6 Thoughts About The State of Work
Thought bubbles about work for the fall
I’ve traveled extensively for speaking, leadership training programs, conferences, small dinners, and events. Throughout my conversations and work, I’ve been writing down some reflections and learnings on the current state of the workplace through my lens of talent and organizational change. I finally had some time to document some of my insights and thoughts, and I wanted to share them.
These are still a bit raw and a work in progress, so don’t take them too long. And, of course, if you’re doing anything in this space, I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas.
1) Product Managers of “Work”
The workplace dialogue has focused heavily on where and when we work, but we’ve neglected the how and why. Questions like "Are we remote, hybrid, or in-person?" and "What are the core working hours?" dominate the conversation, even in discussions about the four-day workweek. However, we’re missing the more crucial dialogue about why we’re doing the work we do, what work actually needs to be done and how to best do the work.
The rush to use AI tools to increase productivity and efficiency has highlighted this gap. While these tools can help us do things better, faster, and cheaper, they also risk automating work that might be meaningless. As Peter Drucker famously said, “There is nothing so useless as doing something efficiently that shouldn’t be done at all.”
This is where the concept of "Product Managers for Work" comes in. These individuals are tasked with actually thinking about the “work to be done” and focus on defining what work will drive a competitive advantage for the business by thinking through rigorously the why, what, and how of that work:
Why: What is the reason and overarching objective or outcome?
What actually needs to be done at the task level to achieve this?
How: What are the actual ways of working that can be used in order to effectively get this work done?
By approaching work like product management, organizations can ensure that they’re not just doing things right but doing the right things.
Further Listening: Winning With Talent, with Lucien Alziari, EVP and CHRO, Prudential on the Future of HR Podcast (Check the 28 minute and beyond)
2) Talent as a System vs. Talent as a Function
Traditionally, talent has operated as a function, with roles, centers of excellence, and initiatives that worked within their silos. But in today’s complex and interconnected workplace, talent is evolving from a function into a system—a set of things working together as parts of a more significant mechanism.
This shift acknowledges that talent is now integrated into almost every major organizational initiative. You can’t talk about business strategy without addressing talent. This requires talent roles to operate on a much broader, strategic, and holistic scale, and it demands a mindset shift from seeing talent projects and programs as just another program to viewing it as a systemic initiative.
For example, initiatives like skills-based hiring, internal mobility, and career development are no longer just nice-to-have programs within one part of talent. To make them successful, organizations need to adopt a systems thinking approach. This means intentionally integrating diverse stakeholder ideas and perspectives and ensuring talent strategies align with the broader business objectives.
Further Listening: Talent Strategy at ServiceNow with Sarah Tilley (SVP, Global Talent Management and Acquisition)
3) Everything is Change, But We Shouldn’t Change Everything
In today’s world, everything seems to be in a constant state of change. As talent practitioners, we are often in the business of driving change, whether we realize it or not. Every project, program, and initiative we work on involves changing behaviors somehow. But while change is inevitable, that doesn’t mean we should change everything.
Ashley Goodall, in "The Problem with Change," argues that while change can be necessary, it’s also important to promote stability and safety, as change can be a tripwire for humans. People often react negatively when change is forced upon them, even if it’s well-intentioned. This is why it’s crucial to be thoughtful and intentional about what truly needs to change and to lean into sound change management principles.
Instead of accepting that everything is changing, we should focus on what changes are genuinely needed and how we can introduce them in a way that empowers and supports people. By doing so, we can navigate the complexities of change while still promoting a sense of stability.
Further listening: Ashley Goodall, on The Edge of Work Podcast
4) The Unit is The Team
In today’s work environment, most people operate in teams, whether in a cross-functional role supporting other teams or working on numerous cross-functional projects. While individual effort matters, much of the work is done collectively, requiring collaboration among team members to achieve shared goals.
However, not everyone knows the fundamentals of working effectively in a team-based setting. Many organizations manage and reward individual performance rather than team performance, leaving a mismatch between the behaviors that are rewarded (individual) and the team and cooperative behaviors that are needed to actually get work done (collaborative/team based) leading to challenges in coordination, communication, and delivering business impact.
The team is the primary unit of work, and understanding how to leverage the diversity and skills of team members is crucial. By focusing on team dynamics and creating structures that support effective teamwork, organizations can overcome these challenges and drive greater success.
Further Reading: The Power of The Team
5) Investing in The Early Career Worker
Matt Beane’s book "The Skill Code" highlights the impact of intelligent technologies on skill development, particularly for early career workers. While these technologies can enhance experts' productivity and efficiency, they often reduce opportunities for novices to learn and develop their skills.
Beane’s study of surgeons using intelligent robots is a powerful example. While the robots improved productivity and effectiveness, they also limited the critical development moments for resident surgeons. This same challenge applies to many knowledge-worker environments, where technology may inadvertently "automate" early career professionals out of key learning opportunities. (Or, in some cases, don’t give them any at all)
Organizations that fail to invest in early-career workers risk becoming top-heavy and reliant on external talent acquisition. This may create a gap, where there is expertise at the top, with no succession of talent rising up through the ranks. To build a sustainable talent pipeline, companies need to ensure that early-career employees have the opportunities to learn, grow, and develop the skills necessary for future success.
Further Listening: Matt Beane: How AI is Already Changing our Workplaces
Further Reading: 4 Ways Managers Can Help Their Employees
6) We All Must Become Talent Developers
For organizations to thrive, they need to foster a culture of development and empower leaders to prioritize their people's growth. When leaders focus on developing their employees, they scale their impact as leaders and drive organizational growth.
Employee development leads to new capabilities, which can deliver business impact. But to do that, all leaders must actually take ownership of making time and taking actions toward developing their talent. This is why all managers and leaders should embrace talent development as a critical part of their role. This requires both top-down and bottom-up approaches.
Organizations should incorporate talent development into leadership competencies, holding leaders accountable for the growth of their teams. From the bottom up, leaders can integrate small, daily development practices into their workflows. Talent development practitioners should and can support these efforts by providing tools, templates, and messaging that make talent development accessible and actionable for leaders.
Further Reading: Getting Development into Your Employees Workflow
If you’re looking for some help for your learning and development, leadership development or professional development for this year, I’d love to work with you: Here is how I might be able to assist:
Leadership & Learning Programs: Formal training and leadership development in your company, such as new manager or new leader training, or skill-based programs.
Consulting & Advisory Services - Are you looking to improve the ways of working of your team or organization or looking for guidance on talent and learning strategy? Let’s chat about how we can work together
1:1 Executive Coaching - Are you looking for an executive coach for 1:1 leadership support? Let’s chat about how we can work together
Feel free to contact me directly for more details!
Have a great week!
Al
This is really good, and Nos. 3-5 are important and really difficult considerations! Like, they require great nuance to avoid the extremes of, say, rushing into AI and automation without thought while also not giving too much sway to reflexive complaining or rejection. I'm freelancing FT these days, so I'm also curious how my type of role will fit into these dynamics.