Looking Ahead: A More Worker-Focused World

Want to gaze into the information-based workplace of the future? It won't look all that different from the workplace of today: Ideally, it will take the best of existing IT culture and intensify it. That was the conclusion of 40 experts gathered earlier this year at the Cap Gemini Ernst & Young Center for Business Thinking in Cambridge, Mass.

But the future won't all be business as usual, either. For example, a power shift away from the company and toward the worker is already well under way in IT and will continue, said experts from the worlds of businesses, consulting firms, authors, analysts, and academia. The group met in a workspace designed for creative thinking: toys on the meeting-room tables, lofty spaces for lofty thoughts, curved whiteboards with plenty of room for writing and thinking in color, and pricey Aeron ergonomic chairs at every desk.

The sometimes-heated discussion focused on how generational change will spur the power shift. As the X-generation and the one after it, which attendees dubbed the "Why generation" for its propensity for asking "why?" about every management request, becomes more influential, work relationships will be altered. These workers will bring to the job a seemingly inborn technological savvy, as well as the ability to multitask across several media.

As communication costs decline, more people will have the information--that is, the power--to make decisions, rather than turning to a select few who hold authority.

In an economy where every second counts, how much of the discussion is realistic? Paul McKeon, partner and chief e-business officer for Ketchum Inc., a public relations firm in New York, said he is one participant "who works in the real world." McKeon said some ideas probably apply to a very small percentage of the workforce, but that many of them ring true. "We've become more disconnected through Web conferencing and [other tools]. We can work wherever we want to, but that forces people to crave more human contact and interaction," he said.

If the prognostications are accurate, managers face big challenges. The new worker has less respect for authority and less loyalty to a company and its management. Managers will need to serve more as facilitators than bosses. The savvy IT manager must be more aware of peoples' values and work styles.

"Authority doesn't work anymore; it's all about leadership and facilitation," Ketchum's McKeon said. "Anyone can be made a manager. Only your people can make you a leader."

But the freestyle workplace isn't going to dominate anytime soon.

The biggest barrier remains human. Said one audience member: "It calls for a cultural change that involves greater trust, and we're not there yet."