i3 - March/April 2021 - 30

Policy

By Jackie Black

P O L I CY N E WS

The Future of Work in 2021:
Work Transformed

Q Will the pandemic continue to

accelerate the future of work in 2021?
A 2020 brought changes that we thought
would take decades, in weeks, or even days.
But 2020 was a year of disruption, not just
acceleration. Workers logged an average of
48.5 additional minutes of work a day and
13% more meetings. Fifty-seven percent of
mothers and 32% of fathers of children under
18 said their mental health deteriorated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Workers faced
challenges from distractions and isolation,
to the inevitable Zoom fatigue. A lot of 2020
was just lifting and shifting what we did at
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the office to the home,
but 2021 should be about
improving and rethinking
how we work. To navigate
the future, we need to
adopt 21st century maps
and mindsets. That's the
core of my new book,

A At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic,
businesses overwhelmingly went to
surviving a point-in-time crisis with the
expectation that the organization would
revert to business as usual. A year later,
we know this is the " new normal " and to
move to a thriving mindset is to understand two things about disruption: first
that it's continuous rather than episodic;
second, the destination as we navigate
disruption is not where we started but
where we're headed. Disruption should
be embraced as a catalyst to innovate. To
thrive moving forward, we must wholly
reimagine work, the workforce and the
workplace. Thriving isn't just moving
faster; it's challenging old models and
social constructs that we've understood
for a long time. As Albert Einstein said,
" You can't use an old map to explore a
new world. " The same is true as we pivot
from the urgent challenges of the COVID19 pandemic to the opportunities of the
world beyond COVID-19.

" You can't use
an old map to
explore a new
world. The
same is true
as we pivot
from the
urgent challenges of the
COVID pandemic to the
opportunities
of the world
beyond
COVID-19. "

Work Disrupted.

Q You call this a move
from a surviving mindset to a thriving mindset. What does that mean for businesses?

Q How might this old

model of thinking apply to
the idea that automation is
replacing jobs?
A While one impact of technology is that it does replace
some jobs - we call that
the substitution effect - the
bigger opportunity is how
technology can augment
our jobs and work. Radiology
is an often-cited example
of a profession that some
expect may be substantially
replaced by artificial intelligence (AI). While the future
radiologist may use technology to help with a diagnosis,
they are also enabled to
do what humans do best:
provide deep care, empathy
and critical thinking. We
can think of AI as the IQ and
the doctor as the EQ. When you combine
those together you have augmentation of

Left to right: Guido Mieth/Getty Images, Man As Thep/Getty Images.

t CES 2021, the future of work was on full display. From
products to keep our workspaces hygienic and to recreate the office at home, to platforms that promote asynchronous work - the innovations at CES proved that the work
transformation over the past year is here to stay. CES exhibitor
and CTA member Deloitte presented on how organizations
should rethink current approaches to embrace the future of
work. I spoke to Deloitte's US Future of Work Leader and author
of Work Disrupted, Jeff Schwartz, about this transformation.

I T I S I N N O VAT I O N

3/11/21 12:37 PM

https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/human-capital/articles/digital-workforce-transformation-roadmap.html https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/human-capital/articles/digital-workforce-transformation-roadmap.html

i3 - March/April 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of i3 - March/April 2021