At Work: Specialists vs Generalists?

Specialists vs Generalists?

I think there is a need for a mix of specialist and generalists.    But at least initially more of the specialist activity will be taken over by devices.     Alerts, Notifications, Assistants, smart contracts, sensors,  ... that will add to the skill and of the number  jobs taken up by generalists.  ....

A Case of the Navy: 

At Work, Expertise Is Falling Out of Favor   In the Atlantic

These days, it seems, just about all organizations are asking their employees to do more with less. Is that actually a good idea? .... 

 " .... Minimal manning—and with it, the replacement of specialized workers with problem-solving generalists—isn’t a particularly nautical concept. Indeed, it will sound familiar to anyone in an organization who’s been asked to “do more with less”—which, these days, seems to be just about everyone. Ten years from now, the Deloitte consultant Erica Volini projects, 70 to 90 percent of workers will be in so-called hybrid jobs or superjobs—that is, positions combining tasks once performed by people in two or more traditional roles. Visit SkyWest Airlines’ careers site, and you’ll see that the company is looking for “cross utilized agents” capable of ticketing, marshaling and servicing aircraft, and handling luggage. At the online shoe company Zappos, which famously did away with job titles a few years back, employees are encouraged to take on multiple roles by joining “circles” that tackle different responsibilities. If you ask Laszlo Bock, Google’s former culture chief and now the head of the HR start-up Humu, what he looks for in a new hire, he’ll tell you “mental agility.” “What companies are looking for,” says Mary Jo King, the president of the National Résumé Writers’ Association, “is someone who can be all, do all, and pivot on a dime to solve any problem.” .... " 

Reshaping the Workspace With AI

Liked this  TechCrunch  piece because it addresses workspace and workflow in ways that AI claims usually do not. Not only 'What' will be done with cognitive, but 'How' it will be effectively used in day to day operations .... with what data ... and not forgetting the 'Why': ... faster, better, cheaper? All that leads to a better chance of it getting tried and installed and used.  A simple business process model, or even a concept diagram of the workspace are good places to start.

Cisco's New Headquarters

In our innovation collaboration with Cisco we visited their HQ many times.  It has now been rebuilt.   Much more about their facility.  " ... I want Cisco to be viewed as having the most innovative employee experience in technology or in corporate America - Chuck Robbins .... " 

Technology Making Social Skills more Important

In the HBR:   Research: Technology Is Only Making Social Skills More Important  by Nicole Torres ... Automation anxiety reached new heights in 2013, when Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael A. Osborne, researchers at the Oxford Martin School, published a paper estimating that 47% of all U.S. jobs were “at risk” of being computerized over the next two decades. Although the jury is still out about robots stealing jobs, the pace at which AI and deep learning technologies have been advancing isn’t ebbing concerns over a future of disappearing work. As machines increasingly perform complex tasks once thought to be safely reserved for humans, the question has become harder to shrug off: What jobs will be left for people?    ... " 

HoloLens in the Workplace

In CWorld: HoloLens replacing PCs in the workplace?   Even outside the world of design.  Seems a stretch, but why not?    Interface would have to be greatly improved,    Display device light and inobstrusive.  Focused to specific tasks and contexts.   Automatically collaborative and cognitive.

" ... Workers may eventually use a HoloLens headset instead of a traditional Windows computer to communicate with co-workers on Skype or write a report in Word.

That's just one of the predictions from research firm Tractica, which looked at the effect wearable devices will have on enterprises and consumers as the technology becomes more widely used.

Microsoft is pitching its HoloLens augmented reality headset as the next computing platform, said analyst Aditya Kaul in an interview. ... "

Future Tech Offices

In the BBC:    How offices are being redefined with futuristic architecture.  Mostly as seen by the tech industry giants.  Good examples.

" ... Another challenge for designers of the future office is catering for workers from four generations, Millennials, Generations X and Y, and Baby Boomers in senior management. ... Open-plan offices can be cheaper for companies to set up, by up to 20%, according to Dr Vinesh Oommen, at the Queensland University of Technology. ... But despite the efforts of some architects, they can easily be done badly. .... 90% of studies found open-plan offices were associated with higher levels of stress and elevated blood pressure, Dr Oommen found. ... "

Stressed Out by Work

In Knowledge@Wharton:
 " ... If you had asked any worker since the Industrial Revolution whether he or she was experiencing stress on the job, the answer would likely have been in the affirmative—and emphatic. But workplace experts say something unusual is going on today. Global competition, downsizing and the constant state of being electronically tethered to the office are combining to create a perhaps unprecedented level of stress. ... " 

Future of Work is Face to Face

In FastCompany:   Look at the future of work.

" ... Forget what you think you know about the office of the future.  No you won't all be working from home. The surprising reasons while Google's Bee keeping group and Instant messengers are so powerful. .... 

Forget what you know about how to maximize productivity. ... 

That includes knowing which tasks can be breezed through with the help of a playlist, or exactly when to down that cup of coffee (or switch to another beverage) and when to mindlessly surf the web. .... According to a new report published in Harvard Business Review, the key to unlock the greatest productivity isn’t necessarily in the hands of the individual employee. Rather, authors Ben Waber, Jennifer Magnolfi, and Greg Lindsay posit that chance and face-to-face encounters are the way anyone working in the knowledge economy is going to improve performance. That’s in spite of technology that keeps us “connected,” even when we work remotely. .... " 

On the Architecture of Work

A favorite topic that we dabbled with in innovation spaces.  Is the starting piece of the quote below still correct? Reviewing, in the WSJ: " .... How you work depends in large part on the spaces in which you work. This big theme is taken up by Nikil Saval in “Cubed: A Secret History of the Workplace.” There is in fact nothing “secret” about this history; from the Civil War on, as the white-collar world grew, managers and designers thought out loud about where workers should sit, the furniture they should use, the walls and windows that should surround them. ... " 

Augmented Walls for Offices or Living Spaces

Augmenting walls to create enabled office spaces is something we experimented with. Had innovation sessions with office furniture makers.   Fastcompany relates some recent work.  Not sure if this works as well for living rather than working spaces.   But have certainly seen the need for employees in compressed living places like Japan.

Ironically, I am sitting here at a client drop-in spot, and the only change in the cubicle farm environment is that the walls are lower than they would have been twenty years ago.  My laptop is my wall.

I still like the idea of focusing work through data.  And placing that data front and center.  And making sure its wherever you are.  Written about that here many times.  Though lots of people like the idea, have yet to see it implemented well.

Infographic on Workplaces of the Future

Yes, there are useful numbers in this graphic.  The topic is very interesting. And has a pointer to the origin of the sources.  But I count only 8 readily usable numbers from the several page document.   Its's bloat, and I cannot easily manipulate the numbers. Give me more information density.

Future of the Workplace

An ethnographers look:  We did a similar investigation.   Video. " ... What will the workplace of the future look like? Will it even exist as a physical space? Ever since networked computers first became widespread the idea of the virtual organisation has been touted, yet most of us still work in conventional workplaces. Recent technological advances have given a second wind to the idea with some even questioning whether organisations will exist in their current form or whether workers will be free agents coming together to complete specific tasks as and when needed. ... " 

Flexible Workplaces and the New Mobile World

In SMB Resource:  This article was brought to my attention recently.  It struck home because I have been working with companies that are increasingly specifying mobile data and analytics delivery.   It is expected that their executives and many other decision makers will be on the road, talking to consumers, customers and suppliers, and integrating captured insights. So mobile and inherently flexible workplaces are required.  The mobile workplace is here, the technology is ready, its just the people that need to understand how they fit in.

The article uses the recent Yahoo case of Marissa Mayer requiring employees to spend more time at work.  It asks the question: Does Work Get Done, Even if No One is Watching?  Well yes,  the modern office has been extended far beyond the physical office world.   Stating it otherwise:  that Some Work Cannot be Done with All People Watching.  In a social, mobile and volatile world the workers need to get out there and to understand the environment their companies are working in.

Sure, this does not cover all jobs and responsibilities.  As we also quickly discovered there was great social value in getting people together face-to-face on a regular basis. Measures of progress and completion of work need to be captured, verified and shared. Technologies like instant on video conferencing enhanced the feeling of being a group working together.  Group oriented data virtualization, like that used in Business Sphere, can also build group identity and focus.

We experiment with these ideas by first experimenting with these ideas among people that were already located apart, or were mostly on the road.  This allowed us to understand the dynamics of the idea in a given company context, then extend it to other groups.  Even technologies like gamification were experimented with to improve group engagement.

The article suggests that performance be enhanced by 1.) Connecting through the cloud  2.) Enhancing Social Collaboration and 3.)  Have a Mobile Strategy.  And covers a number of details involved.  Well done.

This is even more valuable to the small and medium size business,  especially when a SMB has to connect with the consumer and outside suppliers.  That work can be done, and often has to be done outside the traditional office.

This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.

Unified Workspace

Cisco presents the Unified Workspace.  General but useful thoughts. " ... Trends such as mobility, virtualization, video, collaboration, knowledge management, and cloud have come to the forefront as companies struggle with how to integrate iPads, tablets, and smartphones into their business and IT models. In response, the Cisco Unified Workspace provides a solution for creating an organization-wide mobility strategy.  ... "