3 Ways Our Working Culture is Out of Date

an article by Lynda Gratton published in London Business School Review Issue 1 (2016)

In preparing for the future of work, Lynda Gratton calls for mindset evolution over a radical revolution

The future of work is full of promises:

• We will have work- spaces configured (and reconfigured) to match specific tasks we are working on at that moment;
• The constant, reliable feedback we have on our heart rate, sleep patterns and steps will expand to include how we spend our working time, the diversity of our networks and the speed with which knowledge is moving across a group;
• There will be a focus on the development of portable skills and the building up of intangible assets over long careers.

It all sounds extraordinarily positive and energising and, indeed, these are the trends and predictions we have been exploring at the Future of Work Research Consortium with more than 90 of the world’s leading companies.

But here’s the catch.

In most companies right now, much of the technological infrastructure and know-how are already in place to bring these new ways of working into everyday practice. And yet they are rarely the reality. Something is happening in our organisations and in our individual mindsets to cause these promises to be left unfulfilled.

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