What will be normal in the future?

In this era of change and challenges everyone needs to prepare for what the future may bring. Or better said, for the future that we co-create as humanity. Because all organizations, professionals, individuals, governments, and communities play their part in developing the future. It’s not something that occurs all of a sudden.

So, what will be normal in the near future? This is an unanswerable question, of course. Still, trendwatchers and futurists Rohit Bhargava and Henry Coutinho-Mason share their well-researched guesses in the book "The Future Normal: How We Will Live, Work and Thrive in the Next Decade".
This is relevant reading for all leaders, consultants, and professionals to develop a future-fit organizational culture and strategy.

Business-to-consumer organizations can check the first part of the book on how we will connect and get healthy shortly. How do people identify with their online avatars, and check if online photos are real or fake? How can we keep up with micro-learning, end loneliness, and develop relationships with virtual companions? Can we live in buildings that improve our health with air purifiers, plants, lights? Will doctors prescribe patients to engage in nature-based activities such as walking, cycling, or community gardening? And what if tracking your glucose level became as normal as counting your steps?
There's a fascinating range of opportunities waiting just around the corner given the pace of innovations.

The second part of the book explores innovations and options on how we will work and consume. Let's focus on some of the future trends around work.

Remote work for all

What if even the most physical of jobs-from tattooists to truck drivers-could be done remotely? Artificial intelligence already allows robots to recognize their surroundings. Once that capacity develops a bit further, machines will become increasingly capable of physical tasks while 5G technology will reduce latency. One of the instigators in this field is the company Einride. They already employ trucks without a driver, so one remote operator drives ten trucks on screen.
Aside from these innovations, how does your organization facilitate remote work for office workers? Is your organizational culture ready for this? What assumptions are holding you back?

Sharing work for better quality

What if work flexibility meant sharing your job equally with a partner? This way, you'd work both part-time to fulfill a full-time position. The instigator is Zurich Insurance. When they experimented with this 16 percent more women applied for management roles. The company saw double the overall number of applications from both men and women, confirming that flexible work arrangements have wide appeal.
Flexible working can help tackle diversity and inclusion issues. But there's more: it can enhance the quality of the work done if the two people sharing their position keep each other well-informed and bring both ideas and their well-rested minds to work. It's better than part-time when co-workers have to wait for the part-timer to return to work to continue a project or decision. No one misses out on anything if the position is always staffed, any day of the week.
Is your organizational culture ready for this flexibility? What assumptions are holding you back?

Inclusive organizational cultures

What if our organizations' cultures reflected the societies in which they operate? Considering the trajectory of the global population, the commonly half-baked response to diversity from the corporate world is often criticized by the next generation of consumers. Younger consumers now treat their consumption as a reflection of their diverse identities and values. What if your organization represented the world outside? Is your current culture open to new perspectives, people who think and feel different? In other words, are you open to learning? A future-fit organization must be.

Retailers are redesigning store layouts to remove gendered toy aisles. Companies are starting to hire executives who champion diversity and inclusion. But these efforts haven’t achieved the end of exclusion. Citigroup estimated that racial gaps have cost the US economy a mind-blowing $16 trillion over the past 20 years. But money is just one aspect. How about the inequality that exclusion is causing?
Evidence shows that companies with greater gender and ethnic diversity are more likely to financially outperform their peers. And those who are not acting to create inclusive cultures risk a customer backlash or an exodus of talent. It gets harder for companies and consumers alike to ignore issues of inequality as social media platforms are giving us more access than ever to hear directly from those affected by them.
In the future, it will be impossible for any organization to claim to support meaningful efforts to increase diversity and inclusion by pointing to small product tweaks or ad campaigns alone. Real change will require an internal culture shift alongside a reimagining of the products and services sold. This will continue to be a huge challenge to many organizations, but eventually, cultures will evolve.
So, check your organizational culture. Are you open to learning? Everything that happens inside the organization will be visible outside - thanks to social media.

Doing good while doing business

What if more of the world's biggest businesses prioritized doing good over profits? The world needs it, new generations are asking for it, and your talent and your customers are watching your organization. 
Many organizations are going through the process of third-party certification. Think of Fair Trade Certified, Climate Neutral Certified, GoodWell certification, or EU Ecolabel assignation or becoming a B Corporation.
So, check your organizational culture. Are you open to developing a more positive culture with positive goals? Or is it still primarily focused on the bottom line?

A great example is 3Space. For many organizations, real estate is their biggest outlay after staff costs. In the future normal, forward-thinking companies will embrace "impact hubs" workers love to be in that strengthen and support local communities, while also acting as powerful symbols and manifestations of their tenants' values and purpose.
Conceived by the nonprofit 3Space, a 50,000-square-foot office building differs from other coworking spaces due to its BuyGiveWork model: for every space rented to a paid tenant, 3Space gives a qualifying nonprofit or local startup free space.
The BuyGiveWork model has won 3Space the support of the local government, which sees it as an effective way to attract high-growth businesses to the area while still ensuring local groups have access to space and are not being squeezed out as rents in the borough take off. They are also requiring all its tenants to pay employees and contractors the London living wage. Commercial tenants are also required to give an hour of their employees' time each month to a nonprofit project, either within the building or the borough.

Another example is Trammell Crow Company, the developer of The Shops at Dakota Crossing, a mall in Washington, DC. They partnered with nonprofit Goodwill Industries to increase the number of local residents working in its stores. The program made the shopping center more attractive to retail tenants by making it easier for them to hire faster and lower their churn rates. 

More “future-normal” insights:

What if fake was better?
Innovations are going fast in the field of manufacturing materials. These new "cultivated" alternatives to common products aren't just popping up in the food industry (with meat alternatives). Almost every month there is another breakthrough new material, such as Microsilk or lab-grown wood.

What if we tracked our carbon footprints in the same way we tracked our calorie or salt intakes?
Logitech has added labels to track the environmental impact of their product development on a handful of products. Water bottle refilling stations across gyms integrate counters that tell users how many plastic water bottles they have saved from landfills. Unilever, maker of more than 70,000 products, has promised to add carbon labeling to all its products.
Do you know how many kilograms of carbon are emitted to make your sneakers? In 2020,
the shoe pioneer Allbirds known for its sustainable sneakers became the first fashion brand to list the carbon footprint of its products.

What if startup founders dreamed of more than venture capital? What if we revalued the commons and cooperatives? In 2014, Rohit wrote about the Collaborative Economy, and in 2012, Henry introduced the idea of “Custowners." Since then, people have become skeptical about the promises from tech startups like Uber and Airbnb to create a better world.  The startup world sells the company once it’s grown to pay off investors, but what if you could exit to community? This is called “EC2”.
E2C offers a practical option for businesses that have reached a level of stability and maturity, or whose owners want to build long-term accountability toward their communities into their ownership structures. 
These are also called steward-owned companies. Their stewards are devoted to the organization’s mission, not to the highest return on investment for the traditional shareholders (though they do get a nice return). 
(I’ll write an article on steward-owned companies soon - MB).

• What if every long journey in the city was cut to 15 minutes?
• What if buying pre-loved goods became a sign of savviness and a source of pride?
• What if you could get anything delivered to your doorstep by drones?
• What if we invested in more green infrastructure to make cities more sustainable?
• What if we could make clean, abundant food for everyone out of thin air? (Yes, solar food!)
• What if you could generate your own energy, reliably and cheaply?

There are a lot of exciting innovations and trends going on! Is your organization ready?
Do you have a team gathering information on trends and deep drivers of change in the future?
Is your culture open to learning and trying new things?
Do you make time in the busy day-to-day to explore and reflect on the future?
Do you reconsider your strategy and goals once a year?
If you don’t make time to think about the future, you are not prepared.

© Marcella Bremer, 2024

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