture, fishing, energy, tourism and water.
Economic, demographic and technological forces are shaping a new balance of power. Disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence continue to spread in society.
Institutions and organizations are looking for new measures that can effectively respond to changes resulting from the fourth industrial revolution and other phenomena of social instability.
Get a broader perspective on bigger challenges, new technologies and an evolving society where the only thing that remains constant is change.
The Global Knowledge Network Aiming To Address Some Of The Biggest Challenges Of Out Time By Spreading Know-How And Innovation.
