Chapter 1
Surviving and Thriving in Turbulence

The future depends on what you do today.

-Mahatma Gandhi

Look out! In workplaces across the globe, conventional wisdom is being thrown out the window.

Approaches that were tried and true are being challenged and debunked. Rules that once made sense no longer seem to apply. Everything around us seems to be in flux-from how we conduct ourselves to how companies are functioning.

For example, just 61 companies that were in the Fortune 500 in 1995 were still on the list in 2015. Only 12 percent remained.1

Products that were staples are going away forever. Good-bye landline telephones, cable television, and personal computers. The music industry has been changed forever by downloads and streaming. While few use single-tasking cameras, more than 20 million photos are uploaded to social media every minute of every day.

Information ricochets around the world in mere seconds. Facts are checked instantaneously. Truth can be uncovered quickly, and fiction can be spread just as quickly. As a result, politics in most countries are in a constant state of upheaval.

It's a strange new world, and all indicators predict it will only get stranger.

Today, Not Tomorrow

The future of work is not tomorrow. The future of work is today!

In our work with business leaders and teams around the world, we see too many companies missing out-still operating according to twentieth-century mind-sets, practices, and technologies.

We also see the careers of too many gifted individuals needlessly stalled, and ended, because of ignorance or fearful resistance.

It doesn't have to be this way. We want you, your career, and your company to be future-proof. That's why we're sharing our perspectives with you and your teams.

There are plenty of writers who give their predictions for the future, and we enjoy many of those books and articles. But this book deliberately avoids the crystal ball. Instead we offer pragmatic business solutions based on our research and experience. Solutions you can, and should, implement today.

The drivers of change in the workplace are hiding in plain sight. We want to challenge your thinking by exploring six factors, because the way we think about tomorrow influences what we do today.

Waves of Change

There are three waves of change that test the limits of human convention and create havoc-and opportunity-in the workplace:

1. Digital technology-the increasing ability to create new ways of doing things.
2. Demographics-the changing mix of, and interaction among, people.
3. Globalization-people's ability to do business in a shrinking world.

These waves of change are having a profound impact on how society, politics, business relationships, and innovation are shaping the twenty-first century. The ways we created strategy, managed people, and built organizations no longer apply.

As a result, power is shifting in ways that make many uncomfortable, others exhilarated, and leave some just shaking their heads wishing for the calmer waters of the "good old days." Of course, change has been wreaking havoc on the status quo since the beginning of mankind. What's new today is the pace of change.

New technology and globalization, in the broadest sense, have always been around. It's the pace and reach of change that are transforming everything we do in business. Think about how the automobile changed not only transportation but how, when, where, and what people purchased.

Can you imagine life today without electric light? This invention revolutionized commerce, manufacturing, and almost every industry.

In their time, just over 100 years ago, these examples were seismic shifts for people. The changes created new business opportunities overnight while destroying other industries. They disrupted whole industries, shifted the skills required for workers, and changed the work environment forever.

And let's be frank, there will be winners and losers, as there always have been as the world spins into the future.

Digitization and Change

Last night, while you were sleeping, white collar jobs were being replaced-by computer algorithms.

In the financial sector, software can analyze data, reveal trends, and pose probabilities faster than a human analyst can open a spreadsheet. We are able to mine data for predictions that we could never see previously. This analysis enables us to debunk myths and see new solutions to problems that we could not comprehend before.

These insights will change how we practice medicine, how insurance is sold, and how we transport ourselves to work-or stay home to work.

Today's 3D printers can create almost anything we can imagine. And our cars want to drive themselves! Robots and artificial intelligence are taking over tasks humans once did. In fact, one hotel in Japan is staffed by robots, with only a skeleton crew of humans.

But the new discoveries of the twenty-first century are only just beginning to be realized. A 2014 survey of executives by Forrester/Russell Reynolds cited that over 75 percent of those in the finance, health care, and government sectors believe that their business will be significantly disrupted in the next 12 months.

In the past few years we've seen Netflix go from darling to dumpster-twice! You can bet its executives, and every other media company, is looking to analytics to tailor content by region and by user in order to ride the wave of the future.

A "me too" strategy is not a strategy. If you're copying a business model, you're building in obsolescence and extinction.

Established corporations known as manufacturers, like General Electric, are working to reposition themselves as tech companies. GE is moving its headquarters to Boston, a decision we believe is intended to move the company closer to innovation hubs like MIT.

NV "Tiger" Tyagarajan, president and CEO at Genpact, LLC, recently shared with us that Genpact does not have corporate headquarters and instead spreads its teams around the world in hubs close to their customers. He also noted that their ability to use robots made communication with customers instantaneous.

Through the robot interface, the customer, sitting in New York, could meet the team-based in Poland-that would work for his organization and understand how its processes would be managed. It is quite revolutionary.

Changing Demographics

Much is written today about the millennial generation. And much of it is derisive: "Millennials don't want to work hard. They want to be immediately rewarded with big jobs."

Go back 30 or 40 years and read books and articles about the young people coming into the workforce, and you'll see the same criticisms and concerns. In fact, the same themes were a part of social commentary 1,000 years ago.

Yes, millennials are different, but every new generation has challenged conventional ways of doing things. And there is one constant: the entry-level generation cannot understand why they are not getting the big jobs in three years. And they have much to say about how things should be done.

Millennials have more sophisticated information tools and are usually more adept at using them in the workplace. In other words, most have the data and social skills to back up their assertions.

Children today know more because they can discover information much more quickly-and with the right environment, they can use that information to create exciting products and services. Today's 5-year-olds can create items that a 12-year-old could not create 10 years ago, or adults a generation ago.

There always has been, and always will be, generations that challenge the status quo with more knowledge and creative capability than their predecessors. But the new dynamic is how different generations must coexist in larger numbers in the workplace.

Increased health and longevity has a huge impact on the workforce. For many, retirement at the end of a career no longer makes sense, but sabbaticals during careers may.

In the past, people retired at age 65, expecting a lifespan of about 10 more years. Today, many young people can expect to be active and productive for 20 or 30 years past age 65. The 100-year life will be a reality for many. The trend also means there will be many generations at work. This is the first time in history that five generations are in the workplace together.

Globalization Is Now

The ability of more people to move around with easier access to transportation has created huge upheaval in societies. It is hard today to find a truly homogeneous national culture. Even the traditionally insular country of Japan finds itself needing to embrace immigrants from other parts of the world to fuel its economic growth.

Going back to where everyone is "just like us" is not an option. The old days are gone forever-or rather-the perception of the old days.

Humans are explorers by nature. And we're naturally cautious. Whole societies were set up to ward off onslaughts of others into their tribes. The story here is not just globalization and demographic shifts, but how easy it is for people to move around the world now-whether virtually...