Much of what we describe as the future of work is already happening or taking shape today. This can be seen in the rise of the gig economy, which has created more decentralized and nebulous structures in businesses around the world. This type of work structuring is a response to the VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) world in which we find ourselves. Technology is also playing a large part in catalyzing and facilitating these changes.
The gig economy is essentially cloud computing for your workforce and, through the advent of internet technology, functions as an agile method for adapting to the constantly shifting needs of the global economy. Being able to quickly assemble a team for a single project without going through the old-fashioned process of recruitment allows businesses to quickly meet demands without putting undue strain on internal resources.
These changes have been steadily progressing for a while now, and studies predict they will continue to do so.
Decentralization in the era of gig economy
A gig economy is one in which organizations hire independent contract workers for short time periods or on a project basis. This new workforce has come about as a result of technological advancements making this kind of collaboration easier – and also because of the Great Recession of 2008. Workers were desperate to find any paying work and began taking one-off jobs they could perform from home. This trend seems to have caught on in a more lasting way with many workers finding more freedom to create balance between home and work. The reticence of many newcomers in the labour market to commit to a particular company or career path is also seen as the result of distrust in traditional career trajectories and in corporations that promised rewards for that commitment.
The number of freelance workers has surged in recent years as technology has made it increasingly more feasible, and workers have become more focused on lifestyle and time flexibility. This arrangement is proving to be a boon for both workers and employers, allowing workers to choose their work more carefully and allowing employers to bring in experts who would otherwise be prohibitively expensive to hire full time. The gig economy can be leveraged to expand and contract team sizes as project demands change over their lifetime.
This creates teams that may be in constant flux, but ones that are much more cost-effective. Growth of a business no longer requires ever-increasing overhead and staffing. Instead, businesses can build up a reliable core team and contract out any additional work as needed. This allows you to adapt to and thrive within the VUCA world in which we live.
VUCA: Winning strategy in a fragmented market
While looking at the world as volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous might seem like a negative viewpoint, it should instead be seen as a realistic way of seeing things. By acknowledging the current state of the world as VUCA, we can then create systems and strategies that account for this reality. Plans for the future that assume the world isn’t changing are bound to fall apart when the world inevitably does.
Culture as infrastructure
In the face of a changing world, a powerful response is to build a foundation of culture. The fragmented and sometimes nebulous modern workplace makes it incredibly difficult to establish and maintain a healthy corporate culture. Decentralization creates a physical separation due to the lack of real, tangible places for people to assemble. So we can no longer rely on the venues where social norms were typically established to exchange values and communicate a vision.
It is commonly said that “culture eats strategy for breakfast,” suggesting that no strategy can effectively be executed without a culture within which to exist. Organizational culture remains an important key to your business’ success. The next evolution of this statement is that culture doesn’t just give rise to effective strategy, but that the very existence and functioning of organizations – really, any corporate structure that values forming under a brand – are dependent on the ability to establish and disseminate culture. The culture of an organization functions as the infrastructure – no longer dictated by physical locations, but instead by deliberate attention paid to the vision and values-based DNA of the corporate entity.
Creating a feeling of connection among your team members (including those members of the gig economy) helps to engender a sense of belonging and establishes a foundation of culture upon which you can build the rest of your operations. Culture itself can be a competitive advantage as it helps to increase morale, innovation and productivity.
Not only does a healthy culture help engender feelings of mutual trust and belonging, it also goes a long way in growing and defining your company’s brand. Culture creates resilience, mitigating the potential impact of negative publicity, while the baseline of trust you have built will encourage the public to engage with your company in meaningful ways.•
Mo Dhaliwal is director of strategy at Skyrocket Digital (skyrocket.is).
