What Does Work Look Like in The Future? Look Around
The future is here, it's just not evenly distributed
One of my favorite quotes comes from the writer William Gibson when he famously said said:
“The future is here, it’s just not evenly distributed.”
I’ve often used this as a way to think about the evolutions of technology which have impacted society and business. I’ve always had a penchant for technology and a lot of this stems from growing up in a household where there were computers and internet access. As a result, I was always trying to use technology in novel ways.
When I was sixteen, I started my first internet business, and learned HTML which allowed me to build a website for a non-profit. When I got to college (I am dating myself here) I used Facebook to help me win the Student Body Presidential Election, and started the very first student government blog and YouTube channel. While I was at Deloitte, I helped launch it’s very first digital strategy consultancy back in the day where the idea of that in a management consultancy was heresy, and it went from a 0 dollar business to a multi billion dollar growth engine, to working in the Enterprise SaaS space for the greater part of the past decade.
Over the years, my interest in technology has continued, but I’ve certainly also seen its limitations. Whether it be bad actors or biased people building biased technologies and algorithms. The best of technology allows us to expand the art of what’s possible. The best of human ingenuity allows us to briefly suspend what we know and our own biases to imagine something completely new, transformed, or different.
This is a good frame for how I think about the recent developments of things like Crypto, Web 3 and the Metaverse. To be sure, there’s a lot of noise that exists, and I won’t get into it, I will highlight one development which I actually participated in this week, Constitution DAO.
Constitution DAO and The Future of Talent and Organizations
If you’re following the news, you may have heard about this but the summary is, Sothebys put up for auction one of them and the internet (mostly folks who are curious about DAOs, web 3 and Crypto) banded together to try to win the auction. While they didn’t win the auction. in total, myself and 17,000+ other people banded together over the course of 5 days, raised $40M collectively to bid on the auction. What was interesting to me after popping around in the Discord Server for a few hours was the excitement, energy and thoughtfulness of people working toward a similar goal. Sure, there were plenty of memes, jokes and useless comments, but in a span of a few days, here is what was accomplished:
Recruited thousands of people (globally) to come together
Got everyone bought in around a common goal
Figured out the legal, operational and global implications of raising $40M
Raised funds and resources to work toward achieving the goal
Built camaraderie and community amongst people who were distributed and connected, digitally.
Let’s do a quick thought experiment:
In the future, if people can find ways to:
self-organize around a common goal
recruit and onboard human capital that is distributed remotely across the globe
marshal resources and funds to work toward goals
work independently on interdependent tasks without needing an office
and use technology to credential and track work outputs and contributions..
They have the ability to do what most companies and organizations do to run their business. If that is the case, will working full-time for a traditional employer still be the path of choice for the majority of individuals?
Web 2 Talent and Freelancing Platforms like Upwork and Fiverr were transformative in that they better allocated and matched freelance talent with opportunities. Unfortunately, Platform economics makes these a race to the bottom for many freelancers, but newer platforms which leverage blockchain and crypto fundamentals such as Braintrust enable freelance talent who don’t want to work for one company but do want to have ownership and some form of rights the ability to self-organize and make decisions.
I don’t have the answer, but I have to think that if some of that actually turns out to be true, that could be a viable pathway for at least a portion of people who would consider full-time employment at a company. And if that is the case, considering the labor market today, as well as longer-term macro trends about the employable labor force, it makes me wonder if companies and organizations are paying close enough attention to these emerging opportunities. As I said, “the future is already here, it's just not evenly distributed.”
To be sure, most of us don’t need to quit our day job just yet. There are plenty of challenges in either accessing today’s workplace or in today’s workplace that need to be fixed, and will continue to exist if not kept in check even in a DAO/Crypto/Web3 world. But if you believe in the quote, “the future is here, it's just not evenly distributed,” it's hard not to see how projects like this have the potential for us to reimagine how we organize, transact and deliver work in the future.
Note: If you are interested in learning more about DAOs, Crypto, and Web 3, make sure to check out Nick deWilde’s upcoming project. If you’re interested in wondering how startups are reimagining the future of work, education and learning, you can also check out some great investor theses on these topics from Mercedes Bent and Jomayra Herrera
What I Read
55% of Employers Don’t Offer Career Career Advancement (15-Five)
The Great Resignation and Great Reshuffle was in some cases inevitable, but even acknowledging this many companies are not helping themselves by not investing more in career development. Among things that you can give your employees that they have made clear they want: opportunities for learning and growth, time to talk about career conversations, and mentors to help and guide them along the way.
The Best Leaders Are Feedback Magnets (First Round Review)
First Round Review is my favorite, and not just because my friend and mentor Whitnie is reading this email (Hi Whit!) but because they offer practical advice and guidance from people who have implemented tactics that you can try yourself. This is a detailed way of asking for and receiving more feedback from your team
Year End Review Tips For Managers (Fellows)
It’s the end of the year, which means it's time for performance evaluation season. Check out the tips from Fellows on how to get more out of your performance evaluations
How Internal Mobility is All About People (Degreed)
I’m constantly surprised at how many companies don’t focus on internal mobility and career planning. This is a great primer on how to do this right within your company
Writing in Public, Inside Your Company (Kool Aid Factory
Stripe, the fintech/payments company has slowly but surely entered the special category of companies whose cultures get lauded and praised, especially for its focus on writing, documentation and communication. I wrote previously about the importance of internal marketing and why it matters but this post takes internal marketing and puts it on steroids. At the end of the day, business is the interplay between people, processes, data and communication. Writing and documenting clearly helps ideas bubble up, aligns people to a goal, and accelerates action.
What I Listened To
Productivity and Building Habits: Brene Brown with James Clear
Retaining Talent: Navigating The Great Resignation with Dr. David Rock
Onboarding into a New Job or Role: Rob Cross with HBR Ideacast
Divorcing Our Self-Worth From Work: Rainesford Stauffer on The Ready
Topics I am Exploring
I am hoping to write pieces on the following topics. If any of you are interested in these and don’t mind sharing some thoughts, ideas, or your experience, please let me know (alex.dea@gmail.com)
How Dual Career Couples Make it Work - Are you and your partner working together to manage life and careers? I’d love to hear how its going, the challenges, and the advice you have
Onboarding into a new role or company - Have you onboarded into a new role, or to a new company? Share with me how it’s going, and what’s working or not working
How Do You Learn at Work? - When you want to learn something at work, or if you have to learn something at work, what do you do, and how do you do it?
Have a Great Week,
Al