A World in Perpetual Motion
Twelve years ago, we were asked by the DTI to create scenarios for the future of work in the UK, imagining how 2030 might look, as stimulus for government policy making. 2030 seemed a long way away in 2006, but that ‘future’ is now only twelve years from now!
We created four scenarios and imagined how an imaginary company, ‘Cogito’, might work if operating in them. The most far-fetched was called ‘Perpetual Motion’. It was a future in which technology and ‘human capital’ were managed aggressively, allowing the top twenty percent to shine, albeit with tremendously ‘transparent’ productivity pressure, but painted a less attractive picture for the remaining eighty percent. In some ways a scary world, but looking more and more like how the world looks today.
Read our 2006 ‘Perpetual Motion’ scenario here and think about the implications for people and technology in your organisation today.
Social context
Rightly or wrongly, society feels it has been relieved of the burden of environmental responsibility. Due to large-scale private and public investment, environmental and energy limitations have been solved, or at least postponed, by rapid advancements in science and technology. As a result, strong economic growth and globalisation have continued apace, stimulating rampant consumerism. Technology is all-pervasive, allowing instant communication and transactions, but also facilitating constant MONITORING of our behaviour by the public and private institutions – a small price to pay, most believe, for an advanced society with countless opportunities.
The darker side to this “always-on” economy is the growing wealth distribution gap. While knowledge workers commute in and out of city hubs to complete their highly paid roles, a secondary class inhabit deprived urban areas and fulfil the remaining manual jobs that have not been automated.
The Business
Large international corporations, such as Cogito, dominate the competitive landscape. With high levels of outsourcing, Cogito is served by a web of small service providers, many of which operate as “virtual cooperatives” without any fixed commercial property. The key to Cogito’s success has been fighting to attract the most productive knowledge workers on the market and securing first access to leading TECHNOLOGY in order to monitor and stimulate them. Biologically interfaced technology now monitors individuals’ productivity levels throughout the day, adjusting their environment accordingly and instructing them when they need to eat, drink or take a stint in the virtual sleep room to recover full productivity. Workers’ final output is also measured using tightly defined and accurate metrics and is the final indicator of personal performance. The CEO cannot comprehend how the firm was successfully managed in the 2000’s without the means to accurately monitor and artificially promote worker’s productivity. Today it’s vital to driving growth, through creating fierce competition amongst workers and a ruthless, yet TRANSPARENT, meritocracy.
At Cogito, workers spend 90% of their time working alone, intensely, on one task, before collaborating briefly with the rest of their team to share ideas (often via remote technology to save time, despite team members being present in the same building). Facilitated by advanced communication technology and organisation tools, managers oversee this collaborative element, managing up to a dozen teams at a time.
This structure allows Cogito to cut out UNNECESSARY PERSONAL INTERACTION and maximise the proportion of individual work, the output of which can be most accurately measured.
The best employees view companies as service providers, simply providing the means for them to carry out their career - they will move positions without hesitation if a better offer arises. Financial incentives remain key but it is often the exclusive and unattainable status symbols that hold the most allure – the top of the range automated car with a 2-year waiting list or membership at the city’s finest sports clubs.
The workers
Knowledge workers at Cogito generally work over 80 hours a week. Strictly, this is through PERSONAL CHOICE; the work is stimulating and enjoyable and the link between personal success (or failure) and compensation is clear. Perhaps more importantly, working for a top 5 firm earns the respect of your peers. Employees believe that being at the top of your game requires commitment, but the rewards are worthwhile.
However, work is highly STRESSFUL and burn-outs are commonplace. Long hours are not the biggest problem. It’s the constant monitoring of performance, the one-on-one competition with colleagues and the fear of being exposed as underachieving which create the intense pressure. A recent survey found that 40% of Cogito workers were taking performance-enhancing drugs. Cogito is monitoring the correlation between drug use and productivity and to date, the impact appears to be positive. As a result, the company is about to trial free access to such drugs for all employees.
Most Cogito workers have very few face-to-face meetings, communications technology is so good they are viewed as a WASTE OF PRECIOUS TIME. High risk, high-value transactions, such as sales closures and M&A negotiations are still conducted in person though, no matter where they are located in the world. As high-speed trains, planes and cars are comfortably equipped with all necessary office tools the loss of productive time can be minimised.
Implications for business today
The first implication is that digital technology offers tremendous scope to increase productivity. Every business should be making sure that they are focused on building enduring capability in the areas which distinguish them and which offer their customers the greatest benefit, digitalising or outsourcing the non-differentiating activities.
As you transition to a more digitally evolved working environment, be sure to invest in your people and relationships, evolve your culture successfully to one in which talent can thrive and your organisation is the one amongst your competitors where the best talent chooses to work.
Ensure that you invest early in ways to track, manage and develop the performance of your intangible assets, chief of which are your people.