Anomie, three tribes, and the #futureofwork

Join the discussion on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/antlerboy_anomie-three-tribes-and-the-future-of-work-activity-7259491149508145152-pcQj

This is my 400th ‘intentional’ LinkedIn post. (You can see my messy list of the other 399 here https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tt_4OBwvj-amux9zSU23hB87TeQna7TlJQkYt_D8EuY/edit?usp=sharing )

I started during the lockdown days of the pandemic and I’m going to use this to talk about what’s changed and what hasn’t changed — and the #futureofwork.

Despite all the great ideas we had for reinvention

– despite the massive ‘sudden success’ of long-dragging remote working and digitalisation programmes

– despite the inversion of the social hierarchy as we recognised ‘essential workers’, and pulled together (mostly) to support each other….

…what we see, four years later, is

– more overload

– more separation and isolation (‘anomie’)

– failure to settle on a ‘hybrid’ model (why be in the office when you have to be on Teams all the time anyway)

– technology trapped in digitising the 1950s American office

– no serious attempt to address the ongoing health impacts of Covid

and organisations failing to ‘pick a lane and make it work’.

Every organisation has the three big options open to them:

virtual, office-based, or hybrid working.

In the attached images, I’ve looked at the success and failure modes for the three ‘tribes’ in the future of work:

– blue tribe: big, high-profile, high status corporates.

– green tribe: mission-driven organisations.

– the orange tribe — nomads, indies, freelancers.

How do you think each of these tribes will settle into the new potential modes of working?

And the writing? It’s been a good journey — I’ve learned something about trying to get complex ideas across in a way intelligent, busy people might engage with.

What next? Well, I *might* take a break. I *will* try to use this space better to share the great work we’re doing at RedQuadrant and The Public Service Transformation Academy. I’ll certainly be back!