FUTURE PROFESSIONAL LIFE A VISION OF A SUSTAINABLE WORK-LIFE 4.0
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Future professional life A Vision of a sustainable Work-Life 4.0 We have made it our mission to participate in the creation of Future professional life. For this reason, we have chosen to present the knowledge from our research and other insights in this book. The book you have in front of you, the book on the professional lives of the future. Here you will find a vision where we explore ten perspectives that will have great impact on how we work in the future.
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Content Introduction to Future professional life p. 10 Values: Use the value of values p. 22 Leadership & Self-leadership: Learn to lead self-leaders p. 40 Organisation; Rethink organisation p. 72 Motivation & Talent: Unleash the power of passion P. 112 Talent; Redefine talent p. 124 Diversity & Inclusion: Explore the magic of diversity and inclusion p. 140 Feedback-culture: Craft a culture of continuous feedback p. 156 A learning organisation: Benefit from a learning organisation p. 166 Innovation: Learn from entrepreneurs p. 192 The work place: Work well, feel fab p. 220 How we can help you p. 246 4
Hammer & Hanborg 25 years This year we celebrate our 25th year and we have followed the development of the Internet, through social media, digitalisation to AI. Development has gone quickly, and now it’s going even faster. We have always striven to be ahead of our time. We started in a market that had recently been deregulated. We leased out personnel in a way that could not have been done before. We broke new ground. And we continue to do so. We have conducted research for 20 years, always with a focus on the future. This has placed us at the forefront of our industry. And we intend to continue in this way. How to build a business based on values Values form the foundation of everything we do, and we strive to do them justice everyday by living by them. Our values permeate our entire organisation; they are cooperation, fairness, innovation, and business-orientation. We are building a completely new consultancy based on cooperation with experts in various areas. Some of our partners have contributed to this book with comments in their respective areas, where they have a vast amount of knowledge and experience. We have moreover had some researchers and business leaders give their view of developments. 5
We have a flat organisation with a high degree of self-leadership, and without a CEO. We strive towards common goals, because this yields the best result for us as well as our clients. One thing which has always driven us is to make our own way, not following the well-trodden path and to dare to be different and original. Therefore, innovation is one of our values. We work with agile methods and in our organisation everyone is engaged in innovation. To be fair is one of the cornerstones. Since the start our ambition has always been to treat our candidates in the same way as our customers. In a meeting with us we want everyone to get the same welcome, regardless of title or position. What’s more, we want the jobs we offer or the assignments at any of our customers to provide development and a step forward in working life. Business orientation is a prerequisite in managing a long-term and sustainable company. We want to do business that benefits our clients and us. There is no contradiction between being fair and being business-oriented. Rather, the opposite. Our ambition is for this to become more than a book. The idea is to provide inspiration and tools for change. You can choose to read all or only parts of the book depending on what is of most interest to you and your organisation.
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At the end of each chapter we have placed a recipe and a digital tool for how to activate each strategy. We want to thank our experts and giggers who have generously contributed to our book. You are welcome to reach out to us if you would like to know more about how your organisation can benefit from the various perspectives. Happy reading! Christina Hammer och Ă…sa Falkman Founding Partners Hammer & Hanborg
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About Hammer & Hanborg insights
The vision of Hammer & Hanborg is to contribute to the creation of Future professional life. To understand how working life is changing we conduct several surveys every year. The largest is the former Communicator (Kommunikatรถren), now called, Future professional life, and Nordic Executive Survey. Collectively, our network answers questions regarding everything from the importance of common values, successful attributes, the new opportunities in working life or fears of the future, to which methods and organisational structures we will see more of.
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The Communicator – Future professional life
The Communicator targets the individual and the questions focus on how we personally experience and relate to work-life. The survey was conducted for the first time in 2004 and has around 3000 respondents yearly. It is conducted in both a Swedish and a Norwegian version. In 2019 The survey changed name to Future professional life (FPL). The Nordic Executive Survey (NES) targets leaders in organisations operating in the Nordic countries. Here the questions concern how leaders perceive their organisations’ handling of the rapid rate of development in all industries, and employees’ changed expectations towards employers. The survey was conducted for the first time in 2015 and has around 1000 respondents. The survey is conducted yearly and uses a topical theme each year. We follow up on interesting results from one survey in the other. Thanks to these surveys’ different perspectives we can locate trends and delve more deeply into them. Besides our larger surveys we also continually conduct smaller trend spotting surveys. Our quarter-century of experience in the job-market, together with 20 years of research give us an understanding on which way development is going and how future professional life might take shape. This provides us with a unique opportunity to support and guide you in your journey towards sustainable access to competence. 9
Future professional life What drives change in future professional life is digitalisation. It creates entirely new conditions for the working life, and is also what sets the pace. Working life has always been in flux and followed the societal direction in general. We have seen new industries and business-models create the need for new organisational structures and work methods, a new leadership and new areas of competence. The big difference now is that digitalisation increases the pace of development and makes the wheel spin ever faster. This sounds good, but does it really concern us, “why can’t we just continue as usual?” someone might ask. The problem is that “as usual” no longer exists. Instead, change is the norm. Of course, it can be difficult to spot this development, partly because it does not move in predictable straight lines but rather in spirals, and partly because we tend to overestimate the short-term power of development and underestimate the long-term effects. The six factors in the diagram to the right – new industries, new business-models, new organisational structures, new work methods, new leadership and new areas of competence – affect how we work, how we relate to our work and what a job consists of today and what it will look like in future professional life.
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6 factors that drive change professional life of the Future.
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New Industries At the moment we see new industries emerging that build on technology such as: E-commerce, AI and machine-learning, Internet of things, medtech, adtech, fintech and foodtech. Even more exciting might be how organisations move between industries. Is, for instance, Kry (an online GP-provider based in Sweden) a provider of software, a health centre, or a kind of networking platform that connects General Practitioners and users? Digital, app-based general practitioners base their businesses on entirely different conditions than traditional ones, and this affects the employee experience in many ways. We can conclude that it is difficult to talk about industries today, and notions such as industry knowledge or industry praxis might not be as relevant in future professional life. Complexity when it comes to industries also affects the other factors in the spiral 12
and makes “buzzwords� out of collaboration, matrices, process-orientation and customer journey in future professional life. This of course affects working life enormously. Lines of distribution are radically transformed and affect many jobs in the whole production chain, first and foremost the production itself, then transport, logistics, inventories and sales. Many jobs are crossed off the list on the one hand, but on the other many jobs are created when technology, design and user friendliness are essential for the digital business-model to work.
New Business-models New business-models are created at a rapid pace, and old ones are destroyed just as quickly. Common to all the new business-models is that they take the customer’s need as their starting point. They are better, faster and cheaper and therefore a real threat to traditional businesses.
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The simple fact is that they are more user-friendly. An example of a new businessmodel that we can all relate to is how we consume media. Netflix, which has gone from providing an online streaming-service, via their own production of films and series, to now opening up their own cinemas. Spotify, which started as a streamingservice but now has now started to record their own material. Or how we choose to read and listen to books and newspapers through for instance Readly or Storytel. We lease. We do not own. We consume when it fits us. What does this mean for how we organise our work? New organisational structures New industries and business-models force us to organise our work in entirely new ways. Digitalisation makes possible organisations with structures that give higher transparency, are more expedient and let us use resources more effectively. We know from our surveys that fewer employees want to work in a traditional hierarchical organisation. In such an organisational structure, information is a measure of power that is gathered and managed from the top. The leaders could benefit from their superior information when they managed the organisation, yet at the cost of expedience since only a few individuals in the organisation were capable of making decisions. More flexible, flat organisations instead build on transparent structures. Power, mandate and information are decentralised and flow freely, decision making is conducted collectively. In times of change parallel ways of organising are common. This means that large parts of an organisation may be characterised by a more traditional way of organisation, while other parts will Traditional organisation 14
look more like a network organisation.
New work methods New technology and digitalisation do not only affect industries, business-models and organisational structures. Collectively all of this also affects how we work. First, dangerous jobs were replaced by robots, then repetitive and menial tasks. And nowadays more and more qualified work tasks are being taken over by AI and machines. So, will it be you or one of the robots that will get the job? It is getting more common to get replies from digital employees when contacting the customer service of a company. Soon, many of us will get our diagnosis from a robot when we seek healthcare. Presumably you have already encountered your local grocer’s digital cash desks more than once when you have utilised the self-checkout. This implies new work methods and new tasks for the people in the organisation.
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New leadership It is of course the case that leadership is affected by these changes. In earlier times, the most competent engineer would plan and lead the work, check so that the other engineers completed their tasks correctly and worked hard. With some exaggeration we could state that their toolbox was comprised of two tools: carrot and stick. Moreover, we have had a conception of the leader as omniscient; one who could perform all the tasks and always be able to make the best decision. A person with all the answers and who knows the way forward. Then we have the charismatic leader who preaches their vision gets everyone with them on board. A leader whose primary role is to tell others what an important job they do, how they collectively change the world, and who motivates all the employees to work hard by emphasising the importance of the mission and everyone’s stake in it. Common for all of these three archetypes is that they had an elevated position. Today 16
we need another kind of leadership. It is no longer the leader who is elevated, but rather their task to elevate others. Today’s leadership is more about others than the actual leader. We shall return to this on page 41 from the perspective of Leadership & Self-leadership.
New areas of competence All of these changes necessitate new areas of competence within organisations. Future working life will be characterised by complexity and a higher degree of specialisation. Wholly new competencies will be more important than before. This we shall investigate further on page 124, from the perspective of Talent.
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What will work be in the future? This we cannot know, but we can take note of which way we are heading. In the same way as work guidance counsellors 10 years ago had no idea that one of the most attractive jobs today would be that of influencer. That it is possible to work as an influencer is one thing; but a whole infrastructure is built around them. These new jobs create other new jobs, for instance the formation of new industry bodies, new kinds of insurance, payment solutions, support functions and much more that we have yet to see. From duty to passion What we can see is how work is changing. From having been about duty and performance, it is more about motivation and passion. The opportunities of making one’s living from one’s passion have increased, as we have mentioned earlier with influencers becoming an industry of their own. So, how do we know what work is, and what will be the definition of a job? In short, we could say that when your passion creates value for others who are willing to give something in return, it becomes a job.
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– It will be a looser relationship but with demands on performance.
– Lack of competence will necessitate larger investments in employees and their needs.
– Hopefully, more people will stop and ask themselves what the heck they’re actually doing.
– More careers with respect to how long we will have to work.
We see how the transformation in future working life will have a large impact on how we relate to work. This will amongst other things affect: – New business-models, where profit is not always counted in money but in other currencies such as environmental aspects, well-being or circular economic factors.
– How fast digitalisation actually happens. It looks good on paper, but not in reality.
Source FPL 2019
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– More people will leave their permanent jobs and work to a greater extent for their own development and experience.
– Greater focus on circular economy and sustainability.
– Increased global mobility.
– Expectations on what work is and how contributions at work are measured.
– Many new employers from Asia.
– More small organisations.
10 perspectives that we have seen in our surveys that will be decisive in Future professional life
10 perspectives in moving towards Future professional life
Values
Leadership & Self-leadership
Organisation
Motivation & Commitment
Talant
Diversity & Inclusion
Feedbackculture
A learning organisation
Innovation
The work-place
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Values Many who have tried to implement a strategy know Dr. Peter Drucker’s old quote “Culture eats strategy for breakfast�. This is not very surprising when considering that culture is what defines a group; what binds people together and determines what they do and how they act. For this reason values will be all the more important in future professional life. To identify which values the organisation is willing to stand behind, and which values already exist in the organisation, will become a key question. When the values are set the organisation can move on with these until they form the foundation for how all employees act as well as forming their basis for decision making when power is shared among all employees in the organisation.
Is working with the development of the organisational values prioritised? Yes 65% No 28% (NES 2018)
Many organisations have defined values In the survey FPL 2019 83% of respondents say their organisation has defined values. Among Nordic leaders the respective number is 80% (NES 2018). This points to the fact that Sweden is slightly ahead of other Nordic countries in working with values.
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Large organisations seem to see a bigger need to create a common foundation in the form of values; they are more likely to have defined values than smaller companies. In organisations with more than 1000 employees, 92% of respondents say this is the case in their company, while the comparable number in the smallest organisations is 66% (FPL 2019).
Best at values These are the industries that have defined values. Here more than 90 percent say their organisation’s values are defined. ● ● ● ●
Public governance Power and energy Environment Banking
(FPL 2019)
Value-governed customers, employees and organisations Values are of high importance when as an employee you choose your employer, when as a customer you choose which brand to buy and as an employer you choose who to employ (The Communicator 2017).
80% of leaders say their organisation has defined values (NES 2018)
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As an EMPLOYEE you want to work for an employer who holds the same values as yourself, it is important for self-identity.
The CUSTOMER cares more about values today since business become more and more personal. Clear values become a way to support customer loyalty.
EMPLOYERS want employees with similar values to themselves who can act as ambassadors in the best way possible.
A common bond Values become more important when employers recruit new employees and where you match the values of the candidate to the role and organisational culture. But values will also gain a higher importance when what earlier formed the foundation and stability in a traditional organisation is disassembled.
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Organisational culture, or an organisation with or without culture? Some claim that there are organisations without a culture. This is where the view of the organisation is entirely instrumental and can be likened to a machine where all employees form cogs. A view that formed during the industrial revolution but which nowadays has received a rather unexpected renaissance. This is because digitalisation provides organisations with enormous amounts of data. And thanks to AI we can nowadays get insight and grounds for decision-making served on a silver platter. AI not only predicts what will happen but also gives us the recipe for what we need to do. When we found our actions entirely upon data the work becomes mechanical and the view of the organisation more instrumental. But do these organisations really lack an organisational culture? Culture is how we behave, a common statement is to say that organisational culture makes its appearance when the manager leaves the room. Because all organisations consist of a group of people, who all of them have norms with them when they enter the organisation, there will exist a culture in all organisations. Relating to work and the organisation as a machine is therefore a culture in itself.
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Organisations are for instance no longer defined by their physical manifestations in a building. Thanks to various cloud solutions we work to a greater extent out of office. The work-place could just as well be at home or at a cafĂŠ, as it could be at the office. Digitalisation increases mobility and flexibility in working life. Organisations may have their collaboration partner anywhere. Employees can more often than not plan their own work and complete it whenever they want.
Employers want employees with similar values that can act as ambassadors for the brand in the best way possible.
(THE COMMUNICATOR 2017)
Furthermore, there is no longer a clear demarcation for who constitutes an employee in today’s professional life. With giggers, collaboration partners and outsourced departments, there is seldom a clear boundary between those who are inside and those who are outside the borders of the organisation. This makes another reason for common values becoming what binds us together, a collective base as well as a framework that connects and guides decision making for those who share the same goals and work towards a shared vision. Values to support change Values form the foundation of the organisation’s culture. And it is the values that determine whether a change is to be successful or not. Organisational culture defines how we behave and will therefore be a key for success in the changing of work methods, organisation or strategy. Through one of our surveys we delved deeper into the question of culture and found three ways that an organisational culture might support change: 27
Three ways in which culture supports change: • The culture of change: It becomes easier to change if the culture itself involves change. If change is a part of an organisation’s core value, then a culture that supports change can be developed. • Culture as a uniting power. The biggest challenge with constant change is toget employees to realise the necessity of change. A healthy culture can for this reason work as a uniting power that enables the execution of change. • Culture creates positive relations. A culture that creates positive relations, courage and trust yields success. This kind of culture provides self-confidence in an ever-changing world.
(NES 2016)
Cultural value Did you know that organisational culture is not merely a way to support change? A study from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business shows that 92 percent of CEOs and CFOs think that an improved culture would also increase the value of the company.
A strong culture means we dare to let go To successfully create a self-governed organisation, we are required to let go of old rules and standards. Rules require surveillance and control, both of which inhibit the power of self-governance. Thus, having common values is a requirement for self-governance. Clear values, framework and goals top the list when Nordic leaders give their answer as to what is vital for the creation of a self-governed organisation (NES 2018).
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83% say there is a correlation between the extent to which values are followed and how goals are met (NES 2018)
Without a doubt, there are still a number of challenges connected to establishing the values that make the foundation of the organisation. It might for instance be difficult in a larger organisation to reach everyone. Another challenge is to prioritise values as early as the on-boarding process, even for giggers and part-time employees. And regardless of the size of the organisation, it is important to keep the values dialogue alive. Yet, the work pays off; 83 % of Nordic leaders find a correlation between adherence to values and the degree to which goals are met (NES 2018). A support to lean on in daily work Values function as a support in daily work. Clear values support anything from decision making to reaching your goals as an employee. This appears most important in smaller organisations, where as many as 88 percent use values as support for decision making. In larger organisations, the comparable number is 54 percent (FPL 2019).
64% say values provide support for daily work
(FPL 2019)
Many state that values function as a guide or compass for everything from decisionmaking and prioritisation to how we treat others inside or outside the organisation. They also state that it tells us something of the organisation’s work methods. 29
Results for creating behaviour, or behaviour for creating results? Big data and AI help us make more informed decisions. In data-driven organisations many claim that when we locate what works and get effects, we know what to do. If we keep measuring what we achieve we will not need to care about how to get there. Development proceeds through managed, agile processes, where continuous alterations and tweaking lead to better and measurable results. At the other extremity of organisation, culture and values form the foundation for decision- making. Some organisations refuse to set goals, and instead put all their focus on how we behave. The logic here is entirely different: if we act in accordance with our values, then the results will come, whether we have defined goals and followed up on them or not. According to this logic the performance of every individual is measured on the extent to which they live in accordance with the values rather than meet their goals. Goals that get more difficult to set anyway, as conditions change faster and our business climate becomes less predictable.
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In retail they are usually positive to values as a support to daily work, 71 per cent say they are helped by the organisation’s values according to FPL 2019. One explanation to this could be that people who work here are often placed in direct contact with customers and need to make quick decisions where values comprise an optimal compass. Public management is on the other hand below average here only 55 per cent see values are a support. This is quite unsurprising considering that public management rests on the principle of the rule of law, where many decisions are made on a legal basis rather than values. As we have seen earlier, public management is one of the industries that usually has defined values. They appear to use values in other ways rather than just as a support for decision-making (FPL 2019).
In this way values support daily work:
● ● ● ● ● ● ●
Foundation for goal setting Approach that permeates the entire organisation Creates consensus Support in prioritisation, focus and work methods Direction for decision making and strategic choices Guidance when there are no written rules Compass and guiding principle
Comments from respondents in FPL 2019.
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Values are in demand Of those who work in organisations without values, 72 percent say that clear values would help them in carrying out their daily work. In public management this number is as high as 83 percent (FPL 2019). Clear values are as such under demand both from leaders and employees. We can count on values being one of the cornerstones for both organisations and individuals in future professional life.
72% say defined values would help them in daily work 32
(FPL 2019)
– New business-models where results don’t always count.
Values and ethics will have higher importance in future professional life through:
– Values and ambassadorship will be a hygiene factor for ALL organisations.
Source FPL 2019
– As an employee, you are loyal towards your values rather than towards an organisation.
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Values – The common thread for developing self-leadership.
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Photographer: Daniel Ahlberg
Malcolm Larri Leadership & Culture Consultant Hammer & Hanborg
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Malcolm Larri, Leadership & Culture Consultant Hammer & Hanborg The self-governed organisation has an important competitive advantage for staying relevant in today’s market: quick adaptation. Nowadays, business is done at such an accelerated pace that it literally changes the need for how the organisation is structured. When we replace the slow decision-making of a traditional, hierarchical organisation with a self-governed model that gives everyone the mandate of decision-making, we create an organisation that is more responsive, innovative and future proof. On the other hand, when we replace traditional structures with quick adaptation, we also exchange psychological safety for higher uncertainty. This is usually because people do not know how to handle change or what to base their decisions on when old structures disappear. This is why organisations need, now more than ever, to give employees a solid base for how to make decisions and how to lead themselves. In this way, we can get the most out of the benefits of self-leadership and a self-governed structure.
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Values are the foundation As organisations encourage, discuss and connect people to its values, they create a common thread that permeates all decision-making and the constant change that circumstances demand. To consistently use values as a framework creates a strong feeling of continuity and security in the organisational culture. The critical point is to make people feel a connection to the values. When we work with an organisation, our goal is to have employees understand what the values mean to them, and to make a clear picture of how they turn the values into action. This creates a connection to the values. It also provides a form of security that they can make decisions that will be positive for the organisation and for them. Without strong values to support the new work method, organisations with a high degree of self-organisation risk creating a culture of “wait-and-see� that requires leaders to constantly step in to give employees the security they need. Values top the list of what is vital for creating a self-governed organisation, according to NES 2018. Despite these statistics, 20 per cent of leaders still say that their organisation does not have defined values! These organisations have a clear disadvantage when it comes to handling changes at the pace that the business climate demands – a pace that continues to accelerate. Values will be the most important asset for an organisational culture to build a future on, in a future that requires that we all work in new, challenging and continuously changing ways.
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Activating a Strategy A small group with an overview of the organisation and knowledge of a specific area could by connecting to the strategy set up a vision and goals for its area. For this to be realised all employees must understand the vision and why strategic goals are important, so that they can contribute with ideas of how their work methods should be changed to get there. By including all employees in the application of a strategy the collective knowledge of value-creation is taken into consideration in all roles for the development of new work methods. And for the employees to be able to contribute with relevant ideas in the strategy, a clear framework is necessary. Here next to the right you can see what such a framework could look like in the activation of a strategy connected to culture and values. When the framework is in place, we need a collective process for the testing and evaluation of ideas and the ideas that work can be implemented across the whole organisation. In this way, all employees are included in the activation of the strategy, and the probability of reaching the vision is increased.
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Recipe for activation, strategy: Culture Target: to clarify values and strengthen the internal culture
Vision:
We have a strong culture so we can release control
Stakeholders:
Values:
All Employees
Fair
Business-oriented
Innovative
Co-operative
Focus areas:
Team spirit
Ground rules
Social work environment
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Leadership & Self-leadership For the professional lives of the future, self-leadership, that is to say the ability to manage your own work and development, is a prerequisite. As a phenomenon, selfleadership is nothing new. The 20th century saw a number of educational reforms that enabled us to choose our own direction in our working lives. Even then, self-leadership was being talked about. Now it is the rapid pace of change that raises the issue of self-leadership. In an organisation operating in a constantly changing environment, each employee has the responsibility of taking charge of his or her own work. According to our survey, Nordic Executive Survey (NES), leaders were requesting increased self-leadership from their employees as early as 2015. In fast-moving, flat and transparent organisational structures, all employees may, and should, make relevant decisions and drive development when opportunities occur. All of us are required to be leaders in Future professional life. To succeed, we have to be open and willing to learn and moreover we must be proactive, brave and positive. Moving from a hierarchical organisation to being a fast, innovative and self-governed organisation can be both difficult and painful to those who actually have to implement and undergo the change; the employees. However, by designing the process with the experience of the employee in mind, the change can be both successful and effective without taking more energy than necessary.
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Why self-leadership is getting increasingly important More organisations have chosen to develop self-leadership, and some even go so far as to shift to a self-governed organisation. In reality, employee-driven organisations might be a better name. It is important not to assume that the organisation becomes self-propelled like a driverless car that moves forward of its own accord. No, the organisation will not become a self-playing piano; there are on the other hand numerous benefits of playing the piano together. Here are some reasons to abandon a hierarchical organisational structure and shift to a flat, transparent and employeedriven organisation.
(NES 2018)
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What does it take to create a self-governed organisation? 1. 2. 3.
Values, a framework and goals Motivation and commitment A learning organisation/effective teams
Values show us the way and lay the foundation for a self-governed organisation. Motivation and commitment are necessary to take responsibility for your own work, your own development and the development of the organisation. At the same time, motivation and commitment are a few of the great benefits to self-leadership, which can turn into a positive spiral. Effective teams and a learning organisation provide good results and job satisfaction.
(NES 2018)
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Self-governance for everyone? There are certainly risks, difficulties and obstacles to overcome when shifting to a self-governed organisation – especially if one does not pay enough attention to the design of the self-governed organisation. It is all about creating new processes and routines that replace the stability and comfort zones of a hierarchical structure. The biggest risk in a self-governed organisation is the accidental creation of an asymmetry in the team or teams. One example is those who try to push development are held back or even opposed. Another difficulty is to create a stable and effective governance structure. If this is not in place, there is a large risk that power and decision-making are given to informal leaders. There is also the risk of the forming of a consensus culture that is slow and can be perceived as cumbersome. An additional obstacle is that a self-governed organisation requires other areas of competence. For example, there will be higher demands on co-operation and on the need to be able to sell ideas or solutions to colleagues. As we know, there are many individuals whose strengths don’t lie in these areas, yet still have many great ideas. Many aspects need to be taken into account; what kind of people are drawn to our industry and organisation? How important is cooperation to us? How important is it for us to be able to cooperate with each other, our customers and our partners?
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Self-leadership from the perspective of the individual In addition to its benefits to the organisation, self-leadership is also popular from the personal perspective. 74 percent of the 1800 respondents said in Future professional life (FPL) 2019 that they wanted an increased level of self-leadership. This desire was equally large regardless of the size of the organisation. Selfleadership is however more widespread among smaller organisations. Self-leadership seems to be seen most positively among respondents who age-wise are in the middle of their career; these are the ones who to the highest extent would like to see increased self-leadership. Young employees do not regard themselves as working in a self-governed organisation today, only seven percent say they do according to FPL 2019. Neither can they see an ambition to increase self-leadership in the organisation. 34 percent say on the other hand that they govern their own work. Among the oldest employees 20 percent think that they govern their own work, and 33 percent say they work in a self-governed organisation. It appears as though young people have a different picture of what self-leadership means than the older people. This is something organisations will need to keep in mind in the future. It might also be the case that older employees are trusted to have a higher degree of freedom, or that they simply have freer roles. At the organisational level almost half (46 percent) have the ambition of increased self-leadership. More than one in ten say they already work in a self-governed organisation today. On the other hand, far from everyone is experiencing the boom in self-leadership; close to a third say their organisation lacks the ambition of increased self-leadership.
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Individual benefits of self-leadership • Situational decision making made easier. • An increased level of self-leadership makes everyone take responsibility for parts of or the whole of an assignment. • Contributes to good and strong teams, and reduces vulnerability. • Great confidence from leaders increases creativity and productivity amongst employees. • It increases motivation, creativity and work satisfaction by encouraging and supporting the individual’s own ability to take initiatives and facing challenges through learning, and makes them grow as individuals and employees in the endeavour of reaching common goals.
Comments from respondents in FPL 2019.
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In the public sector only five percent say they work in a self-governed organisation today. Why it looks like this might depend on the fact that organisations in the public sector are often large, and as we have stated earlier, the degree of selfleadership is lower in in larger organisations (FPL 2019). In Future professional life, all the more will lead themselves. Self-leadership will be implemented in more organisations and some will go so far as to self-governance. In an organisation with a high level of self-leadership there are no bosses, everyone is a leader. The individual work, processes, projects and colleagues will of course need leading – but on wholly different premises than in hierarchical organisational structures.
The finance industry leading progress Most positive towards self-leadership are those working the finance industry. We note as well that banking and finance sectors have a high level of ambition when it comes to selfleadership. It looks like an industry in flux.
(FPL 2019)
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Existing hierarchies between mid-level managers are hopelessly outdated. Large company hierarchies must be loosened-up, control must be released and we must focus on deliveries, not enforcing attendance at the office from 9-5. The existing model assumes that everyone is the same, but if companies are to acquire a competitive edge then this model has to become more flexible; nobody who can contribute with something unique should wait their turn as they do today.
(FPL 2019) 48
The traditional hierarchical organisations where managers sit at the top with a lot of power and informational superiority are, as previously stated, on their way out. In future organisations the leader will instead have a background role whose task it is to help employees to succeed. The leader becomes a support role and employees will have more impact and more contacts.
Traditional versus future leadership.
This means that security moves from existing “in society” or with the “authoritarian manager” to being inside us. This is a change that might be difficult to handle. This is an important task for future leaders to support people to find this security and confidence within themselves. According to Nordic Leaders, inspiring courage and self-confidence is the most important factor for leading in constant change (NES 2016).
66% say clear values, a framework and goals are the most critical factors in the creation of a self-governed organisation.
(NES 2018) 49
Besides supporting the team in finding confidence within themselves, an important part of the leader’s role is to create clarity. The more responsibility and authority that is shared among employees the more clarity is necessary in the organisation; you want to know that what you are doing is correct and that you are on the right course. Mission, vision, framework, goals, expectations and ambitions must be clear for work and selfleadership to function properly.
In a self-governed organisation more clarity is needed about Mission
Vision
External limits
Goals
KPIs
Expectations
Ambitions
Norms
Leading in constant change Another important part of a self-governed organisation is to be able to lead in constant change. The world is changing rapidly, and the organisation needs to adapt just as rapidly to stay relevant (more on this on page 40 under Leadership & Self-leadership)).
50
Foto: Isabell Winter
We can already witness the adaptation in the leadership of the new organisational structures that are less hierarchical and without silos. We see it also in the changed expectations, values and behaviour of the employees. In both aspects, soft qualities become important.
To be coaching, inspiring, flexible, adaptable, communicative, open, responsive, empathetic, and courageous are leadership qualities that were identified in NES 2016.
51
Leading in constant change – 10 insights from Nordic Executive Survey 2016
Change means changing
Inspire courage and confidence
Change does not come when we decide to change,
The task of a leader is no longer to tell the
but when we actually do things differently. New
employee what to do and how to do it. Modern
technology brings fantastic possibilities. But the
leadership is rather about inspiring than micro-
true transformation is about people, culture and
managing. Inspiring courage and confidence is
leadership.
the most vital factor to lead in constant change, according to Nordic leaders.
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Success is to make people grow
Use the power of culture
Modern leaders are not managers. Successful
Culture might be the deciding factor in constant
leadership in constant change is the ability to state
change. A strong culture is a success factor in an
clear messages and get everyone to work accordingly.
ever-changing world.
Everyone is a leader
Change crosses all borders
Skills and knowledge are no longer top priority.
Change is not an isolated question; it is something
Self-leadership is even more important.
that concerns everyone in the organisation.
Agile is everywhere
Reorganise for new business
Working in an agile way is no longer confined to
Traditional hierarchical organisation structures do not
tech-companies and start-ups. Today all industries
support new business models.
and sectors make use of agile methods.
Network organisation FTW
Drone traffic controllers and AI coaches
There will be no silos in the future. Change is
New titles and roles are created to adapt to the rapid
supported by working in networks. Successful
change. The rapid pace of change is mirrored in the
organisational structures are founded on networks.
new roles that emerge in organisations. 53
In short: Leadership in a self-governed organisation is all about making people
�
grow.The competence we call Enabler.
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The leader of the future – The Enabler In an organisation with a high degree of self-leadership and in a self-governing organisation without traditional bosses, the role of the leaders becomes different. Strict control and micro-management belongs to the past. Instead, we now achieve success by understanding what inspires and motivates each individual. The role of the leader is to create the best conditions for each individual to perform, develop their skills and feel good. This coaching leadership, one that creates conditions for the specialists to succeed, is a leadership without an instruction manual.
Success will instead be decided by: 1. How clear you can be concerning limits and values for work. 2. How well you know your employees and your ability to motivate and engage them even in adversity. 3. Your ability to get employees to work together and learn from each other.
(NES 2018)
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Leaders with the ability to create a secure culture where successful teams can grow have a good chance to succeed. This competence we call Enabler.
Enabler As an Enabler, you help others find their role. You build successful teams because you invest your time in identifying the teams’ different needs and wishes so that you can motivate and inspire. With your pedagogical vein you are able to explain concepts and bring out the essence of an argument to get the entire team on the same track. Through this, others will see you as a person who makes relevant decisions and handles difficult and challenging situations objectively. Half have leadership adapted for self-leaders Half of respondents, 47 percent, say there is an ambition to increase self-leadership in their organisation. Organisations that explicitly work with self-leadership have come further with the adaptation of self-leadership, but far from everyone have got selfleadership and leadership to interact fully, the average is around 50 percent. Those who have come the furthest in leadership are the hotel and catering industries, where 75 percent say leadership has been adapted to self-leadership. In the public sector, on the other hand, only 36 percent say leadership has been adapted. In the public sector the level of adaptation is lower than average.
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Explicit self-leadership leads to adapted leadership To what extent do you think leadership in your organisation has been adapted to increased self-leadership?
Is there an explicit ambition to increase self-leadership at your work-place?
Yes, we Yes, we already Yes, our a No, but our No, we have no already have a work in selfmbition is ambition is to ambitions of self-governed governing to increase move towards self-leadership organisation teams self-leadership self-leadership whatsoever soon
No, there is no such explicit ambition, but I lead my work anyway
I don’t know
In total
To a great extent
62%
34%
11%
6%
1%
6%
4%
17%
To some extent
27%
48%
54%
31%
6%
27%
21%
33%
To a very small extent
5%
11%
25%
44%
32%
30%
14%
22%
Not at all
2%
2%
8%
15%
53%
25%
17%
16%
Don’t know
4%
5%
2%
4%
8%
12%
45%
12%
Those organisations that have explicit self-leadership have also to a greater extent adapted leadership to the self-leadership that has been implemented. There is however still work to be done before the interaction between leadership and self-leadership is developed fully. (FPL 2019)
57 57
Christopher Kummelstedt
PhD Stockholm School of Economics, consultant and organiser of the network responsive.org in Sweden 58
“I believe self-leadership can increase productivity, reduce stress and mental illness in Sweden, and bring out the best in us.” I believe self-leadership can increase productivity, reduce stress and mental illness in Sweden, and bring out the best in us. It might sound like an exaggeration, and I do not mean that this paradigm shift is for everyone, but I do have the facts of my observations to lean on. In the Netherlands there is an example of a company in elderly care that stands out, Buurtzorg. They create high growth, satisfied customers and satisfied employees, with less resources than the industry average. They outshine their competitors by trying something completely new. The secret lies in their way of organising themselves; they do not use authority but instead are organised as a network.
Buurtzorg • 60% market share since the start in 2008 • 108 h “facetime” with patient, compared to the average of 168 h • Patient satisfaction 9.1 out of 10 • Overhead costs 9 %, compared to the industry average of 25 % • Best employer 5 out of 6 times the last 6 years • Patients spend 1/3 less time in convalescence after hospital visit
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Their head office of thirty people works as a support for the nurse teams. The 700 self-governing teams with 8000 nurses have no formal leaders. Instead they set their own schedule, find new customers, recruit colleagues, evaluate team members’ performance based on their own criteria, innovate and set their own educational goals – all based on their own budget process.
Other examples of self-governed organisations: • FAVI, manufacturing industry, France • AES, energy conglomerate, global • EZBZ, school, Germany • Sun Hydraulics, high-tech industry, global • Netlight, IT-consultant, Sweden • Tenants & Partners, property consultants, Sweden
Why is the idea of self-governed organisations spreading so fast? The Crisis of Commitment Only 10-20% of Swedes feel committed at work. These numbers exist despite the fact that psychologists have for a long time had the key to making people feel committed: it is ABC – Autonomy (self-governance), Belonging and Competence. We need to be free to think and act for ourselves, and we need to feel that we belong and that our contribution is appreciated. When these criteria are met we do not even need to get paid to work, we will do it anyway because we want to.
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The way in which we traditionally organise ourselves neither motivates employees to do more than necessary – nor does it encourage talents to stay. This is especially relevant when it comes to motivating Millennials. If we intend to attract young talent, we realise that self-leadership is a necessary strategy for every company that wants to attract and keep the best talents. Fast-paced change We all know the world is now changing faster than ever. It has always been that way. What is new is that the technological advancement is so fast-paced that it is noticeable from one year to the next, or even from one quarter to the next. To keep up, companies must be quick to adapt, and the quickest way is to let the employee closest to the customer make the decisions. Tesla, for example, has a rule that an employee who notices an opportunity or a problem not only may, but must immediately contact the person in charge of that area. If a company like Tesla wants to transform the automotive industry they cannot live in the illusion that “the one with the highest salary has the best conditions to make decisions”. Neither can the company afford to lose the information that is lost or changed as it travels up the hierarchy. Consequently, the best thing to do is to connect the decision-maker directly to the source of the information. This might appear very challenging and difficult to get up and running; how can we be co-ordinated and take responsibility without pyramids or hierarchies? The answer is obvious – start slowly. For example, by letting people define their own roles. One can go either part of the way or the whole way. It is, however, important to remember that the feeling of genuinely contributing to the decision-making process speaks to the core of what motivates us.
61
Degrees of Self-Governance
It is intuitive The time for self-leadership is now. Not only because of the trends mentioned above that affect all industries and sectors, but also because people have an intuitive feeling for self-leadership. For instance, the respondents of NES 2018 gave the same answers as Harvard researchers reached; that the two most prominent benefits are quicker decision-making and that employee commitment is stimulated. The biggest difference What is often underestimated for successful self-leadership is the importance of a genuine feedback-culture. This is probably the most alien aspect for a traditional hierarchical organisation that is transformed into a self-governed network organisation. In a way, I think it simply depends on what a network really is. In a traditional pyramid structure, there is room for objectivity; one person (the manager) is always right in his interpretation of reality. What is true for him or her becomes the reality that employees have to, at least on paper, adapt to. However, the flatter the organisation, the less “truths� there are. It is therefore necessary to create a work environment where employees can give their own subjective view of a situation. 62
They have to be able to give feedback to each other and on decisions that are made. If you don’t succeed in this, you will not have a functioning self-governing team. The number of transformations from hierarchical to self-governed organisations is increasing. The reason for this is that now more than ever, profit, well-being and initiative are three sides of the same coin. To survive and flourish in the digital era, all organisations have to think in networks. The journey will not be easy. It will take courage and innovation. But I am so happy that I am around to see this new world take hold. What is demanded of employees? In each step of personal development, a new type of organisation appears more natural. For the opportunist, who places their own needs above all else, the person who is strongest right now is in charge (e.g. in a war zone).
The Model is a simplification of two fields of research. For in depth reading, see for example Agile Leadership by Joseph and Joiner
63
For the conformist, who sets norms above needs, a church or any other role-based hierarchy appears entirely natural. For the expert, who values factual knowledge above norms, it is logical that KPI numbers should determine the direction. This is the norm for many companies today. The pluralist regards reality as subjective and thereby relative to their own experience; a decision will feel grounded only by establishing and creating a consensus. When you reach the state called autonomous you no longer need a consensus, instead one seeks inter-subjectivity in the present with those one is collaborating with; the truth is that we co-create to best reach that which we co-operate around. What characterises this state is integration with previous states in that it is possible to choose freely between them. In some situations, the subjective value is what is most useful, in others you are required to be a factual expert, and in others you fall back on collective truths (new traditions), and sometimes you have to be an opportunist. The result is an incredibly flexible organisation and a psychological climate characterised by giving space to the whole individual.
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– Fewer mid-level managers and instead larger responsibility for the individual employee.
In Future professional life, leadership will adapt to increased self-leadership. It will among other things mean: – Personalisation of working-life with a focus on individual needs in the planning of work.
Source FPL 2019
– Focus on deliveries, instead of attendance.
65
Britta Bylander
Self-leadership coach and Gigger 66
�
Self-Leadership is a prerequisite for leading others.
67
Britta Bylander, Self-leadership coach and Gigger Leading self-leaders is all about emotional intelligence. It is less about governance and more about encouragement. More about trust and less about control. Perhaps it isn’t so strange that people speak more about empathy as an important quality among leaders. To be empathic is about being able to see things from another person’s perspective. In the world of constant change we live in today, it helps having flat, quick-footed organisations where some decisions for daily work are taken directly by the employees. In many knowledge-based companies it is after all the employee who is the expert and the one with the ability to keep themselves informed on the latest developments in their area of expertise. This invites parts of traditional leadership to be moved towards the employee, who usually is the most apt to manage and take decisions in some areas. To be able to be a self-leader we need to know and relate to certain things within the organisation that we work. These can be described as a framework that needs to be communicated and repeated continuously: vision, goals, strategy and values; laws and rules; resources and data on customers, market and business-environment. The task of the leader is to see to it that everyone knows these and has the ability to work in accordance with them. Requires Emotional Intelligence However, setting a framework is only one aspect that leaders of self-leaders need to work with. It is not enough to set clear goals and work with strategy, this is a hygiene 68
factor in the working life of the future. The somewhat harder task for future leaders is to motivate and encourage employees to lead themselves. Characteristic for organisations with a high level of self-leadership is not that employees reach their goals and perform in accordance with what has been agreed, but that they also perform in a sustainable way, that they have learned to handle the change of the environment, found tools to cope with stress and take care of their own well-being as well as the well-being of others. These are qualities that we see as emotional intelligence. Start with Ourselves Daniel Goldman, researcher of psychology and author of the book Emotional Intelligence, has defined the concept Emotional Intelligence as self-knowledge, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and leadership. Today we know thanks to neuroscience that all of us can practise and develop our own emotional intelligence. Self-leadership starts with ourselves. When we get conscious of our thoughts, feelings and behaviour we are able to see ourselves and our environment more clearly. We then get better at understanding how we respond to certain thoughts, emotions and situations that we are faced with. We acquire the ability to better comprehend our emotional response instead of reacting out of old habits or from preconceived patterns of reaction. Understanding the situation or conditions of another starts with the understanding of ourselves, that which governs and motivates us. In a time where everything is “on�, constantly connected with high stress-levels we need, as a start, to understand and handle ourselves with more empathy and wisdom. From that starting point we can lead successfully with empathy and wisdom in the task of supporting, encouraging and motivating employees to become self-leaders. 69
Activating a strategy A small group with an overview of the organisation and knowledge of a specific area could by connecting to the strategy set up a vision and goals for its area. For this to be realised all employees must understand the vision and why strategic goals are important, so that they can contribute with ideas of how their work methods should be changed to get there. By including all employees in the application of a strategy the collective knowledge of value-creation is taken into consideration in all roles for the development of new work methods. And for the employees to be able to contribute with relevant ideas in the strategy, a clear framework is necessary. Here next to the right you can see what such a framework could look like in the activation of a strategy connected to selfleadership. When the framework is in place, we need a collective process for the testing and evaluation of ideas and the ideas that work can be implemented across the whole organisation. In this way, all employees are included in the activation of the strategy, and the probability of reaching the vision is increased.
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Recipe for activating a strategy: Self-Leadership Target: A fast and efficient organisation
Vision:
We want a strong culture so we can release control
Stakeholders:
Area of Focus:
Top management
Decision making
Self-Development
Customer Value:
Leaders
Communication channels/Forums
Work Methods
Quick replies
Employees
Development of Competence
Flexible Solutions
Utilisation of Customer Feedback
71 71
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Organisation As mentioned earlier, future professional life will be characterised by continued and accelerating development of technology and digitalisation. We will see new industries spring up with entirely new business-models, work methods, new leadership and new needs for competence. This forces us to adapt how we organise our teams, our work-processes and information flows to stay relevant.
Structure replaces hierarchy: 76% of Nordic Leaders think hierarchical organisations function worse today than they did 10 years ago. (NES 2018)
We need to organise the work through different structures than the traditional, hierarchical organisation where power, mandate and information is concentrated at the top. Earlier, when the pace of change was slower, these kind of organisations worked better; it held employees in check and slow structure made the organisation stable. But future organisations need to be both flexible and fast to be able to meet the changing demands of the environment. Organisation based on the whole person Today, almost all parts of the job market are experiencing that there is a lack of available competence. Lack of access to competence is one of the biggest hindrances for companies to be able to grow and develop. 73
Movement in the job market, Millennials, self-realisation, an ethical approach instead of economic
�
incentives, digital transformation etc. mean less people want to work in a hierarchical organisation.
(NES 2018)
74
To address this we will need to open up organisations and get better at bringing in temporary competence. We must also adapt organisational structures to fit the whole person, so we can utilise all of the knowledge contained in the company effectively. Organisational structures for future professional life are based on people rather than roles, functions or boxes in an organisational chart. If we use roles in an organisation as a starting point when looking for competence we will look for someone who matches a set of requirements in a profile. When we have found our match we put the person in the box and close the door. All too seldom do we consider whether the competences of that person could also be used in other parts of the organisation or in projects that lie outside the pre-defined role.
If we instead focus on the person and continually evaluate and re-evaluate how we can utilise that person’s competence in the best way possible, then roles become more fleeting. We would then benefit from the fact that it is people that we employ, not robots. The nice thing with people is that we are flexible and multitalented. By utilising this fact and ceasing to treat people like cogs in a machine we can make use of the resources that exist in the organisation more effectively. This is one step towards more sustainable access to competence.
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As hierarchies and silos are loosened up and cooperation between different functions increases, the boundary between roles becomes less clear and roles get less definitive. It is no longer the role description that determines: – What projects you work in is not determined by role - but by the needs of the organisation – What information you have access to - you will rather have access to the information needed in working towards a specific goal – How you are evaluated - this will instead be based upon the results of the project By letting go of the idea that we should be filling an organisational chart with fixed work descriptions for each role, and instead focusing on what needs to be done to reach the overall goals we have a good chance of handling the lack of competence. We can then recruit whatever competence we need for each project, regardless of whether the recruitment is internal or external. We can also let people with a passion in a certain area develop the sought-after competence. Competence is no longer limited to a certain department or manager, but accessible throughout the organisation. Hierarchy - an expensive form of security Flatter organisational structures have many benefits for future professional life, but can lead to people experiencing insecurity. The traditional, hierarchical organisation is often symbolised as a pyramid and the pyramid is stable in its form. Hierarchy yields stability and safety because it is predictable and clear. You know which role you have in relation to others. The role does not change, but is inherited by the newly recruited person when an employee leaves it. Status and dependences are explicit and clear. This may contribute to a form of psychological security – but at the cost of relationships, networking, speed, efficiency and innovation. It is thereby an expensive form of security in future professional life. 76
Organisation for sustainable access to competence Building a sustainable strategy for access to competence based only permanent employment contracts does not work as well as it used to. We need other, more effective ways of finding and utilising the competence and talent required. That the gig-economy is a given in future professional life does not only depend on people who can choose their own form of employment seeing the benefits of gigging. Rather, It depends just as much on it being a way for organisations to access sought-after competence. Building the organisation’s supply of competence on networks of giggers instead of focusing on filling an organisational chart with permanent employees has its benefits. All of a sudden an organisation has access to talents who do not want to be limited by a box or to only one box. A gigger can contribute with their expertise and create value for many employers simultaneously. This means that more than one employer can get access to the required competence, and also that more employers can afford to utilise expensive expertise since they can use as much or as little as they need. Therefore giggers are an important part of a gaining sustainable access to competence for organisations. Those gigging talents that are tied to the organisation don’t always have the same support as that provided by the solid, hierarchical structure. In a network organisation, other skills are necessary; the ability to lead yourself, to understand which efforts yield the highest value, and to be ready to deliver from day one. In exchange, we get a working life characterised by a higher degree of freedom, trust, and influence. As it looks now, the benefits of the gig-economy outweigh its alternatives for both employers and employees. More on this in the chapter called “The Gig-Economy – A Natural part of future professional life”.
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Organisational structures in Future professional life Already in 2015 we saw a trend of hierarchical organisations being phased out to be replaced by flatter, more transparent structures founded on networks and relations inside and outside the organisation. In such an organisation there are very few, if any, managers. But there are many leaders; Project leaders, Process leaders, Self-leaders‌ Power, mandate and information is decentralised and flows freely. Decision making is based on networking power.
What are the benefits of a flatter organisational structure? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Faster decision-making process Better use of employee talent Better flow of communication Higher work satisfaction Better use of business opportunities (NES 2018)
The network organisation is considered to be the most appropriate organisational form for dealing with an environment in constant change. (NES 2015 & 2016) It is also well suited for a self-governed organisation. The network organisation is based on relationships between different stakeholders, both inside and outside the organisation. Teams are put together to solve a task, and some team members may well be external partners. Cooperation with suppliers, giggers, customers and colleagues happens every day. For this reason, it can be difficult to draw a clear boundary of where the organisation ends, and there may be more parts to the organisation that just the employees. 78
Examples of how we can organise work
Traditional organisation
Network organisation
founded on hierarchical
based on relations between
structures and silos.
stakeholders.
Chaos organisation
Amoeba organisation
Loose structures and non-
an open organisation that
linear processes, there are
does not assign individuals
no silos and while roles are
into certain roles or manda-
defined they are also open
tes but looks at each person’s
to change as needed.
abilities and allows them to act without being limited by a role description. (NES 2015) 79
An organisation structured as a network is quick to adapt to changed circumstances and this suits the growing gig-economy business climate that requires organisational structures that allow talents to flow in and out of the organisation depending on needs. An Amoeba organisation continuously evaluates and re-evaluates how competence and people are best utilised. Roles are not boxed-in but are instead floating and changeable, which allows the organisation to adapt like an amoeba. The Chaos organisation has loose structures and is characterised by non-linear processes. There are nonetheless roles, but these change depending on necessities. In times of change, parallel ways of organisation are common. This means that one part of the organisation may for instance have the characteristics of a Traditional organisation, while another more looks like a Network organisation. As the level of selfleadership increases in an organisation, it is probably the case that different structures will appear simultaneously.
Co-workers wish to work more freely and use a wider range of competences than earlier (NES 2018)
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The Organisation of the Future We have already demonstrated the various kinds of organisational structures that are relatively common today. It is however not certain that any of these will be the most favourable way of organising in the future. Instead a future organisation might look like this. In this example we have to imagine that many functions are automatized, outsourced or replaced by other technological solutions such as AI. The Organisation of the Future has no managers in the way we think of managers today. There is nevertheless responsibility for important functions.
Finance
A Brand
A
A Sustainability
A
A
A
Community
A IT/Tech
A
A
A
Supply of Competence That competence moves constantly and freely in and out of the organisation is symbolised by a dotted line. Functions with a specific responsibility to take into consideration their respective area in projects (Branding etc.) are symbolised by yellow boxes. Ambassadors for perspectives that will be decisive for the continued sustenance, relevance and success of the organisation, such as Talent, Diversity and Learning Organisation are symbolised by an A. The circles represent the operations of the organisation, the active projects. Dots in these circles symbolise the competence within these projects. Project members can constitute a mix of employees, giggers, customers and various other stakeholders. 81
In this example, Finance, Sustainability, IT/Tech, Access to Competence, Community and Branding are identified as crucial for the organisation. These are functions that all projects need to relate to, and there are one or more roles of responsibility for each respective area. These make sure that all projects follow budgets, that business is conducted sustainably, that the brand is not mishandled or that all the stakeholders within the organisation have the ability to communicate with each other and share information. To meet the rapid changes we need to allow for – and indeed encourage – people and competence to move in and out of the organisation. Instead of applying rigid structures we will work in clusters of competence that form to deal with a relevant task. Co-workers have no fixed role descriptions or titles. There are no actual departments, employees work in projects or sprints. These projects are put together by co-workers with different areas of competence that are important for the success of the project and to deliver the specific solution to the task. Members of the team are a mix of employees and people who work temporarily in the company, giggers. Giggers are there for a certain task and contribute with their own specific competence and outside perspective.
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Can the whole business consist of projects? Nobody can know for sure how the future will be. But in the scenario we envisage where many jobs have been automatized this is a possible and effective solution. In our example, everything that can be automatized has been automatized and self-leadership has been implemented. Business is founded on a digital businessmodel. The organisation is entirely self-governed and competence is continuously adapted according to needs.
Benefits: • Continuous and rapid adaption to the changed needs of the customer • Effective resource management • The composition of teams takes everyone’s perspective of a problem into account • Radically increased level of innovation Challenges: • Difficult to implement in all areas, may have to be modified • We do not know how rapid digital development and atomization actually will be • A big change for each individual
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Structures to support Self-Leadership In the FPL of 2019, 46 percent say their type of organization supports self-leadership. In public management this number is as low as 28 percent, whereas it is as high as 69 percent for E-commerce.
Do you think the organizational structure supports your possibility of achieving Self-Leadership? Yes 46 % No 37 % Don’t know 17 % (FPL 2019)
The share of people who think that organisational structure supports their ability to achieve self-leadership decreases as the organisation gets larger. Within the smallest organisations, as many as 70 percent say their structure supports self-leadership, whereas the same number for the largest organisations is only 35 percent (FPL 2019). Achieving increased levels of self-leadership seems according to the survey to be generally more challenging in larger organisations and in the public sector – as it consists mainly of large organisations. The organisational structure can support self-leadership in various ways. Respondents to the survey Future professional life 2019 mention for example working in networks, preferably networks that are interdisciplinary where everyone’s specific expertise is utilised. The structure should also provide a larger degree of freedom to take decisions and initiatives – and that these are listened to and heeded – and provide the possibility to participate and influence. 84
Slow to adapt a public organisation with thousands of employees, but we are hopefully moving in the right direction. At first we went too far, but have now reached a better balance.
�
(FPL 2019)
85
Organisational structure can support self-leadership Comments from some of the respondents of FPL 2019: •W ork to a greater extent based on networks, and I can make decisions together with those I am “responsible” for in my role. If it feels like I need to make sure of something, then I do this with my boss. I think it is easy to evaluate when this needs to be done. •W e are many experts, and these are used effectively in all professions. As a communicator I have a lot of freedom to start my own projects, however always in co-ordination with my manager. •W henever my group needs to reorganise, we just do it. When we consider guidelines or policies etc., we have influence and adjust them immediately. At individual level we have the freedom to take initiatives within the framework of guidelines and budget. •M y line of work is enormously disregarded in the organisation where I work. Nothing is in place. I am for this reason free to set the agenda and push whatever I deem beneficial, as long as it isn’t too costly. The organisation supports my ability to self-leadership by listening and taking heed of my initiatives. A lot depends on me and my drive and willpower. Others who are responsible for functions and who are not used to defining their own goals encounter difficulties in this kind of organisation. 86
Organisational structures can also be an obstacle for self-leadership. According to respondents to FPL 2019, these might for example be hierarchical organisations that are detrimental to innovation, or a boss or management who need to sanction all decisions, which creates a bottle neck. When decisions take time, initiatives die. It might also involve the problem that different departments have different workmethods, and where one employs methods suitable for self-leadership, whereas another does not. When these departments meet and are expected to cooperate, obstacles for self-leadership appear.
Organisational structures may be detrimental to self-leadership in the following ways Comments from some of the respondents of FPL 2019: • Structure is hierarchical, which makes it difficult to be innovative. • I have a boss who needs to license of everything I want to do, and who has a say on whether what I deliver is up to standard. This usually takes time, and sometimes initiatives die out due to a shortage of time from the one who needs to consider everything that the group does. • It is quite cumbersome that the leadership needs to be involved in every decision. This has the effect that decisions take too long, and that I don’t feel like I have the mandate to do anything without “approval”. • We employ agile work-methods in product development, but not in management, where responsibility is divided based on organisational position rather than competence. 87
Organising based on the customer In the survey Customer Journey in Change, 405 Swedish market-managers, sales-managers and customer service-managers gave answers on what it takes for an organisation to succeed in meeting customers in a journey where we can no longer distinguish between the physical and the digital. The survey was conducted by Hammer & Hanborg in 2017 in cooperation with Microsoft Dynamics. Would you like to read the survey? Visit: https://hammerhanborg.com/tool-and-insight/customer-journey-inchange/
Digitalisation places new demands on companies and organisations Accelerating digitalisation affects and changes large parts of our society. It aids and streamlines our lives and businesses, thereby creating great value for everyone, individuals as well as companies, organisations and public authorities. Even industries that have not traditionally be concerned with technological change will sooner or later be affected by digitalisation as society as a whole changes. There is an increasing need to adapt competences, systems, work methods and organisational structures, in order to meet customers in right way, through the right channels and at the right time. The motto “The customer is always right� is relevant as the customer journey is designed. This is done to create satisfied customers, increased productivity and profitability – and in the long term to stay relevant, and to survive in an environment of tough competition. 88 88
Access to large amounts of data on customer behaviour together with new technology such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), opens up new opportunities for companies to improve their products and services, increase sales and create larger profits. Those companies that do not adapt to this development and digitalise their business at the rate of customer expectations will fall behind in terms of competition. The future belongs to the companies that have started early on building a sophisticated sales and marketing organisation that supports the entire customer experience. Omni-customers – a changed customer behaviour One of the most important drivers of digitalisation in marketing, sales and customer service is, today and will be in the years to come, changed customer behaviour. Today, a larger part of the purchasing process is conducted before we have contact with a sales person. We use rating sites and social media to find the best and most priceworthy products and service, and to evaluate suppliers. After the purchase we Streckad linje symboliserar att kompetens ständigt rör sig in och ut ur organisatioask questions through digital channels. We review the supplier and the product or nen. service in social media, and may often receive service and help online. Gula boxar (varumärke etc) symboliserar funktioner med särskilt ansvar att respektive område beaktas i projekten. A symboliserar Ambassadörer för perspektiv som Lately we have seen how physical commerce and E-commerce develop synergies so kommer att vara avgörande för organisationens fortlevnad, relevans och framgång, as to meet the customer’s needs together. An example could be that we order online, så som till exempel, Talang, Mångfald, Lärande Organisation. Cirklarna representebut collect in the shop. We shop using our phones (M-commerce), research and rar organisationens verksamhet, de aktiva projekten. Prickarna i cirklarna symbolismake decisions online but conduct the purchase in a shop, so called web-rooming. erar kompetensen i projekten. Det kan vara en mix av medarbetare, giggare, kunder Alternatively we do it the other way round, visit physical showrooms where we get och andra intressenter. a feel for the product, and then order them online. This new purchasing behaviour concerns B2C as well as B2B, it involves relations and Human to Human.
Organisationsstrukturen kan också vara ett hinder för självledarskap. Enligt repOrO 89
89 Organisational structures can also be an obstacle for self-leadership. According to r
A large majority (93 percent) of respondents in the survey Customer Journey in Change confirms that digitalisation has changed customer behaviour. Besides increased E-commerce, this concerns above all:
• Higher demands on the digital relationship with companies and organisations • We want to be able to communicate digitally and expect fast feedback, which leads to fewer physical encounters between customer and supplier. • Increased expectations on digital self-service and access to more and better digital information. Changed customer behaviour demands extended cooperation The functions in organisations that are affected first by the changed customer journey are marketing, sales and customer service. Digitalisation changes work methods fundamentally. To be able to follow customers in their complex customer journey through physical and digital channels, internal cooperation and integration between these areas become a prerequisite. Marketing, sales and customer service need to a higher degree to work as one machine. This means that roles need to change and develop. More employees with new areas of expertise and also with a broad perspective of the whole customer journey will be necessary. About eight out of ten respondents say changed customer behaviour has contributed to an increased level of cooperation between marketing, sales and customer service. 90 90
Customers do all their research online. They come to us to place their order, which entails a significantly lower amount of floor traffic and a higher frequency of sales. Customers are extremely well-researched. It is easier for them to bargain since all prices can be found online.
(CUSTOMER JOURNEY IN CHANGE 2017)
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We have combined all the units that work with customers, regardless of whether they work with marketing, web, digital solutions or customer service. We do this to avoid bottlenecks and to meet customers more readily.
�
(CUSTOMER JOURNEY IN CHANGE 2017)
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Further changes in organisational work methods are: Digital dialogue: A majority of respondents say they experience an increased level of digitally adapted customer dialogue. Increased cooperation: Almost half say their different departments have more common projects than before. Increased dialogue: Nearly a third say customer dialogue has become more frequent. Development in collaboration with customers: About a fourth say there are more development projects in collaboration with customers. Increased self-leadership: Around a sixth say self-leadership has increased in their organisation. Everyone is involved Almost two thirds of respondents of Customer Journey in Change claim that the whole organisation is affected by the digital customer journey. Closer to eight out of ten of respondents say their IT-system has in some cases constituted an obstacle for new work methods and processes that more effectively meet the demands of new customer needs. They say among other things that this might depend on aged and slow systems, problems of integration and too much focus on technology at the cost of customer focus and functionality. A number of respondents say security issues and requirements on IT-security have been hindrances in implementing new work methods, and this decreases the possibilities of working cross-functionally and in teams. 93 93
New Work Methods and Competence in Demand Changed customer behaviour and technological development will lead to changes in many professions. This means that competence and work methods will need to be updated at the same pace as societal change. In the survey Customer Journey in Change almost eight out of ten of respondents say they experience a need to change their work methods to meet the changed customer journey. To the question of which way they have needed to change their work methods, six out of ten say they often need to question their current work methods. This suggests that organisation of business and work methods need updating more often given the rapid pace of development. That employees question their work methods means moreover that they take responsibility for their own and the company’s development. To create change is a valuable resource in future professional life. Just over a third of respondents say they have improved at pursuing change, and over a fifth have improved their ability to cooperate with customers.
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Summary and conclusions Digitalisation has given rise to great changes for Swedish companies’ and organisations’ ways of organising their work. Many say digitalisation has changed their work methods and that they have an increased customer dialogue. In most cases the customer journey now concerns the entire organisation. The most affected areas are above all marketing, sales and customer service, and we note as well that cooperation has increased the most between these functions. In some cases they have gone so far as to merge together into one single function. Regardless of how one is organised there is a great need of new competence in companies to help them adapt their business.
Customer Journey in Change 2017)
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The Gig-Economy affects how we organise ourselves The Gig-Economy affects how we organise ourselves - An analysis on Trendspotting Gig-Economy 2018 The Gig-Economy, what is it? Gig-economy has become a collective concept for a growing and increasingly flexible job-market. Even if the gig-economy has always been there, it was earlier regarded as an exception from the “real” permanent employment. The difference now is that technological development has revolutionised the arena for business and working life with entirely new opportunities – and needs – for both individuals and organisations. When we talk about gig-economy we mean everything from consultants and freelancers to staffing, interim solutions, project employment etc. Today, temporary tasks comprise close to 30 per cent of the job-market and this share is expected to rise to 50 per cent in the coming years. Gig-Economy, why? Development is driven by several factors: technological developments that make new work methods possible, changed expectations on working life as well as organisational needs for flexible solutions to acquiring competence. Technological development recreates working life Technology sets the framework for how we work. As we contact each other more easily the distance between the team and the customer is being reduced. When 96 96
Prime movers in the Gig-Economy Technological development • Mobility • Connectivity
Changed attitudes among employees
Need for flexible competence solutions
• Value-driven
• Lack of competence
• Know their value
• Expensive experts
• Platforms • Automation
• Collaborations • Meeting changed customer behaviour
information becomes accessible and easy to copy, speed increases in work processes and more employees are able to make independent decisions. When robots are able to do the more dangerous, monotonous and tedious work, the tasks for the people change. Through digitalisation we get access to more data and may measure more relevant KPIs as the basis for analyses and improved decision making. What was earlier regarded as the most important aspect for evaluating our performance – time put in – gets less relevant when we have the possibility to measure larger amounts data and other parameters. We may now instead focus on other key figures to evaluate our work effort. Organisations’ need for more flexible competence solutions A world in rapid change places new demands on competence. The needs vary, and expertise in an area is demanded for a limited amount of time more often than not. Flexibility is a prerequisite for an organisation to be flexible and be able to adapt to the environment.
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Talent and competence are more often than not a large expenditure for organisations. When it gets easier to hire the expertise needed to precisely the right extent organisations may well save money and administrative effort.
Technology creates new conditions for how we work Mobility: The mobile phone, what a revolution for working life. We are no longer required to sit by the phone at our desk. It gets less relevant to measure time at the office when don’t have to rush into the office to be available. Instead we can focus on the results of the work. That the phone has become mobile has also contributed to blurring the boundary between working life and private life. Connectivity: We can reach each other without being in the same room, which provides whole new ways of cooperating. Employees as well as machines are connected and interconnected. Fibre communication, IoT (Internet of Things) and wireless positioning increases productivity, creates attractive work places and improves customer dialogue. Digital platforms: Most famous are probably the platforms for co-ordinating small odd-jobs: getting a ride in someone’s car, delivery of food from restaurants or getting rubbish removed and driven to the dump. However, platforms for larger and more qualified jobs are on the rise. We get all the more used to buying services privately, an experience we bring with us to work. AI and automation: Thanks to automation robots instead of people can do repetitive work. This might for instance be administrative work. This changes the characteristics of tasks, and professions will become all the more specialised and project oriented, which is suitable for a flexible arrangement with the help of giggers. 98 98
Benefits of the Gig-Economy for organisations Access to talent: Access to costly specialists as well as coveted graduates. Clever solutions: A competitive organisation is dependent on an almost limitless flow of competence, ideas and processes. Within the organisation as well as in collaboration with partners, suppliers etc. and in cooperation with for instance industry, universities and institutes to solve collective challenges. Meeting changed customer behaviour: The customers of today are used to transparency and accessible information through all channels. Quick service round-the-clock is a hygiene factor. Customer behaviour, moreover, changes all the time and it might be difficult to predict when and in what way this will happen. Coping with lack of competence: There is a lack of the right competence across more or less the whole job-market. The Gig-Economy allows for more organisations to access the same expertise as giggers can do limited gigs for several employers in parallel. This way an organisation may also get access to talents who do not wish to be employees.
The Gig-Economy, how far have we come? All the more talents choose temporary assignments, gigs, ahead of permanent employment. In 2018 we conducted a trendspotting on the Gig-Economy. Of the 1523 respondents, 26 per cent are already a part of the Gig-Economy (freelancers 18 per cent, temporary employments 8 per cent).
99 99
Changed attitudes among employees Working should be fun, educational and possibilities for improvement are paramount. The employees of today are value-driven. They know their value and they want to work solely with their area of expertise.
Yet, not only those that are already engaged in gigging are positive towards this way of working. 55 per cent take a positive stance towards gigging from the conditions that prevail today. We know that societal structures and safety nets can’t keep up with the rapid development, as we see in for example health insurance and mortgages that still require permanent employment. For this reason we asked the 45 per cent who did not take a positive stance towards gigging whether they would change their attitude if it entailed the same financial security as permanent employment. Then 70 per cent did change their attitude to a more positive stance. In total, then, close to 90 per cent of respondents take a positive stance towards gigging assuming the right political and financial conditions are in place. When respondents answer which benefits they see with gigging, responses focus on freedom and flexibility as well as the opportunity of gathering experience from different industries. Additionally they mention constant learning and variation as something positive. Being your own boss is an advantage and likewise the possibility of working out of office. One interesting comment that came up concerned clarity of tasks that are given to giggers: “You know what needs to be done�. As a gigger you have the ability to set demands on your employer, and vice versa. 100 100
The Benefits of the Gig-Economy for the Individual
Freedom Varying
Flexibility
Focus on what you are good at
Development Better work-life balance (TRENDSPOTTING GIG-ECONOMY 2018)
“You are no longer in a situation of dependency, but rather two collaborating partners�. Herein we see a parallel to what Nordic Leaders claim to be the imperative in creating an organisation with a high level of self-leadership: Clarity (NES 2018). That is precisely what this respondent is talking about.
101 101
Respondents agree that the Gig-Economy is a phenomenon on the rise. Some claim that the younger generation on its way into the job-market will not accept fixed routines and permanent employment. Others stress the risk that the transfer of knowledge suffers as the Gig-Economy grows. This can be avoided by setting up structures for the creation of a Learning Organisation. More on this in the chapter on Learning Organisation, page 166.
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– Organisations founded on flat network structures comprised of giggers that collectively run the organisation.
Digitalisation makes possible entirely new ways of organising the work, in future professional life we will witness: – Entirely agile organisations where teams change continuously based on needs.
Source FPL 2019
– Work is organised through projects.
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Niklas Lindhart
Partner & Culture Builder, CaptureInnovation 104
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From the Individual to the Company, not the other way round.
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Niklas Lindhardt, Partner & Culture Builder, CaptureInnovation In 2013, I quit my position as a unit manager in a major engineering business. I had a growing conviction that there had to be better ways of taking advantage of people’s commitment and competences than in the hierarchical command & control organisation I lived and worked in. The feeling of leaving a large part of me at the door every morning, and then to go on and do an okay day’s work entirely on routine had worn away at me, and it was enough. I read up on research concerning different ways of organising, on organisational innovation and the psychology of motivation. Together with my partner (in business, not in life) Eric, CaptureInnovation was started. This was an organisation that would be based on entirely different foundations. The employee was truly to get a central position in the company. So central that everything would be influenced by everyone. Nothing is holy, nothing is static. The strategy was, and still is, to be responsive to signals from the environment so as to rapidly and with agility be able to act on opportunities to always stay relevant. The future and direction are set together, several times per year, based on the individuals’ motivation. The base is a clear and thorough set of values, based on the employees’ individual, personal values. For we are convinced that values must flow in this direction to be effective - from the individual to the company, not the other way round.
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We have a cohesive and clear purpose – “Good for Man” as a guide to all that we do and all decisions we make. Asking the question “Does this create Good for Man?” and being consistent in decisions lets us act in certain ways, for instance to opt out of a certain customer segment because it does not conform to our base of values. There are many essential and principal factors, here I have listed four of them: Complete transparency – if decisions are to be made by anyone, then all data must be available to all. Besides, transparency is an important cultural indicator. We do not keep secrets from each other. And yes, even salaries are transparent. We even set them together. Rituals that found culture – What we do every day in ways that build the culture we want. They might be about small things, like how we initiate and conduct meetings, as well as larger matters such as common- strategy-and-direction days we keep regularly, or when we set salaries for each other. Development of each individual – The individuals make up the company, and by taking responsibility for the development of the individual, we secure the development of the company. The process of strength-based co-creation – the only thing we can be certain of is constant change. And when everything changes, the most important process is to co-create new solutions through our strengths and available knowledge. Operatively, the organisation consists of a number of defined functions, which correspond to areas that handle normal corporate operations etc. A few examples of such functions are: IT, Marketing, Sales & Cooperation, Individual Development etc. Tasks that are carried out within the functions are well defined, limited in time and scope, and can be done parallel to ongoing duties. 108
Tasks handled within Functions are those that are well-defined, limited in time and scope, and can be run parallel to ongoing tasks. The functions are complemented by Projects, in which bigger tasks or projects that do not fit in the aforementioned definition are handled. Each individual decides for herself which circles to be a part of. They decide by interest and energy, and competence: Where can I contribute, or where can I learn? So, what has this given us so far? Is this really beneficial compared to command & control and hierarchy? And do we really have no managers? To steal the quote of Covey, “begin with the end in mind�. No. We have no managers. We believe they are not necessary. On the other hand, natural leaders will appear in the functions and projects that we run. This kind of leadership usually turns out well, and becomes genuine and uplifting. And yes, we really believe that our purely employee-driven organisation yields benefits and results. One noticeable result is participation and co-creation. We feel a remarkably increased energy levels, increased affinity, and often we find completely new ways of doing things. Moreover, new ideas are born, and those ideas that gain traction live on. This, for instance, has resulted in the process where we set our salaries with Lego, and it has led to the foundation of two new businesses. One business is to help immigrant programmers to find work, the other is a new product concept. To continue, we need to grow. Many challenges wait as we pass different thresholds caused by increasing numbers. And I am convinced that together, with a strengthbased attitude, we will find new creative solutions that will lead us in the right direction even in the future.
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Activating a strategy A small group with an overview of the organisation and knowledge of a specific area could by connecting to the strategy set up a vision and goals for its area. For this to be realised all employees must understand the vision and why strategic goals are important, so that they can contribute with ideas of how their work methods should be changed to get there. By including all employees in the application of a strategy the collective knowledge of value-creation is taken into consideration in all roles for the development of new work methods. And for the employees to be able to contribute with relevant ideas in the strategy, a clear framework is necessary. Here next to the right you can read how such a framework could look to activate a strategy that enables faster growth. When the framework is in place, we need a collective process for the testing and evaluation of ideas and the ideas that work can be implemented across the whole organisation. In this way, all employees are included in the activation of the strategy, and the probability of reaching the vision is increased.
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Recipe for activating a strategy: Organise for growth Target: Increased Growth in all Markets
Vision:
By using cooperation, innovation and a process-focused work method we will provide the best solutions on the market
Focus areas:
Resource efficiency
Agile work methods Target setting and Follow-up
Customer value:
Values:
Personal
Sustainability
Proficient
Innovative
Entrepreneurial spirit
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Motivation & Commitment A high level of motivation and great commitment among employees is a key for organisations to be able to stay relevant in today’s rapid pace of change. Everyone must have the ability, but above all must have the desire, to make relevant decisions and act on opportunities. The passion of the employee is the engine that moves the organisation forwards. Trying to achieve results by the use of requirements and control is no longer successful enough. To understand what motivates each individual will become a key question for all leaders.
How large a part of your team do you believe are committed to their work? Average: 76% (NES 2018)
Find that passionate commitment Commitment is a must when the employees are running the business. A committed and motivated employee will notice opportunities and act on them – unlike the uncommitted employee who probably will not even see the opportunity. Further, commitment and motivation are key to creativity and innovation, the two of which are fundamental for the development of an organisation.
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To help each individual to find their passionate commitment and create the right conditions for him or her to incorporate this into their daily work will be a vital component of success in the self-governed organisation. As you can read about on page 40 in the chapter on Leadership & Self-leadership, leadership is about creating the right conditions for each individual to perform to their full potential. This is of even more importance in the self-governed organisation, where the energy and commitment of individuals needs to be channelled in a way that helps the entire team reach their full potential.
Do you know what motivates and stimulates colleagues in your team? Yes 41% Partly 38 % 114
(NES 2018)
– It will be very important to work with what we have a passion for, as when everything is transparent it will be obvious if passion is not there.
Motivated employees with a high level of commitment are a valuable resource. Respondents of Future professional life 2019 say: – We will experience greater satisfaction in our work by managing our own work, tasks, planning and arrangements to a greater extent than we do today.
Source FPL 2019
– Motivation and inspiration will steer the choice of employees as well as employers.
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When Nordic leaders get the question of whether they know what motivates and stimulates members of their own team, 41 % answer yes (NES 2018). So, in order to lead through stimulation rather than requirements and control, leaders need to get to know their teams. Motivation and commitment in times of change A considerable challenge for many leaders is to maintain motivation and commitment among their employees – and themselves – especially in times of change. This could happen when a new competitor challenges the organisation or at times of great change within the organisation, such as a reorganisation. Nowadays we face changed circumstances every day, and to maintain commitment through this kind of adversity is consequently one of the critical challenges Nordic leaders face (NES 2016). To increase motivation in our teams, we are required to treat each individual in a way that strengthens their commitment. So, in a self-governed organisation where everyone is a leader, team members must get to know each other so as to know what are the wants and needs of each. A team member must know what motivates and demotivates every other team member, and which situations make each person grow. Motivational employees We sometimes hear the expression “Young and hungry”, and in some places there seems to be a conception that young talents are more motivated than the older ones. But this is not true. According to our survey FPL 2019, it is actually the case that the oldest employees feel the most motivated in their work. In the age group 61+, as many as 92 per cent are motivated, compared to the average at 80 per cent. Furthermore, the survey shows that employees in the public sector feel motivated to a higher extent compared to the average. There, 83 per cent say they feel motivated in their work. 116
Important factors for motivation Motivation and commitment do not only come from the individual, the conditions of the organisation also make a big difference. An example of such a factor is having the mandate to run your own task. Development, feedback and follow-up are also important for motivation, as well as feelings of trust, faith and confidence. Further factors that according to FPL 2019 affect motivation are listed below.
What do you lack to be able to feel motivated in your work?
Development Deeper Meaning to the Work
Clear Goals and Expectations
Mandate
Interest
Follow-up
Opportunities to Influence
Inclusion
Feedback Trust, Faith and Confidence
Societal Commitment (FPL 2019)
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Anna Bloth Karling Founder and Chief Purpose Officer, Hubbster 118
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To maintain commitment in an ever-changing world becomes a strategic question.
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Anna Bloth Karling, Founder and Chief Purpose Officer, Hubbster Employee commitment is one of the most powerful currencies in business today. Studies clearly show that committed employees succeed 22% better than their uncommitted equals, and on average give three times higher value per share (McKinsey, “Hidden value of organizational Health”). For many companies, commitment is elusive, but those who succeed can show fantastic results and cultures that attract customers and talents alike. Current developments have shown us that a committed workforce is not only a “nice to have”, it is a must. At any rate if you want to achieve your goals and attract the best talents. To a larger extent, businesses have changed from being heavily managed from the top to having ideas and commitment flow from the business – bottom up. We live in a world where purpose and belonging are more important than ever. Culture is for this reason a key factor to get commitment. Companies and organisations today experience a reality where the only certainty is that nothing is constant. This is a reality our minds have yet to adapt to. Fear of change is the norm; it is a part of our brains’ defence to create structure and clarity for us. How one understands and handles this fear is what will decide if you are a winner or a loser. To maintain commitment in an ever-changing world seems to be a strategic question. One of the leading theories on motivation, Self Determination Theory, states that people need three things to be able to feel motivation and commitment. We need (1) to understand the purpose of what we do, (2) to feel a forward develop120
ment and lastly (3) to use our self-governance. If we do not have these three things in a
Purpose
ent
mitm m o C & n atio
Motiv
Self-Governance
Development
combined and balanced way, we will have a hard time feeling that inner motivation that is the engine of our commitment. Most us as recognise these three factors as things we need for our own motivation. It’s usually enough to think about a time when you have practiced hard to get better at a sport, or buried yourself in books to learn everything about a subject you are passionate about. This is how entrepreneurs find the energy to work so hard for such a long time, and for this same reason larger companies strive to identify internal entrepreneurs, so called intrapreneurs. When it comes to willpower and perseverance, commitment is key. For this reason, a lot of companies today strive to create self-governance, the power to lead and motivate oneself to get the highest possible performance. Constant change and demands on adaptability render micro-management too slow. Decisions made at the top are often not well enough anchored in the specialised knowledge of the employees in order to be implemented in a short time. The strength created by having all employees in the organisation with their own commitment making wise decisions in line with the common strategy and culture is therefore heavily sought-after. In this, research on motivation can give us important hints on how to succeed. For self-leadership seldom works without using purpose and development as counter-weights. The balance created between the three give employees the context they need to reach their fullest potential – as the company’s wisest advisers.
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Activating a strategy A small group with an overview of the organisation and knowledge of a specific area could by connecting to the strategy set up a vision and goals for its area. For this to be realised all employees must understand the vision and why strategic goals are important, so that they can contribute with ideas of how their work methods should be changed to get there. By including all employees in the application of a strategy the collective knowledge of value-creation is taken into consideration in all roles for the development of new work methods. And for the employees to be able to contribute with relevant ideas in the strategy, a clear framework is necessary. Here next to the right you can see what such a framework could look like in the activation of a strategy connected to employee commitment and customer value. When the framework is in place, we need a collective process for the testing and evaluation of ideas and the ideas that work can be implemented across the whole organisation. In this way, all employees are included in the activation of the strategy, and the probability of reaching the vision is increased.
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Recipe for activation, Strategy: Commitment Target: Employee Commitment and Customer Value.
Vision:
The most motivated and committed employees in the country that really make a difference.
Stakeholders:
Employees
Customers
Values:
Predict
Employee Commitment:
Development of Competence
Simplify
Improve
Internal Communication
Mandate
Customer Value:
Inspire
Sees the Customer
Listens to Needs
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Talent Competition for talented employees has never been fiercer. There are lots of options for ambitious and curious people in today’s job market. The Gig-economy attracts interest by offering new ways of creating quality of life, and new industries with new jobs appear where we least expect it (more on this in the chapter Organisation on page 72). Also, how we define talent is changing. A long time has passed since talent was synonymous with what was written on your CV. Experience and education still matter, but now there is more focus on motivation, values and personality. In a self-governed organisation, demands for the latter three are greater – it is no longer enough to have specific skills, instead we also need people who can lead, motivate and develop themselves.
Successful qualities for self-leadership
Curiosity Adaptable
Cooperation
Flexibility Responsible
Courage Communication
Empathetic Independence
Openness Passion (NES 2016) 125
The time has come for new definitions of talent When organisational structures and roles are changed, we also need to update our view of what it means to have talent in professional life today and in the future. Coveted competence, then and now Earlier, we talked about employing target-focused employees - a person who focused their work towards the goals. However, this model does not fit well in a fast moving world where it is getting more difficult to set long-term goals. Many companies have gone from setting 5-year plans to quarterly goals because of the difficulty of predicting future conditions. This has led to the recruitment of people who can look beyond the goals, and who do not get frustrated when everything gets turned around. We look for people who strive towards the vision, beyond the goals. Earlier, employers saw value in employees that followed rules and goals and respected their superiors. Today however, different qualities are demanded. Organisations today seek employees who constantly question established methods and look for new solutions to problems. 67 per cent of leaders say they look for different qualities today than they did a few years ago (NES 2018). Many leaders of yesteryear wanted people with respect for authority. Today, however, we need a non-hierarchical attitude in many roles. It is all about being able to cooperate with as many as possible and not caring who came up with which idea. Before, it was popular to employ a real Doer. But who will write the to-do-list when managers no longer exist? We now look for people who know themselves what needs to be done and what they need to do to reach their own and the collective organisational goals. People who are able to prioritise tasks and retain focus even when there are a lot of moving parts. Besides this, we need an entirely new kind of leader who creates conditions for the team to succeed. 126
The Hammer & Hanborg Competency Model
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Successful behaviour for the Professional Life of the Future – A new Competency Model A working life with higher demands on self-leadership and more self-governed organisations affects what competences are needed to succeed. As we have seen, digitalisation drives change of working life at a breakneck speed. New industries and business-models, changed organisational structures and work methods and a new leadership make new competencies important. We see new roles spring up while old ones disappear. More giggers and new ways of cooperation affect the needs of competency in the future. Hammer & Hanborg’s Competency Model is a unique model developed in collaboration with SHL. It is founded on the long experience of Hammer & Hanborg in recruiting for all types of organisation in combination with SHL’s long-standing research in evaluation tools and behavioural competencies. The Competency Model outlines the behaviour that will give the right conditions in the professional lives of the future. We all have a mix of different behavioural competences, and the mix that is needed depends on the role, organisation and numerous other factors. Visionary Long-term goals and well-prepared plans have long been a given in most organisations. Today, when conditions change continuously, goals must be altered accordingly. This creates frustration for the target-oriented employee, Visionary
but is not a problem for the employee who looks beyond short-term goals and keeps the greater vision in mind. This visionary competence then becomes an important asset.
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Change maker Today things can seem muddled and disorganised compared to earlier. Change is not about moving from A to B, but is rather a continuous process. People who get Change Maker
and create energy from change are therefore important assets, both in their ability to work in vague conditions, and also because they play down changes to co-workers. To inspire and involve co-workers becomes even more important in a self-governed organisation. Co-creator The ability to cooperate effectively will become ever more important as the world shrinks. On-going technical developments connect people and make possible new
Co-Creator
forms of cross-border cooperation. To be successful will demand understanding of others’ perspectives, integrity and a non-hierarchical approach to other people. Performer To be able to take responsibility for how best to contribute overall, to be able to prioritise resources and to make things happen are necessary qualities in many roles in todays working life. Employees with competence in self-leadership are assets when
Performer
the character of the work changes, and we move over to less micro-management and control and a higher work tempo. In the changeover to a self-governing organisation this competence will be a key factor. Enabler Leaders with the ability to create a welcoming culture where successful teams grow are likely to succeed themselves. Strict control and micro-management belong to the past. Today, we will reach success through understanding what inspires and motivates
Enabler
each individual.
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A lot of potential to build on As few as 39 per cent experience that their full competence and potential comes into use in their current role, per FPL 2019. Here is a goldmine for organisations to make use of! Instead of employing more employees or engaging larger amounts of giggers, we should start by mapping the existing and possibly dormant competence that already exists in the organisation. Perhaps what we need already exists in the organisation, just not where we expect to find it. It might for instance be the case that the most creative employee does not necessarily fill a creative role today, but may hold an entirely different position in the organisation. For this reason, the first step towards sustainable access to competence is to get to know each other.
In the professional life of the future we will almost certainly come to regard roles and their descriptions as more flexible and blurred so that they may rapidly be adapted to the changed needs of the organisation. In this way we better make use of talent. For this to work it is paramount that each of us know what we excel at and where our strengths lie. 130
What Nordic Leaders look for when they recruit talent for their teams Digital competence Flexibility Acceptance of change Greater commitment Greater understanding of customers Less focus on knowledge and the correct education More focus on drive Passion and a desire to learn Coherence of values Independent individuals who take initiatives Interest
(NES 2018)
131 133
Those best at making use of employees’ talent are smaller organisations. More than half of employees from small organisations think their competence is used in an appropriate way (FPL 2019).
Do you experience that your full competence and potential is employed in your current role? Yes 39% No 57% (FPL 2019)
A further reason to make sure to use a greater measure of an employee’s competence is its connection to higher motivation. There seems to be a correlation between motivation and the feeling of using one’s full competence (FPL 2019). The youngest respondents to FPL 2019 experience to the smallest extent that their competence and potential is fully employed (36 per cent). This group is at also the least motivated in their work. The oldest employees, as we have already noted, are those that feel the most motivated at work. And in this group, more than half say their competence is appropriately put to use.
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I would get more done if more employees in the organisation had the courage to take responsibility in their self-leadership. I would have to exercise control less and be able to develop myself more. (FPL 2019)
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Ă…sa Saltin Meerits Managing Consultant, Nordics SHL
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“That staff have the competence to lead themselves is usually a fundamental request.” More often than not I encounter companies that have the basic requirement that employees have the ability to lead themselves. Sometimes I have thought that this is a consequence of the challenge facing large organisations to provide continuous development for their employees. By sending the message that development is the individual’s own responsibility, organisations can avoid personnel development and instead move that responsibility to the individual. However, this is probably only half the truth as by clarifying the employee’s own responsibility for development there is a clear signal that it is up to each individual to be proactive if they want to learn more. With self-leadership as a requirement on employees leaders must also make changes to their roles. Instead of dressing themselves in the transactional and authoritarian clothes of yesteryear, they are obliged to think of themselves of managers who lead managers. From such a manager novel qualities are required. One has to trust the competence of the employee and have a genuine interest in people. That is to say, one must be willing to get to know and understand the strengths, developmental areas and drives of the employees. The latest research from SHL provides similar findings; Compassion, Psychological & Trustful seem to be the attributes that most effectively contribute to the success of a leader. To hold what is called a “soft” leadership style, or in other words a femininely coded leadership style, is what evidently works best today. SHL is the world-leading innovator in competence supply development. Their longstanding experience in data-analysis, behavioural science and organisational development has given them a sold and reliable foundation on which to build solutions. 135
– Jobs are becoming more complex and require creativity and initiative.
We need to redefine the concept of Talent to meet the needs of the professional life of the future. – Quick changes in tasks and a more changeable professional role necessitate more dynamic forms of employment.
136 Source FPL 2019
– More knowledge per employee!
Access to competence is as fundamental as it is challenging. 6 out of 10 employees say their full potential is not appropriately put to use in their role. At the same time lack of competence is one of the biggest challenges for organisations.
(FPL 2019)
137 139
Activating a Strategy A small group with an overview of the organisation and knowledge of a specific area could by connecting to the strategy set up a vision and goals for its area. For this to be realised all employees must understand the vision and why strategic goals are important, so that they can contribute with ideas of how their work methods should be changed to get there. By including all employees in the application of a strategy the collective knowledge of value-creation is taken into consideration in all roles for the development of new work methods. And for the employees to be able to contribute with relevant ideas in the strategy, a clear framework is necessary. Here next to the right you can see what such a framework could look like in the activation of a strategy connected to talent. When the framework is in place, we need a collective process for the testing and evaluation of ideas and the ideas that work can be implemented across the whole organisation. In this way, all employees are included in the activation of the strategy, and the probability of reaching the vision is increased.
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Recipe for activation, Strategy: Talent Target: Sustainable access to competence for a competitive organisation
Vision:
Long-term access to competence, adapted to the needs of today as well as for tomorrow.
Competencies:
Visionary
Change Maker
Performer
Enabler
Prioritised:
Tech-roles
Creative roles
Values:
Innovation
Business-Oriented
Co-Creator
Cooperation
Fairness
139 139
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Diversity and inclusion Effective teams can be magical in that the whole is bigger than the sum of its parts. In the professional life of the future with a high level of self-leadership, functioning and effective teams are essential. For this reason, it is important to consider which parameters we use when putting together a team, and how we ensure all team members can contribute to the full extent of their ability. In our survey FPL 2019 62 per cent of respondents say diversity and inclusion are prioritised questions in the work place. Interest in these issues increases the larger the size of the organisation, so there is a greater commitment to the questions of diversity and inclusion in larger organisations. These questions have, furthermore, a higher priority in the public sector where 68 per cent see these questions as important, as compared to 59 per cent in the private sector. When, on the other hand, Swedish leaders are asked whether they take diversity into account when assembling teams, only 34 per cent say they do (NES 2018). Instead, the list of parameters Nordic leaders prioritise in their assembly of teams is topped by personality, followed by skills and experience.
Personality Skills Experience Diversity Roles Parameters considered by Nordic leaders when assembling teams. (NES 2018)
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How Organisations work with diversity and inclusion • Equality, equal rights and opportunities • Talking about values, ethics and morality • It is a strategic issue handled by management or a group of experts • Diversity among employees’ nationality, function, ethnicity etc. • We have tools • Anti-discrimination activities • Follow-up on goals • Inclusive recruitment methods • Everyone may make their voice heard • Continued discussion on the subject • Classes and training for employees and managers • LBTW-certification • It is a consideration when we assemble teams • It is part of our core values • Permeates all work
Examples on recurring answers to the question “How do you work with diversity and inclusion in your work place?”
142 142
(FPL 2019)
How work with diversity and inclusion can be improved •
More awareness in the recruitment policy
•
Conscious highlighting of persons of minority in all we do
• Clear guidelines for managers and employees on how we work with diversity and inclusion in our daily work, and what we do when it does not work •
Increase awareness and make it into an explicit priority
• We can work harder on recruiting people outside our own network and comfort zone •
Through better follow-up of decided strategies
•
Making use of diversity and being curious of others
•
More thorough and strategic approach
•
An inclusive leadership
Examples on recurring answers to the question “How could work on diversity and inclusion be improved in your work place?” (FPL 2019)
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Inclusion becomes a key question in a working life with an increased level of self-leadership and where we take responsibility for our own work and cooperation with others. Organisations are complex social organisms; Networks of people who create value together. To succeed in cooperation and collaboration without a manager who arbitrates, it becomes a common responsibility to ensure everyone has the same possibility to make themselves heard, that everyone is acknowledged and that there is an inclusive culture.
Modell of Diversity in four dimensions. Inside and out: Personal, Internal, External, and Organisational. The Model is based on the Diversity Wheel, Loden & Rosner 1991. 144
Diversity in several dimensions Diversity is something that many organisations want to demonstrate. The diversity displayed is often of the type that can be seen from the outside – age, gender, and ethnicity for example. But if everyone has the same socio-economic background, lives in large towns, has similar education from the same schools, do age, gender and ethnicity make such a big difference? Diversity is about so much more! It is easy to get stuck in the models’ inner ring when we think about diversity, and this is important as this layer can create exclusion or even discrimination. But by including the other dimensions we create diversity and effect.
145
Diversity gives the organisation better financial results, increased competitiveness and a stronger employer brand.
146
�
THE COMMUNICATOR 2017.
Diversity is not enough No matter how careful we are in assembling a team, considering all dimensions of diversity, it will be all for nothing if we do not at the same time work with inclusion. All members of the team must be included in a way they can and want to contribute. Otherwise, diversity will have no effect. Despite official hierarchies being removed, unofficial hierarchies persist. These are not as easy to just “make disappear”. Organisations are arenas for groupings as well as informal leaders. One example is the HIPPO, Highest Paid Person’s Opinion, which entails that we are prone to listen more to those who earn the most in the room. These are positions that in the worst case scenario exist in a homogenous group. In the Professional Life of the Future where everyone is a leader, we can no longer disregard some opinions as being worth less based on gut feeling or prejudice. It will be simply be too expensive. It will for this reason be important to work actively to reveal groupings and informal leaders. Further, we need to engage actively in inclusion, so that everyone in the organisation has the same opportunity to achieve impact in their work. Continuous actions, a properly worked through plan of action, and ensuring that inclusion is prioritised in all instances and permeates the entire organisation, will give good conditions for success Diversity as a competitive advantage Diversity has many benefits and gives the organisation better financial results, increased competitive strength and makes it more attractive in the competition for talented employees. • Better financial results According to studies by McKinsey, companies with a more diverse management achieve better financial results. For example, they found that companies with a management including both women and men were more profitable and that ethnic and cultural diversity increased profit margins (McKinsey “Delivering through diversity”, Report January 2018). 147
• Greater competitiveness Apart from making it easier to understand customer needs and perspectives when employees put themselves in a customers position, many customers today choose whom to do business with based on values (The Communicator 2017). Almost 90% of participants in the survey agreed that it will be more important to share the organisation’s values in the future. (Read more on this in the chapter on Values, page 22.) • Attracting talented employees Young people today prioritise these questions and many actively disregard companies that fail to consider them. Work on diversity is for this reason a way to increase attractiveness towards talented employees now and in the future. Recruiting based on competence and potential If we disregard diversity and inclusion and let ourselves be limited by our prejudices we will lose valuable competence. Everyone holds prejudices. Some are easily exposed, while other prejudices hide from our vision are more difficult to see. We tend, for instance, to see people as stereotypes. Additionally, we have confirmation bias, which entails upholding arguments that support our existing beliefs. It is therefore much easier to unconsciously promote people with the same interests as us, or those that are similar to us in age or appearance. In these instances we have more commonalities which lets conversation flow naturally. The result is a better dialogue, and in the end a better impression, based entirely on false grounds. We need to engage actively in minimising the risks of subjectively deciding who is most appropriate for a role. The chances then increase that the right person gets the job, regardless of whether this person fitted the thoughts we had going into the recruitment process.
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– Great demands will be put on leaders’ ability to include the whole team.
In a global job-market with more active generations than before, we need to embrace differences, so diversity and inclusion become more important: – We will see a more forgiving job-market, where more people get the chance to show what they can do.
Source FPL 2019
– We will need to utilise all dimensions offered by our employees.
149
Photograph: Robert Haecks
Ellen Landberg 150
Expert and educator on equality, diversity and inclusion
�
Move on from representation and recruitment.
151
Ellen Landberg, Expert and educator on equality, diversity and inclusion A few years ago I started to replace the words equality and diversity with inclusion. I felt these concepts needed widening, because we are prone to get stuck in the idea of representation when we speak of equality and diversity. That we should have x amounts of a certain kind, for example of men and women, and thinking stops there. Most of us know that heterogeneous groups can contribute to greater innovation and creativity, because these probably have more perspectives than do homogenous groups. Research shows that heterogeneous groups more often arrive at the right answers than homogenous groups do, even if it may take slightly longer. What we even more seldom speak of are the conditions necessary for this to happen – to simply assemble a group of people does not automatically lead to creativity, openness and innovation. One of the prerequisites is to create an inclusive working climate. This means among other things that we need to make sure treatment is equal, to find ways to learn from each other and from experience, and that leaders co-create with their groups and teams rather than solving challenges themselves. Inclusion is not something a manager can do on his or her own; rather it is something we must create together in our daily work. Engaging in cognitive diversity to solve complex problems An interesting concept in this context is cognitive diversity. In the book “The Diversity Bonus: How Great Teams Pay Off in the Knowledge Economy” (Scott E. Page, 2017), this concept is used as a part of the explanation for how heterogeneous
152
groups may generate bonuses such as innovative ideas, more possible solutions, better prognoses etc. Cognitive Diversity entails utilising staff with different perspectives, interpretations, techniques and tools to solve problems, and staff that have different models for drawing conclusions on cause and effect. The probability of accruing differences these increases if we have a mixture of ages, genders and ethnical background etc. It is in this way connected to diversity and representation. However, to achieve the benefits of this mixture – the different perspectives, methods and interpretations – we must create a climate and leadership where this is promoted and welcomed: the inclusive organisation. We are all too often stuck in norms, representations and structures that work from a “right way” and a “right competence”. In that case we will never reach the benefits of inclusion, in the words of Scott E. Page. In the organisation of the future, inclusion will have to be a natural part of the corporate culture for us to be able to utilise all of the competence that lies dormant in our organisation. Actively focusing on inclusion will also challenge our norms as to which employees are the best, and may in this way help us to deepen our idea of competence and recruitment. Are our operations comprised of complex problems that demand solutions? In that case we should assemble teams whose competencies complement each other and don’t overlap. What is “best” is then decided by limiting the amounts of overlap between team members, not by other factors.
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Activating a Strategy A small group with an overview of the organisation and knowledge of a specific area could by connecting to the strategy set up a vision and goals for its area. For this to be realised all employees must understand the vision and why strategic goals are important, so that they can contribute with ideas of how their work methods should be changed to get there. By including all employees in the application of a strategy the collective knowledge of value-creation is taken into consideration in all roles for the development of new work methods. And for the employees to be able to contribute with relevant ideas in the strategy, a clear framework is necessary. Here next to the right you can see what such a framework could look like in the activation of a strategy connected to diversity and inclusion. When the framework is in place, we need a collective process for the testing and evaluation of ideas and the ideas that work can be implemented across the whole organisation. In this way, all employees are included in the activation of the strategy, and the probability of reaching the vision is increased.
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Recipe for activation, strategy: Diversity Target: A diversity that reflects Swedish Society
Vision:
We attract and retain customers and top talent through a climate that encourages different perspectives and experiences
Stakeholders:
Employees
Customers
Potential employees
Potential customers
Parameters:
Justice
Equal opportunity
Prejudice
Cognitive prejudice
Business perspective:
Brand and image Innovation power
Employer brand Psychological health
Employer Value Proposition
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Feedback culture In team-based work environments, it is important that we learn from each other to facilitate development of the individual and the group. In order to grow and develop, we have to communicate constructively with each other. Feedback is already well established in Nordic organisations. As many as 50 per cent of Nordic leaders say that they have an explicit feedback culture (NES 2018). Of these, the majority have set up routines and processes to make feedback a natural part of the day.
50 % have an explicit feedback culture in their current work place. (NES 2018)
43 per cent of leaders in Sweden say there is an explicit feedback culture in their organisation, and the corresponding number for employees is 40 per cent. Numbers differ between sectors: in the private sector 46 per cent say these is a feedback culture, whereas the number is a mere 27 per cent in the public sector. The non-profit sector lies in between the two others, where 32 per cent say they have an explicit feedback culture (FPL 2019). However, many organisations are still stuck in a judgmental culture that neither benefits the individual nor the organisation. As stated in the chapter Organisation, we will in future cooperate both inside and outside the boundaries of the organisation; we will become more dependent on specialised colleagues’ knowledge, and we must be able to communicate in a constructive way. These skills will be even more important as the tempo increases. 157
In a self-governed organisation, everyone has the responsibility to help themselves, each other and the organisation to develop. This requires us to create a culture where people are allowed to give their own subjective view on a situation. Everyone must feel that they can give feedback and input both to colleagues and to decisions in the making. By working on the development of a healthy culture of feedback, both individuals and the organisation will grow.
Feedback culture, as sought-after as it is evasive? Why is it so difficult to achieve something as sought-after as a positive environment in the workplace? We want trust in our relationships so we can be honest with each other and grow as individuals and teams. Sometimes, however, we have difficulty reaching out to each other because we express our thoughts as criticism, and our brains interpret criticism as a direct threat. 158
The brain’s reaction is the same as when we stood on the savannah with a lion heading towards us, we react either by Freeze, Flight or Fight. Unfortunately none of these alternatives lead to a good atmosphere at the office or to good relations between colleagues. Quite the opposite as research shows that criticism and other negative behaviour activates the same pains sensors in the brain as physical blows. Under these conditions we can’t be expected to do a good job, or even work at all. Therefore it is important to create a feedback culture that contributes to secure and development orientated teams. Feedback is not synonymous with criticism Feedback is not synonymous with criticism. Feedback is not about valuing behaviour as good or bad but simply to show how I experience behaviour as a receiver. It is not up to the person who gives the feedback to decide what the recipient should do with it, it is the receiver themselves who decides if they want to change or not. Feedback – or feedforward? One way of disconnecting feedback from criticism is to start instead with feedforward. While feedback is based on the past, i.e. giving a view on performance or behaviour that has already happened, feedforward focuses instead on the future.
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This allows a person to focus on possibilities for future performance or behaviour, with the purpose to improve. With feedback, most take a defensive position instead of accepting and developing for the future. The person who receives feedback spends a lot of energy on preparing good answers (a defensive speech), while those who receive feedforward need not worry but may concentrate entirely on what the other person has to say. Both feedback and feedforward are necessary in an organisation. We are more comfortable in receiving than giving feedback There is openness for receiving feedback in the Nordic countries, and most leaders say they are more than willing to receive feedback from as many as possible (79 per cent), only one per cent say they are not comfortable with receiving feedback from anyone (NES 2018).
Benefits of Feedforward: •H elps people focus on how they can improve rather than on how they underperformed • It is easier to give and receive because it focuses on solutions instead of mistakes and problems • Greater focus on goals instead of behaviour only. The goals of an organisation are often clearer than how we are supposed to behave. For this reason it is easier to get acceptance for feedforward that is connected to the organisation’s goals or the person’s tasks. 160
FPL 2019 shows that two thirds are comfortable in receiving feedback from all colleagues. On the other hand, only half are comfortable with giving feedback to all colleagues. When considering feedback from customers or users, it is clear that people are more comfortable in receiving than giving feedback. Here, only a third are comfortable in giving feedback, while half are comfortable with receiving it.
More are comfortable in receiving than in giving feedback. To whom are you comfortable in giving feedback?
From whom are you comfortable in receiving feedback?
My manager My closest colleagues All colleagues All mangers Customers and users Nobody
My manager My closest colleagues All colleagues All mangers Customers and users Nobody
50 % 60 % 50 % 30 % 30 % 7%
60 % 57 % 66 % 46 % 48 % 1% (FPL 2019)
Feedback takes practice Properly given feedback can speed up learning, while sloppy feedback or criticism might be interpreted as destructive and painful. Learning how to give feedback in the best way to achieve the desired results will become more important in the professional life of the future. It may sound easy in theory, but it entails a lot of work for the whole organisation to practice this skill. As with all cultures, feedback culture is retained through continuous repetition. It is actually about learning a form of feedback and then to spread and repeat it. 161
Initiatives to facilitate a feedback culture: • Routines and processes to make feedback a natural part of the day • The organisation is clear with the fact that a feedback culture is decisive for success • Creating opportunities to take courses in feedback for managers and staff • The organisation rewards the ability to give, ask for, and take feedback • Evaluating managers’ and leaders’ ability to give, ask for, and take feedback.
Answers from Nordic leaders who work in an organisation with an explicit feedback culture, when asked which initiatives have been taken to facilitate that feedback culture. (NES 2018)
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– Giving and receiving feedback – and using it constructively – will be principle parts of the success of an organisation.
In future professional life we will all be improved at feedback and feedforward because: – We will not have superior managers, but instead mentors for exchange of knowledge and sharing of experience.
Source FPL 2019
– In order to be able to develop on personal levels and strengthen our positive sides, we need to create a feedback-culture within the organisation.
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Activating a Strategy A small group with an overview of the organisation and knowledge of a specific area could by connecting to the strategy set up a vision and goals for its area. For this to be realised all employees must understand the vision and why strategic goals are important, so that they can contribute with ideas of how their work methods should be changed to get there. By including all employees in the application of a strategy the collective knowledge of value-creation is taken into consideration in all roles for the development of new work methods. And for the employees to be able to contribute with relevant ideas in the strategy, a clear framework is necessary. Here next to the right you can see what such a framework could look like in the activation of a strategy connected to feedback culture. When the framework is in place, we need a collective process for the testing and evaluation of ideas and the ideas that work can be implemented across the whole organisation. In this way, all employees are included in the activation of the strategy, and the probability of reaching the vision is increased.
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Recipe for activation, Strategy: Feedback culture Target: Creating a feedback and feedforward culture for learning and personal development
Vision:
We grow by engaging in each other’s development
Stakeholders:
Leaders
Employees Users
Collaboration Partners
Suppliers
Values:
Stability
Focus areas:
Giving Feedback
Trustworthiness
Receiving Feedback
Tolerance
Giving Feedforward Receiving Feedforward
165 165
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Learning organisation In a fast-evolving world, it is necessary to always be learning new things and to put old experiences in new contexts. We are usually quite good at looking outwards, to external education, in our hunt for knowledge. But we often forget the knowledge that already exists internally. Finding ways of utilising and spreading this knowledge is a factor of success in future professional life. A learning organisation where knowledge and ideas are identified and transferred between colleagues lets us move at the same pace as our customers and users. By learning from each other’s experiences the organisation may move faster and avoid repeating the same mistakes. Increased self-leadership and new forms of co-operation make it more important to share knowledge, ideas and experience. As saw in the chapter Organisation, the different functions of the organisation will work closer to each other and cooperate more and more. Roles are not as set as they were before, and cooperation involves colleagues as well as “giggers”, suppliers and customers. It is an advantage to be good at sharing knowledge, so that it does not disappear with specific people, but may live on within the organisation. Knowledge needs to be kept up-to-date today and it is not enough to solve the organisation’s competence requirements by only recruiting the new competences needed.
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We need to find new solutions for achieving sustainable access to competence. An important piece of the puzzle is to create a learning organisation that helps use the knowledge and experience that exists internally. A learning organisation is a mindset and part of the culture of the organisation than a methodology. Everything is based on a willingness to share. And then to create structures to make it work.
Three reasons for establishing a learning organisation: 1. It is how we want to work! Personal development is demanded by employees 2. It’s becoming an important competitive advantage. The big fish are no longer the real threat, but rather the fast ones that swim past us. By sharing knowledge and ideas we make the organisation faster. 3. It is a question of resource efficiency Knowledge needs to be kept up-to-date and we can no longer solve our problems of competence through mere recruitment. We need fresh solutions, and one is to create a learning organisation.
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Sharing knowledge is common In the Survey FPL 2019 82 per cent say they share their experiences and knowledge with colleagues. Only about 57 percent Nordic Leaders say on the other hand that their work place is a learning organisation (NES 2018). For Swedish Leaders, the corresponding figure is 52 per cent. It seems as though many of us are good at sharing knowledge, but that fewer of us explicitly work with the culture and structures necessary for a learning organisation.
Is your workplace a learning organisation? Yes 57 % No 29 % Don’t know 14 % (NES 2018)
A success factor Even if only 57% of Nordic Leaders would say that their workplace is a learning organisation, as many as 98% agree that a learning organisation is a success factor (NES 2018).
Is it an important success factor? YES 98% (NES 2018)
For those organisations that do not yet have structures to make good use of internal knowledge, there is a great potential. According to FPL 2019, knowledge transfer is best in the smallest and the largest organisations.
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Sharing of knowledge is best among small and large “Do you and your colleagues share your experience and knowledge?” and the parameter “How many employees does the organisation that you work in have?” 1-5 13
91
6-10
5
81
11-50
6
7
87
14
4 4
51-200
75
20
5
201-1000
81
16
3
84
1000+
11 82
In totalt 0% Yes
25% No
13 50%
75%
5 5 100%
Don´t know
The largest benefit with transferral of knowledge and experience between colleagues is that we find new solutions more easily and get inspiration (FPL 2019). But being a learning organisation also contributes to forming and developing teams and to good relations in the work place, according to respondents. “Humble attitude to the knowledge of others” “We create bonds of participation and understanding” “Improved dialogue and fewer misunderstandings” “Team Spirit” “We prevent conflict” “We get better perspectives on various questions” Some comments from respondents, demonstrating the learning organisation as a way to develop relations and teams. (FPL 2019) 170
New solutions and inspiration
Benefits with knowledge sharing according to respondents: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
I get inspiration I find new solutions It improves cooperation with my colleagues I have more fun at work I deliver higher quality I get more efficient
The greatest benefits of knowledge sharing and being a learning organisation are that we get inspiration and find new solutions. (FPL 2019)
Let the silent knowledge be heard Unfortunately, there is not always enough incentive to spend time on sharing knowledge, so it stays with the individual. This knowledge is sometimes called “silent knowledge�, since it does not get heard. Individuals might even sometimes benefit from keeping their best tricks to themselves. To reveal silent knowledge is a must in reaching a state of constant development and increased competitive strength.
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Learning for the Individual The Professional Life of the Future, as we have already seen, will demand other competencies, abilities and knowledge than today (read more in the chapter Talent, page 124). And what is in demand changes quickly. The rapid pace of change is however not something frightening, 65 per cent experience change as something positive according to The Communicator 2017.
Positives with the rapid pace of change 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
I learn new things It gives me the feeling that everything is possible I get energy from change It contributes to diversity in working life My personality fits in better in the new working life
Negatives with the rapid pace of change 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 172
I feel stressed It takes a lot of my time at work I don’t have time to reflect I must change myself I have to change my work methods
Despite the predicted great changes as robots and AI make their way into the working life, relatively few are afraid of losing their job. Only 14 per cent express worries over losing their job as a result of fast change, according to The Communicator 2017. Many however express that their job with all probability will change. We seem simply to be sure that we have to develop and that we will manage, even if we do not yet know how.
Everyone might not keep up (The Communicator 2017)
To develop towards an unknown is something that will characterise future working life. We will be required to be in a constant state of change and development – despite not knowing what we are developing to or moving towards. The effect will be that those who are content to stay in the current state will experience that they fall behind when others develop further. Stagnation becomes equal to regression, and status quo is no longer an alternative.
Fewer and fewer withhold truths, which breaks up old power structures. This I think is good. (The Communicator 2017)
When we are expected to develop towards an undefined goal it gets all the more important to work from the resources we already have. In the case of the individual this means utilising and building further on his or her strengths. Defining and developing one’s unique mix of strengths and skills and applying them in a way that creates value will be a key to success. 173
In order to develop towards an undefined goal, passion will be the compass and navigator. The clear destination of where we are heading decreases in significance; simply because it cannot be predicted. Instead it is our passion, mission and purpose that sets the direction for our professional development.
In the survey Customer Journey in Change 2017, 405 Swedish marketing managers, sales managers and customer service managers answered among other things on how they regard their competence in relation to their role and their work. The survey was conducted by Hammer & Hanborg in cooperation with Microsoft Dynamics. Would you like to read the entire survey? Visit: https://hammerhanborg.com/tool-and-insight/customer-journey-inchange/
Some roles are more exposed Although most believe change in work-life is something positive, some roles are more exposed. When Swedish marketing managers, sales managers and customer service managers are asked the question whether they think they lack knowledge to succeed in their profession, a third answer yes (Customer Journey in Change 2017). Among those responsible for marketing, the number is four out of ten. This could be because they are more exposed to the rapid pace of development than those in other areas. They are the ones who notice first when the needs and expectations of customers change.
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Technical and analytical knowledge. The more digital we become, the more we are required to understand and create the optimum customer journey. This necessitates continuous competence development which must done during working hours. Simply to stay updated takes an enormous amount of time, but this is of course something which is interesting. These things are easily deprioritised when the workload is high.
175 (CUSTOMER JOURNEY IN CHANGE 2017)
Personally, I have acquired a new and fun job in an industry that I barely knew existed. This is thanks to the fast changes. (The Communicator 2017)
Answers as to which knowledge respondents lack can largely be divided into three groups: • Those willing to learn more about technological tools. For example AI, cloud solutions, marketing, automation and programming. • Those who wish to understand which new opportunities come about due to technological progress • Those who generally see a constant need for new knowledge
(CUSTOMER JOURNEY IN CHANGE 2017)
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Creating a learning organisation is tightly connected with other perspectives: • By working with the organisational values and culture, the foundation is laid for willingness to share knowledge and ideas • The leadership gives each individual the conditions to develop and perform which reduces competition and increases willingness to share • The right organisational structures make it easier to spread knowledge in the organisation •
Committed and motivated employees are more willing to share
• The talents who are successful in the Organisation of the Future are open to cooperation and exchange of ideas and experiences • Inclusion of all team members creates good conditions to want and be able to share knowledge and experience • A feedback culture where we can communicate constructively with one another makes it easier to share knowledge
A learning organisation in addition provides good conditions for improvement of the next perspective; Innovation.
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Jenny Theolin Founder of Studio Theolin
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A learning organisation is an organisation in which employees quickly and smoothly cooperate so as to develop their future together. 179
Jenny Theolin, Founder of Studio Theolin What is a learning organisation? And why is it important? Shared knowledge is the most important asset of the organisation. One way of keeping this competitive advantage is to manage, organise and create more of it. A learning organisation is an organisation where employees work quickly and smoothly together to jointly develop their future. The new learning leadership makes sure to foster an environment where self-leadership, cooperation and courage are actively encouraged. Peter Senge coined the term “Learning Organisation” in his phenomenal book “The Fifth Discipline”. There he presents five disciplines; 1. Personal Vision, 2. Mental Models, 3. Shared Vision, 4. Team Learning and 5. System Thinking as a framework to work with in creating an eco-system for learning. If you are working in an organisation where your personal vision inspires that of the organisation (and vice versa), where the mental models you hold as a foundation for your work are understood and met, where you learn together with your team in a social way, and where you see a symbiosis between all these parts; then you are working in a learning organisation. Hurray! Where to start? If you are a knowledge organisation already, how do you become a learning organisation? It is not enough to have a yearly kick-off or one “lunch & learn” a quarter. It requires a shift in mind-set.
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An easy way to start is to facilitate a dialogue on knowledge and learning: How do you take in your knowledge? What have you missed? How do you organise knowledge? Is it accessible? How is knowledge put to application? How do you reach decisions on knowledge? How is knowledge shared? Are all employees willing and open with the others? The answers to these questions form the foundation for talking about how you learn. Which processes are needed? What are your goals for learning (both as employee and organisation)? What do you need to cease doing, start doing, and continue doing? It is all about asking the right questions, opening up and setting goals. Becoming a learning organisation is no linear process, but by taking time to actively discuss these subjects together you have already come some way along your path. What is important to keep in mind to strengthen conditions for a learning organisation when the level of self-leadership increases? Going back to Peter Senge’s “The Fifth Discipline”, self-leadership has great significance for a learning organisation. There is a strong connection between “Personal Vision” and “Shared Vision” in Senge’s theory – here an eco-system for learning and a shared mind-set among employees are required. If you accept this challenge, try to find a way to connect your self-leadership to those of your colleagues and set a shared vision to strive towards. Take responsibility!
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Jonas Brรถgger Co-founder Growth Tribe Sweden 182
”It is easy to speak of the “right” mind-set, but the difference that makes a difference is putting it into practice.” Mind-set is and will be the deciding factor for how we can embrace the future and technological progress. Organisations as well as individuals need a mind-set based on constant learning, flexibility, agility and the ability to experiment. But above all what is most important is to dare to make mistakes. ABL – Always Be Learning If we are afraid to fail we will stagnate and repress ourselves in developing at the pace necessary. It is easy to speak of the “right” mind-set, but the difference that makes a difference is putting it into practice. To actually do what you speak of! I focus on Get Shit Done, Execute Execute Execute, Always Be Learning and Test-Fast, Fix Later – These should be linchpins in every organisational culture. Upskill your future Digitalisation proceeds, new technology and new tools are accessible, but the biggest challenge for an organisation is the cultural transformation, which is to say changing mind-set, behaviour and work methods. Those organisations that create a culture based on flexibility, agility and constant learning will be winners. They will in that way be able to manage and act in a world in constant change. Besides this they also attract the “right” individuals. Creating self-learning organisations where the individual takes responsibility for their own development but with the help from the organisation is what creates the winners of tomorrow. To be adaptable and learn new things will be what decides how we handle a digital future; and everything starts with the “right” mind-set. To embrace change as something natural will be the key to success.
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Photography: Emil Fagander
Silvia Ernhagen 184
CEO The Hunger Project
”In this way the societal vision develops, and new solutions to reach goals are identified.” The Hunger Project (Hungerprojektet) is a non-profit organisation that focuses on women and trains and strengthens them to lift themselves from hunger and poverty. Our best tools are education, information and working on changing people’s view of themselves and their possibility to change. These are values that not only grow with time, but are also transferred to more people. In this way, we can slowly and strategically change an entire society. We are active in 12 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In the African countries we work in 10-year cycles. In Sweden we work with information, education and raising funds. Three basic components decide if we will together be able to create sustainable change in an effective way: equality, social mobilisation, and cooperation with the local authorities. • Equality A large part of the world’s problem with poverty and hunger is due to women’s lower social standing in comparison to men. In our programs, women are educated to be decision-makers, to take their rightful place amongst the strongest leaders of the community, and to be entrepreneurs on equal terms. • Social mobilisation When we start working with a community, usually only a few individuals see the potential and engage with us. To create development in the entire society, there needs to be a vision that many participate in and work for. For this reason, we make sure participants formulate a vision founded on a future without poverty and hunger. When vision, commitment and solution are the people’s own, change will last. 185
• Cooperation with the local authorities Change is not only about spreading knowledge and commitment among the people that live in the villages; we are also targeting strategic partners that exist outside. In the creation of lasting change, it is important to engage communities together with local decision-makers and authorities. The Hunger Project educates people about their democratic rights, so as to give them the power to make their voices heard and strengthen their roles as citizens. Working on improving the relationships and increased understanding between citizens and the different political levels are a key factors in laying the foundation for healthy societal structures. Together with the people who live in the societies in which we are active, and with representatives of local authorities we organise workshops to create a vision, a commitment and a plan of action (Vision, Commitment and Action Workshop). Each participant in the workshop is encouraged to develop a plan of action for a personal goal that is connected to the vision, and then with the help of his or her specific skills and resources achieve this within three months. The workshop is repeated several times, and each time new members from the society are engaged. This way, the vision is developed and new solutions to reach the goal are identified. During the first workshop the most committed participants are identified and they act as voluntary leaders. These people receive special training so they can lead similar workshops across the society involved in the project. This is a way of spreading knowledge in a wider way.
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Together, they realise their own abilities, learn from each other and feel change is possible.
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With this method – inviting more and more people in a society that faces great change to create their own vision, identifying problems and solutions – we create commitment and transmit knowledge to the large amount of people that are required to create sustainable and lasting change. Together, they realise their own abilities, learn from each other and feel change is possible. They have learned methods to create a plan for how to move themselves, their family and the entire community from a life of poverty and hunger to a life of self-subsistence with power over their own lives.
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– We will need to figure out we to learn from the mistakes of others’.
Spreading and duplicating the knowledge that the organisation has acquired is a part of the creation of a sustainable strategy for supply of competence.
– Finding ways to utilise the different experience of the employees, not only the leading and most influential.
Source FPL 2019
– A lot more time for development and education will be required if companies want to keep their “stars”.
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Activating a Strategy A small group with an overview of the organisation and knowledge of a specific area could by connecting to the strategy set up a vision and goals for its area. For this to be realised all employees must understand the vision and why strategic goals are important, so that they can contribute with ideas of how their work methods should be changed to get there. By including all employees in the application of a strategy the collective knowledge of value-creation is taken into consideration in all roles for the development of new work methods. And for the employees to be able to contribute with relevant ideas in the strategy, a clear framework is necessary. Here next to the right you can see what such a framework could look like in the activation of a strategy connected to a learning organisation. When the framework is in place, we need a collective process for the testing and evaluation of ideas and the ideas that work can be implemented across the whole organisation. In this way, all employees are included in the activation of the strategy, and the probability of reaching the vision is increased.
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Recipe for activation, Strategy: Learning Organisation Target: Increasing the value of our product through increased knowledge
Our knowledge contributes as much customer value as our product
Vision:
Activity areas:
Share knowledge digitally
Share knowledge internally
Learn new knowledge
Share knowledge in external channels
Share knowledge with customers
Stakeholders: Employees
Physical customers
Digital customers
Followers
Focus areas:
Customer needs
Sales
Competitors and business environment
Attributes:
Curious
Generous
Encouraging
Positive
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Innovation As we have often stated, we live and work in a world that is in constant transition. In order for the organisation to remain relevant, we have to evolve at the same rate as the world around us and keep the customer in focus. Innovation becomes a key issue.
The greatest challenge of working in an organisation that is in constant transition is to make the employees realise that they need to adapt to this change (NES 2016). Many organisations have strategies in place to meet the challenges that arise during change (Communicator 2015), but for the strategy to be implemented, everyone in the organisation must understand and accept the importance of changing.
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Innovation is the daily improvements Innovation is not just about the big innovative steps but also about daily adjustments and small improvements. Previously, the idea was that innovation was something for business development departments. Today, many organisations have realised that innovation involves everyone and that each person can contribute to improvements and adjustments in daily work. In self-governing organisations it becomes crucial to involve everyone as individuals and teams are steering their own work. This means that structures and methods need to be adapted to allow and encourage that type of work. Biggest is best ‌ Or? Digitalisation and technical development are transforming industry after industry often with new business models as a result. Traditional hierarchical organisational structures do not support a flexible and rapid way of working and organisational changes become more frequent (read more on this in the chapter Organisation, page 72). In 2016, nearly half of the respondents reported that they were undergoing a major organisational change. The most common reasons were new business models and changed customer behaviour (NES 2016). Another consequence of this development is that biggest is no longer best. Previously, size had an impact and was a competitive advantage. Today, it’s flexibility and speed that give competitive advantage. Large organisations are undergoing transitions to become agile, more innovative and have a greater appeal to local audiences.
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The rise of change agents Everything and everyone in an organisation are affected by, and affect change and development, regardless of title or position. Nothing comes from the top, instead this is a behaviour and a competence that everyone must have. To succeed with innovation, change needs to be embraced as a multidisciplinary issue that involves the entire organisation. We need change agents that can lead and support change at all stages, especially in a self-governing organisation. These people become key players to drive development. It is about opening up for cooperation - between departments, between teams, between individuals and with other organisations. The future is co-everything. Use of the power of innovation It is clear that innovation is something that interests larger parts of any organisation. 35% think that every employee is involved in the innovation to some extent (NES 2018). In the survey Future professional life 2019, 81 percent say they contribute to the work with innovation in their organisation.
Who in your organisation is involved in innovation? 1. 2. 3. 4.
Everyone Management Business Development The function is not important, it is a personality issue
(NES 2018)
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This is because many people have shifted their work with development from an inside perspective, in which the R&D department set the agenda, to an outside perspective where the customer journey is in focus. In that way, every role is in one way or another involved in customer journey by their work with innovation. Many leaders have also mentioned that it is not the function itself that is important, but it is a matter of personality (NES 2018). The number of people contributing to work with innovation depends on the size of the organisation. In the smallest organisations as many as 90 per cent say they contribute, whereas in the largest ones the corresponding number is at 74 per cent (FPL 2019).
Input from customers
Solution
Making use of the power of innovation in an organisation means breaking barriers between departments and function. As important, however, is to see the whole potential in each individual within the organisation. We miss a lot of internal potential when we only look at function. By analysing the internal potential, we may find 196
hidden gems in the organisation.
More people contribute to work with innovation in small organisations “Do you contribute to work with innovation in your organisation?” combined with “How many employees does the organisation that you work in have?” 1-5 13 6-10
86
11-50
84
51-200
79
201-1000
80
0% Yes
No
6
15 11 13
25%
9
7
81
Totalt
7
7
75
1000+
7
3
90
10 12
10 50%
9
75%
100%
I don´t know
Developing your own work Most contribute to work with innovation and development by developing their own work (79 per cent), according to FPL 2019. Older employees do this to the greatest extent; in the age group 51+ the number is at 80 per cent. Interesting to note is that the same group in the same survey say they feel the most motivated in their work. Younger employees participate to a larger degree in one-off innovation projects.
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Older employees drive their own development, younger ones take part only in some innovation projects. “How do you contribute to the work on innovation?” combined with “How old are you?”. 20-30
28
31-40
22
41-50
24
51-60
20
61+
20 22
Totalt 0%
16
64
13
68
37
14 13
77
37
79
32
11 13
83
17
80 34
25%
79 50%
75%
100%
Time has been given for innovation and developmental work in my role
I take part in some innovation projects
There are clear processes for innovation and developmental work
I continuously develop my own work
There seems on the other hand to be shortage of time and clear processes to proceed with work on innovation (FPL 2019). Large organisations have to a larger extent set aside time and developed clear processes for work on innovation than do small organisations. Some industries excel: Manufacturing, Travel and Airline, Environment as well as Power & Energy are industries who have to a larger extent set aside time and developed clear processes for their development and innovation work (FPL 2019).
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Larger organisations set aside time and have clearer processes for work on innovation than do smaller organisations.
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(FPL 2019)
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Innovation with digital colleagues Technological development has for a long time affected how we work. In addition to increased production speed and efficiency, technology has taken dangerous, repetitive and boring jobs out of our working life. AI, AR, IoT and robots will affect how we work in the future. For this reason we need to develop our ability to cooperate both with each other as well as machines! With the help of AI and robots we humans will be able to focus on the more fun parts of our work, while what we deem is too boring can be done by machines. This means that routine-based tasks can to a greater extent be removed from our job descriptions. Those that remain will be the complex questions that require our imagination and creativity to resolve: innovation and development!
Are you Human? Invest in Imagination and Creativity! Adapting to a working life full of digital companions will demand a new approach. A robot in the team might not make too big a difference, but imagine how it would be if you were the only human in the team. It would require new work methods, other workflows and new ways of communication. We need to improve our problem-solving skills together with robots, while we make sure to develop the qualities that are unique to us humans, such as creativity, imagination and the ability to form relations and emotional bonds.
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New Work Methods Work on development and innovation in the future will take place in various types of iterative, customer-centred processes and methods that increase commitment. Here are some work methods that are predicted to become more common in Future professional life: Examples of work methods that will be more common in the future:
Automation Crossfunctional
Agile
Edutainment Crowdsourcing
Virtual Design Thinking
Flexible Lean
Mobile Gamification The Communicator 2017
Agile Methods When the pace of change no longer allows us to finish a product or service before its release, agile methods fit well. We have neither the time nor the money to work in long processes. Instead, we need to focus on refining and improving earlier versions. Working with agility optimises resources and increases the relevance for the product or the service. Today, already 7 out of 10 are familiar with agility, and half say they use agile work 202 202
methods; answers from respondents to The Communicator 2017.
It is no longer possible to work in long projects. The world is changing too.
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Agile methods in four ways. In 2016 we asked Nordic Leaders in what way they employ agile methods. The answers could be divided as follows: An agile organisation: Flexible roles, flat organisational structures, virtual teams, cooperation with giggers, and cooperation with other organisations to increase customer value.
An agile work process: Use of agile work processes, such as Scrum.
Agile teams: Some departments or teams use agile methods. Common examples include R&D, IT and marketing.
Agile projects: Agile methods are used in certain projects.
(NES 2016)
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The user in focus Work methods that place the user in focus are on the rise. The importance of working in customer-oriented, innovative processes is increasing. An example of such is Design Thinking, which is often used in development and innovation processes to generate or improve products, services or concepts (The Communicator 2017). Work methods that create commitment Crowdsourcing is predicted to become more common in Future professional life (The Communicator 2017). The participation of many people and perspectives is a good way of generating lots of ideas. It is also a way of creating commitment among customers, suppliers, employees and others who are invited to take part in the process of innovation. Edutainment and Gamification add elements from the world of entertainment by adding certain game-mechanisms that make the work more fun and interactive. This may speed up learning and increase productivity.
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Fredrik Heintz Doctor and University Lecturer Linkรถping University, Chairman of The Swedish AI Society 206
”Learn to solve problems in cooperation with robots.” What will the consequences be of acquiring more robots as colleagues? We talked to Fredrik Heintz, Doctor and University Lecturer at the institution for Artificial Intelligence and Computer Systems at Linköping University. Robots are a natural development Throughout history humanity has continuously created increasingly advanced tools that have made it possible to do new things. The development and use of robots in working life follows as a natural development of this, states Fredrik Heintz. – Creating tools that help as do new things is one of the most important marks of being human. So for us to develop robots is entirely natural, he says. Historically, robots have above all been used in manufacturing – the car industry for example – to assist in heavy lifting and with repetitive jobs. Today they are employed extensively in for example electronics to do things that require a high level of precision and must be done in exactly the same way every time. – The development of robots has this far been focused on heavy lifting and repetition on the one hand, and precision and repeatability on the other, according to Fredrik. Nowadays, development is focused on creating flexible robots that are able to relate to their environment. All the more flexible robots… One drawback with robots to date has been that both repurposing time and cost have been high. A lot of work is required to reprogram the robot to create a new model of
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the product that is being produced. The trend now is moving towards more flexible robots that are able to work alongside humans. The robots that on the job-market today complete their tasks regardless of their surroundings, and they are often kept separate from humans so that nobody should come to harm. Today’s development of robotics is focused on creating more sophisticated robots that can take in information from their surroundings and base decisions on that information. They need to understand what is happening around them so they can work close to people. – A focus industry today when it comes to robotics development is logistics. There, the challenge for the robots is to learn to handle more unstructured environments. There is usually no problem as long as there is an exact position, an RFID-tag or a QR-code at hand. But what happens for instance in a grocery shop when someone has changed their mind and replaced a product on the wrong shelf? says Fredrik. – Even the care sector is interesting. Robots can be an aid that let people spend more time on pure care. Moreover, automated laboratories where analyses etc. are made without the interference of humans is relevant, he proceeds. A third industry where things are developing quickly is the transport sector, with automated transport. For example the hospital New Karolinska will invest in automating transport within the hospital. In software there is also a lot of development. An example is what’s called Conversational Technology, a software technology that allows for verbal interaction with robots. This creates a more natural way of communicating that likens the dialogue we have with other humans.
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Dialogue is actually an inefficient way of communication, but its positive side is its flexibility. – Imagine a doctor diagnosing a patient whilst simultaneously keeping a dialogue going with a certain system to document information. The system may also ask follow-up questions – it is an aid both for medical journals and decision making, all in one, says Fredrik. …And all the more specialised humans The rise of robots in working life will mainly affect us humans in two ways. The first is that robots are developing towards being able to act in the same environment as us. This means that the difference between robot and human will be reduced, and working with a robot will be like working with whomever. We will interact in the same way with robots as we do with our human colleagues. The second concerns specialisation. We must specialise even more. If we for instance consider which jobs disappeared in the US during the last financial crisis, we see that these were middle-class jobs that demanded a general education. The number of highly qualified jobs are on the other hand increasing. – Those who will be successful in robotised working life are those who have a special interest, something that they are really good at. It could be anything – make-up, wooden floors, computer games, weird robots… As long as you are good at it and find ways to commercialise your interest, nothing else matters. To succeed, personal qualities such as drive and passion become critical. This differs from earlier changes in working life, which we have dealt with by use of more education. Today, education is not the problem. – Via internet we have access to a global market, the best experts and education in every area, 3D printing for prototypes etc.. This means if you have an idea you can
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implement it. So what you need is ideas and visions and the drive to complete them, says Fredrik. This development is problematic for those that are passive. The attitude “I don’t want to do anything” won’t work in future. Invest in Digital Competence and Personal Development Which competencies will we need to develop to be successful? Fredrik states that we need to get better at what he calls “datalogical thinking”; how we solve problems in cooperation with computers. This we need to learn at school. Digital competence, using digital tools, will moreover allow us to be active citizens in a digital society. Things like personal development and higher self-awareness will be important for finding what you like to do, and having the courage to develop it. We are required to continuously have the courage to learn new things and take responsibility for this. To be positive and optimistic will be an asset. – As I said earlier, we need to find our special interests, that which we are really good at. It is about growing one’s own uniqueness, says Fredrik.
The future role of people The conversion to a digitalised working life will not only require new work methods, but also new approaches. The task of the human in the future will above all consist of figuring out which problems to solve and why. The actual solutions can be developed by computers and robots. Humans need to get good at whatever computer and robots cannot do. Creativity and spotting new opportunities are examples of such things.
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We now live in the transition period between the industrial and the digital society. This creates anxiety in our work places and in society at large. In its most extreme form this can be seen as social unrest and political extremism. – The question is how we can facilitate this change and know how long it will take, says Fredrik in conclusion.
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Photography: Magdalena Bibik-Westerlund
Kristina Närman 212
Self-Leadership & Change Consultant Hammer & Hanborg
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Practice your ability to see opportunities. Take meaningful risk. Release your betaversion.
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Kristina Närman, Self-Leadership & Change Consultant Hammer & Hanborg We humans are born with the lust and ability to be creative and create, to find solutions and test them. This is in other words the foundation for entrepreneurship. Earlier, the word Entrepreneur was synonymous with a person creating a company, but the definition is starting to change. Today, the word is rather associated with people who detect opportunities and act on them (Forbes.com 20130514). The new definition is thus not about running a company, but rather about a mind-set – about intrapreneurship. Why are intrapreneurs so important both today and in the future? One reason is rapid and constant change. We must utilise the opportunities that occur to continue to be relevant. Another is digitalisation. As we move towards having more robots and AI in working life, it will be our creativity and imagination that pays the bills simply because those factors cannot be digitalised. Develop your brain However, to see and to make use of opportunities and to be creative requires training. As we know, our brain is more susceptible to negative information than positive (called negativity bias). We must therefore actively work to focus on solutions instead of ending up in the ”it’s not possible” loop. It might here be helpful to employ methods and approaches that aid us in focusing on the positive. One example is Appreciative Inquiry, which helps us move focus from problems to solutions.
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The same approach can help our ideas develop. New ideas are sensitive. They need warmth and love to grow. If we are too quick to criticise a novel idea, we may well kill it. And we must also consider the person behind the idea. If we criticise too hard, the risk is that they will not have the courage to bring forth new ideas in future. This is especially true of those people less used to participating in innovation. Perhaps the idea that they came up with this time wasn’t that good, but the next ten ideas that we will not get to hear might have contained the gems we were looking for. Take Innovation seriously, but not too seriously Another thing we can learn from entrepreneurs is not to take innovation too seriously. Development and innovation are about navigating unchartered waters – the risk that things will not go as planned is always there (and this is how many innovations have been realised). What I mean is that we should be seeing ourselves and our work as constant beta-versions. Yes, there are bugs, but the only way to find these and eventually fix them is to experiment. The organisation should allow for and encourage failures. Carelessness and negligence should of course never be accepted, but to fail in the pursuit of development is good, even desirable. The more cooks, the more broth That more organisations are opening up to take part in work on innovation and development is good news. Too many cooks spoil the broth is an expression. But in this case, more cooks simply yield more broth – and that is exactly what we want. More brains give better ideas. And as every entrepreneur already knows, there are no “self-made millionaires”.
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Instead of isolating ourselves we should surround ourselves with people who complement us. So if we spend time learning the strengths and special interests of everyone in the organisation, work on innovation will accelerate. Organisations that work actively to develop self-leadership and allow self-governance create good conditions for intrapreneurship. By training change agents tasked with driving development and innovation efforts, these possibilities are maximized. Give them the tools and knowledge to involve and support their colleagues, customers, partners, whoever is necessary to put their creativity into action and contribute.
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– AI and automation will remove administrative work.
Organisations will be faced with entirely different challenges in Future professional life, and this will affect work methods:
– User focus increases! For end-user as well as within the organisation.
Source FPL 2019
– Each employee will have the space to contribute, and is encouraged to contribute with their own thoughts and ideas.
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Activating a Strategy A small group with an overview of the organisation and knowledge of a specific area could by connecting to the strategy set up a vision and goals for its area. For this to be realised all employees must understand the vision and why strategic goals are important, so that they can contribute with ideas of how their work methods should be changed to get there. By including all employees in the application of a strategy the collective knowledge of value-creation is taken into consideration in all roles for the development of new work methods. And for the employees to be able to contribute with relevant ideas in the strategy, a clear framework is necessary. Here next to the right you can see what such a framework could look like in the activation of a strategy connected to inclusive innovation. When the framework is in place, we need a collective process for the testing and evaluation of ideas and the ideas that work can be implemented across the whole organisation. In this way, all employees are included in the activation of the strategy, and the probability of reaching the vision is increased.
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Recipe for Activation, Strategy: Innovation Target: We want to be as relevant in 10 years as we are today.
Vision:
Inclusive Innovation with an outside-in perspective that moves us towards a bright future.
Stakeholders:
Employees
Collaboration partners
Users
Engines:
Attributes:
UX
Progressive
Availability
Brave
AI
Trustworthy
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The Workplace The workplace creates in many ways the conditions for how we work. It needs to give the conditions for flexibility that we require to work efficiently. At the same time it needs to provide an environment where people feel good. In future professional life the workplace will be created from people as the vantage point, not the product. The first factories were built on the same blueprints as prisons, without sharp corners and with full oversight to provide maximal control of employees. In other words this is not really suitable for a workplace characterised by self-leadership. Today we know better; that it is more profitable to create the workplace based on people’s needs. It is a step on
Photography: Kalen Emsley
the way to increasing well being and commitment, whilst reducing sick leave.
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The traditional office was outdated as a workplace by the 90s. For a sustainable working life, it is unsustainable to keep gigantic office areas that are empty for large parts of the day, and leave our city centres dead after six o’ clock at night. Instead, jobs have been moved to customers, to home or to cafés and co-working spaces. We are in the process of leaving the stationary workplace behind us. Today we have the possibility to measure and follow-up on what we achieve in wholly new ways, which allow for measuring of our performance on results instead of presence at the office. This opens up for a more mobile work method; flexible and adapted to our preferences during the day. We can choose our workplace depending on which task we are doing at the moment, and we can adapt where we work depending on our situation in general. Smart phones have the ability to complement or even replace office environments in everything from home healthcare to industry. Employers using app-based interfaces save both time and office space, because employees needn’t seek out a terminal to administer their work. This happens on the spot, sometimes even automatically when our phones send and receive information from machines and robots. The big question on how we create the workplace of the future is then not about activity-based offices or how much we are required to work from home. Rather, it is about taking part in the discussion on how we can use technology to create workplaces that focus on the needs of the person. These focus areas extend to many different aspects and needs, such as: activity, peace and quiet, focus, light, fuel for inspiration, socialising and community.
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A window on the organisation The workplace might be seen as a physical manifestation of an organisation. In many cases it is the place for production, meetings and inspiration. When work gets all the more flexible, mobile, global and built on cooperation, the workplace might evolve to instead work as a symbol for the organisation. It is the symbol that tells the story of the organisation’s culture and ambition, and thereby a way of attracting employees, investors and collaboration partners.
Why the workplace is changing: - Mobility - Space efficiency - A symbol of the brand and employer brand - To allow for more flexible work methods - For the employees’ health and well-being (NES 2018)
Several Workplaces Many of us today have the possibility to choose where we want to work. To have but one workplace is unusual. Rather, we choose where we want to work based on what we are doing and what creates the right conditions for life in general to function smoothly. Working from home or at a café has become commonplace.
Does your team have the possibility to choose where they want to work? Yes 65 % (NES 2018) 223
The Workplace
Mobile A place for meetings
Cooperation
Productive Flexible
Activitybased
Symbol
A route to functional
Environment
(NES 2018)
But there is also a counter-trend. For example Marissa Mayer made herself famous (or infamous) for her initiative of prohibiting working from home when she became CEO of Yahoo! She maintained that the best insights are gained from meeting new people and from spontaneous team meetings. Even if flexible working has many advantages for the individual, Mayer claimed that it did not benefit the business. Some saw this as a step backwards to an old-fashioned method, but others have still followed suit. An example is IBM who declared that their marketing team must work together as their work is iterative and must be understood and carried out in real time. They claim that genuine teamwork cannot be created through flexible working, even when working for a technical giant. (Hays Journal nr 14 2017) But is a ban really the future? Is it not possible to co-operate and at the same time allow flexibility for the individual? When we create self-governing organisations we hand over responsibility to the individual for how and where work is carried out.
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It is then up to us to judge to what extent we need and allow flexibility and how to organise the work. It can feel strange if the office is suddenly empty – is anybody actually working? But finding an alternative place of work based on what needs to be done today can foster both inspiration and effectiveness. Maybe the best place is the cathedral, the gym or the local office?
1/3 are considering changing the workplace (NES 2018)
To change workplaces in answer to the needs and wishes of employees seems to be moving slowly. Most people do not sit where they wish to, according to our survey FPL 2019. This is the case for all ages and industries. The oldest group most often sit in their own room, but would like to have activity-based offices (33 per cent).
Few sit where they would prefer How is your workplace today?
How would you prefer it to be?
Activity-based
20%
30%
Your own room
19%
27%
Shared room with a couple of colleagues
15%
20%
Office landscape
38%
15%
(FPL 2019)
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In the youngest group, most want to sit with a couple of colleagues. In this group only 20 per cent wish to work in an activity-based workplace.
Do you have an activity-based office? Yes 33 % No 62 % (NES 2018)
Activity-based offices have become a trend in recent years. 33 per cent of Nordic Leaders in NES 2018 say they have an activity-based office. But even the trend of activity-based offices, with playful offices and large open spaces has its countertrend. Some wonder whether cool offices with table tennis tables in the lobby are really what employees want. Regardless of what we choose the most important is to create a workplace that is set up for both work and well-being. Activity-based, own room or office landscape – they each have their advantages!
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A few comments from respondents to FPL 2019 on their choices and wishes of workplace ACTIVITY-BASED: “An activity-based office is the most critical component for free governance of one’s own time. Having your own place/room creates the expectation of being in the office ‘9-5’”. A ROOM OF ONE’S OWN: “I have a lot of external contacts and need a separate room. I see open landscapes as more disturbing than inspiring. Better to have meetings that provide inspiration on a focused subject than to get inspiration from all directions all the time.” SHARE A ROOM WITH A COUPLE OF COLLEAGUES: “Greater creativity and exchange of ideas every day, but also a place together with colleagues with the same role, which creates a focus on work too.” OPEN LANDSCAPE: “I like working in open offices, because of the social contact; I want to be able to pass on ideas easily and quickly such as when I just throw out a question in the room. But I like having my own desk, in other words I do not want it activity-based.” OTHER: “Higher flexibility, to be able to work in different places, in and out of office. I like freedom with responsibility. And some tasks demand a calmer environment than others.”
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Five possible workplaces in Future professional life
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Photography: Scott Webb
The Gym We are slowly but surely realising the importance of physical activity to our well-being, sustainability and performance. To cope with high tempo we need to be fit. And to have the time to become fit it might be practical to work at the gym. The gym is therefore a natural workplace. Besides the possibility to work out, there is healthy food, energy boosts and the benefit of not having to change clothes to shift focus – in the gym-office is it entirely possible to wear gym gear all day. They already have this in the US, where work stations with Wi-Fi and a socket, and meeting rooms to use between the pre-lunch yoga and the afternoon’s weight lifting. When will the first gym-office open in Sweden?
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Photography: Lukasz Szmigiel
The Woods The sun and the wind have given us energy through the ages. In our time they even give us electricity. With a mini-generator for sustainable energy underneath a rock, Wi-Fi in Googles hot air balloons and archives and storage in the cloud, the woods provide the perfect conditions for the hectic work-life of the future. Few things create such calmness as being out in the forest. There thoughts get to grow. The forest provides inspiration and when it also provides us with the infrastructure our work requires, it might be turned into the perfect workplace to grow and develop our perspectives.
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Photography: Michael B Beckwith
The Cathedral For a long time we have locked ourselves into small boxes in our working lives, despite the fact that great ideas demand dramatic spaces. At the same time there are many beautiful rooms that in our secular society are underused. In the cathedral there is space for great visions and crazy creativity. Instead of empty churches, we will in the future see entrepreneurs meet up and work together in different projects. The perfect place for those who really believe in their ideas.
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The Satellite In our connected world, some of us experience an “information overload” from time to time. This will lead us to demand separate and isolated workplaces. Teams or individuals will pull back to satellites to focus on their inner creativity, which can only work in the absence of external impressions. Here there is time for reflection and introspective monologue. In its most extreme form, this is probably a physical satellite that is shot out into orbit around the earth, or a minimal submarine in the darkest depths of the Mariana Trench. More everyday examples include impression-free cubes with foil ceilings – and hottest on Airbnb are the Northern cottages, perfect for team hangouts or personal-time deluxe.
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CEO of Michelin Nordic
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Photography: peterknutson.se
Peyman Sabet
”If we go back to the same desk day after day how open to change will we become?” How could the physical work environment support self-leadership? We talked with Peyman Sabet, CEO of Michelin Nordic, who has created an environment of full flexibility, where the employees themselves choose where to work. Michelin is a traditional French company where key performance indicators and processes have long been in focus. But from a few years back they work with self-leadership, a change which has intensified during the last two years. “We realise that knowledge is critical for achieving the right results; knowledge that exists among our employees. We want to grow and take market share, and to do this we must live up to the rapid pace of change driven by, among other things, digitalisation. Self-leadership or empowerment as we call it, becomes a prerequisite here. All employees must understand their role, feel responsibility and have the ability to act quickly”, says Peyman Sabet. “As an employer it is important to offer a culture of self-leadership to attract new talents”, he continues. When they had to move their office in Stockholm they seized on the change to create an entirely new environment that supports self-leadership. 235
Photography: Robin Elmgren
“Earlier, we sat in a traditional open landscape with separate rooms for the managers. When we moved we took the chance to create a whole new environment. We visited some 30 different companies around Stockholm to find benchmarks, and at one point we even borrowed a meeting room at a company that had come a long way in the development of their office environment. Doing so deepened our insight into the importance of environment in creating empowerment�, says Peyman. Full Freedom and Flexibility Today the office is entirely activity-based, and the employees are free to design their workday by themselves. Nobody has their own desk or room, and the leadership lead by example. Choosing an activity-based environment was a choice that felt obvious says Peyman.
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“Compare it to your home, where it feels natural that we need different environments for different activities. Bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom… In the same way, we need different environments for different tasks”, says Peyman. “And if we go back to the same desk day after day how open to change will we become?” As they moved they also adopted a new policy that gives each person full flexibility. “Nobody cares where or when you work as long as you deliver. This allows for everyone to create their own work-life balance”, says Peyman. “This places demands on leadership to set clear goals, but this we have achieved”. When focus is moved towards results rather than the location of where you work, many employees feel a great responsibility, Peyman has noted. Working in an entirely flexible environment requires this responsibility – everyone needs to plan and choose environment depending on which task they are currently working with. More creativity and increased well-being The new environment feels thought-through, luxurious and expensive. An obvious choice according to Peyman, since Michelin is a premium brand. This premium is reflected in their offices. They moreover strive to bind together the whole corporation, as for instance by naming all their meeting rooms after restaurants in the Nordics with stars in the Guide Michelin. The employees have collectively created an “Office Book”, with important rules in creating well-being at the office. And people enjoy it here, notes Peyman. “My experience is that more employees come into the office, even though there is no requirement to do so. And instead of going out for lunch, they get take-away and sit together in the office because they like it here”, he says. 237
Photography: Robin Elmgren
The environment is not static, but in constant development. If someone comes up with a good idea we implement it. And an increased amount of ideas and initiatives, not only when it comes to the work environment, is an effect of the move that Peyman has noted. “I see more creativity in the office, almost to the point of bursting, and we have better communication between departments and people now. It is difficult to keep in your own silo in this kind of office”, he says. “Increased interaction between departments and people allow people to learn from each other’s strengths in an entirely different way”. The transition to a new work method and environment was of course not friction free. 238
Full flexibility of where, when and how we work puts requirements on a strong digital environment and infrastructure. In this respect we still have some way to go, says Peyman. “If we had to make this same journey again, this is what I would have kept in mind from the start” he says. Luxury savings A luxurious and expensive environment may sound costly, but in this case it is rather the other way round. “The change has saved money since we use space a lot more effectively”, he states. Before the move they made a careful analysis of the use of meeting rooms. They noticed that large meeting rooms where seldom used, while smaller rooms were in demand. In their new offices the largest meeting rooms instead take ten people. Larger meetings are held in rooms that have collective access to in the property, and in cooperation with a hotel nearby. A mental change Long before the actual move, a mental process of change had already started. All employees were involved in this process, among other things by voting on different alternatives, trying out chairs, screens etc. The employees were also encouraged to see the move as an opportunity to change mind-set. “We were for example encouraged to test new ways of getting to work; if you usually take the bus, try the bike, or replace the car with the tube”, says Peyman. The new environment has been received positively by the majority. Some experience discomfort in not having their own physical workplace at the office, and here the leaders have the important task to give support to these people, he states. 239
Photography: Robin Elmgren
“That so many left their comfort-zone and embraced the change was surprising”, he says. “To see people from different departments have lunch together – not because they are forced to do so but because they want to – sparks feelings of warmth in my heart. Then we are really creating a culture that will be sustainable into the future”. The Workplace of the Future is indifferent to Location So what does Peyman think of the Workplace of the Future? He thinks it will be indifferent to location and will offer full flexibility. This will be a prerequisite to attracting the best talents, he says.
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“We will in the future be working more project-based and less in a hierarchy. Leaders will be leaders rather than specialists, and their task will be to motivate each employee to become their best self. We at Michelin work a lot with feedback-
Photography: Robin Elmgren
culture, in this way leadership also comes naturally�, he says.
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Three Tips for creating a work environment that supports Self-Leadership In conclusion Peyman gives three tips on how to create a work environment that supports self-leadership: 1. Reflect over which impression you want your brand to give to customers as well as employees. See the office as a part of your Employer Brand 2. Listen and involve the employees
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Photography: Robin Elmgren
3. Trust the employees, they want to do the right thing
– Checking in at the office will no longer be synonymous with working.
Which function should the actual workplace have in a digital, mobile and knowledge-intensive working life? Here are some voices from FPL 2019:
– Digitalisation will make us work more globally, therefore we need more flexible workplaces that allow for working in different places.
SourceFPL 2019
– The office will have the role of a meeting place for solving problems.
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Activating a Strategy A small group with an overview of the organisation and knowledge of a specific area could by connecting to the strategy set up a vision and goals for its area. For this to be realised all employees must understand the vision and why strategic goals are important, so that they can contribute with ideas of how their work methods should be changed to get there. By including all employees in the application of a strategy the collective knowledge of value-creation is taken into consideration in all roles for the development of new work methods. And for the employees to be able to contribute with relevant ideas in the strategy, a clear framework is necessary. Here next to the right you can see what such a framework could look like in the activation of a strategy connected to the workplace. When the framework is in place, we need a collective process for the testing and evaluation of ideas and the ideas that work can be implemented across the whole organisation. In this way, all employees are included in the activation of the strategy, and the probability of reaching the vision is increased.
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Recipe for activation, Strategy: Workplace Target: To offer an attractive workplace where employees want to be, feel good and choose to work
Vision:
Creating a workplace based on the needs of the employees
Workplace:
Interiors
Goals:
Work focus
Digital environments
Self-Leadership
Exteriors
Well-being
Cooperation environments
Focus areas:
Space efficiency
Noise reduction
Nature
Visual harmony
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How we can help you The book on Future professional life is in constant development. The fast changes make sporadic surveys or writing a book insufficient – everything may have changed once we have finished. Instead, we need something that can live on and constantly develop. We will for this reason continue to explore and study the book’s ten perspectives and extend it with new insights and wisdoms as we go. This is a more sustainable way of utilising the knowledge from our surveys and putting insights in greater contexts. Version 1.0 was built largely on our insights from our survey The Communicator with about 3000 respondents, conducted in the spring of 2017. In Version 2.0 we added insights from the survey “Customer Journey in Change” conducted in autumn 2017 in collaboration with Microsoft Dynamics. The survey covered Swedish Marketing Managers, Sales Managers and Customer Service Managers with questions of how they relate to new customer behaviour and how far they have come with adaptation of technology, competencies and work methods.
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In Version 3.0 we added the ten perspectives that now constitute the book’s chapters. These are based on the results from Nordic Executive Survey 2018, to which 750 Nordic managers gave their view of selfleadership and self-governing organisations. Version 4.0 has been strengthened by results and insights from the survey Future professional life 2019, in which 1800 respondents have given answers to the ten perspectives. We have developed a recipe for activation for each of these ten perspectives on Future professional life. They are presented in each chapter, where you may find a summary and keys of activation for the chapter at hand.
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Hammer & Hanborg Way of Activating Hammer & Hanborg’s ten recipes for the Future Organisation It may be challenging to implement the strategies that have been developed for moving the organisation in the right direction. We have for this reason developed a tool and an accompanying method for activating strategies through employee commitment. There are many reasons to involve all employees in the implementation: • The best solutions are created by testing and exploring together how the strategy is best activated. • Inclusion is a prerequisite for commitment, and activating strategies demands great commitment. The key is taking care of the experiences and ideas of each and every person. • We know that everyone has understood the strategy, which might be most important of all. Because if we want to contribute to realising a strategic decision or vision, the first thing required is that everyone actually understands it.
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Our tool, Hammer & Hanborg Way of Activating, may be used for activation on all levels. We can either set up together a framework for incentives, processes, and routines and so forth so as to for example create a learning organisation. Or the leadership has already established this framework, and implementation is needed to create actual change of behaviour; that is, not only coming up with ideas on how to become a learning organisation, but concrete activities that move us towards actually being a learning organisation. Depending on how much self-leadership and self-governance already exist in the organisation, the activation may be conducted through two phases. The first phase concerns how the organisation collectively wants to forge the structures for the learning organisation, and the second phase moves into the change of behaviour needed for it to be realised.
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How can we help you?
Photography: christiangustavsson.com
• Analysis, methods and solution for activation of the whole or parts of the thoughts presented in the book • Training for leaders or teams • Inspirational lectures • Workshops • Competence mapping • Recruitment and consultants in Marketing, Communication, Digital and Corporate Leadership
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Christina Hammer, Founding Partner christina.hammer@hammerhanborg.com Karin Netzell, CBDO karin.netzell@hammerhanborg.com
Christina Hammer
Karin Netzell
Founding Partner
Chief Business Development Officer 251
10 Perspectives on Future professional life Values: Use the value of values “Culture eats strategy for breakfast�. For this reason, values are the first perspective we explore. Values also become more important in the matching of employer and employee.
Leadership & Self-Leadership: Learn to lead Self-Leaders In Future professional life where everyone is a leader and leads their own work, processes and projects there are no managers, we need instead to lead each other and ourselves. This is on the other hand on entirely different terms than in hierarchical organisation. Self-leadership requires a new leadership.
Organisation: Rethink organisation New business-models and industries require our work to be organised in fast, transparent and flat organisational structures.
Motivation & Talent: Unleash the power of passion The Organisation of the Future is founded on the commitment and motivation of its employees. The alternative to create results through requirements and control no longer exists.
Talent: Re-define talent Competition for competence has never been fiercer. The Organisation of the Future requires talents that can lead, motivate and develop themselves.
Diversity & Inclusion: Explore the magic of diversity & inclusion Efficient teams is the magic that makes the whole bigger than its parts. But to achieve magical teams where all members have a place and contribute we need to learn to be open and look beyond our prejudices. Diversity and Inclusion is the way forwards. 252
Feedback-Culture: Craft a culture of continuous feedback To be able to grow and develop as individuals we need to be able to communicate constructively together in a Feedback-Culture. Many organisations are stuck in a judgmental culture that neither benefits the development of individuals nor of organisations.
Learning Organisation: Benefit from a learning organisation In knowledge-oriented organisation working in a rapidly changing world, we need to make sure silent knowledge as well as new ideas are brought forward and transferred between colleagues. We need to create a Learning Organisation.
Innovation: Learn from entrepreneurs When we work in constantly changing conditions, we need to develop our business through a customer perspective to stay relevant. Making use of everyone’s contribution to improvements and adjustments is a must. We need the Power of Innovation from the whole organisation.
The Workplace: Work well, feel fab The workplace sets many conditions for how we work. In the future, the work place must live up to the flexibility required for effective work. It must at the same time be an environment where people feel good so that they can perform.
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Wordlist Adtech: An abbreviation of Advertising Technology, it a collective term for software and tools that help bureaus and brands to manage, deliver and analyse their digital marketing. Agile: A collective term for development methods that are flexible, easily adapted and iterative. Plans and methods are evaluated and improved continuously. Instead of starting from a detailed specification, goals and visions are formulated at the start of the project. The detailed specification becomes a result rather than an input. AI: Artificial Intelligence is intelligence that is shown by machines. Activation: With employee commitment as a driver, creating and executing concrete, relevant activities in line with a strategy, culture or plan. AR: Augmented Reality, means that we experience a physical and realistic environment that is enhanced by computer generated sensual experiences such as sound, video or GPS-data. This is usually done in real time. Advanced AR techniques e.g. Computer vision, make it possible for the user to interact with the enhanced environment. Automation: Letting a machine or technology do the work. Big data Large amounts of digitally stored data that is difficult to analyse using traditional database methods.
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Co-working space: An office or place where people with different professions and employers work together. They are often giggers. Crowdsourcing: Is a method where one uses many different partners to solve a problem. Usually an open question is asked of an undefined, large group of people who can contribute with their input and suggestions. Design Thinking: A method to evaluate and solve problems working from the creative strategies that designers use. Matches the customer’s/user’s needs with what is technologically viable and profitable. Edutainment: Entertainment used for an educational purpose. Examples of these are pedagogical computer games or TV-shows. Feedback: Reflecting and communicating thoughts on a result or behaviour for the purpose of change and improvement. Feedforward: Focuses, as opposed to feedback, on the future. It is about demonstrating to a person, possibilities of future performance or behaviour, for the purpose of improvement. Fintech: Abbreviation of Finance Technology. Fintech companies combine financial services with new information technology. Gamification: Entails the usage of game mechanisms in areas that usually are not thought of as pertaining to games, such as in working life or in education. It is a way of increasing interaction and commitment with the user. 255
Gig/Giggers/Gig-Economy: Gig-Economy is an umbrella term for a growing job market that is more flexible. All the more talents (giggers) choose shorter, limited jobs (gigs) ahead of permanent contracts. Influencer: A person with an area of interest who generates many followers with the same interest on social media and that in various ways affects their followers. IoT: Internet of Things, means that objects such as household machines, clothes, machines, vehicles, and buildings are equipped with Internet connections enabling them to be connected to wireless networks and thereby exchange data with each other. Lean: an ideology that entails maximising customer value and simultaneously minimising waste of resources. The purpose is to make work methods more efficient, removing unnecessary wastefulness, and becoming more efficient in general. Machine Learning: Methods of getting computers to learn to solve tasks on their own that they haven’t necessarily been programmed to solve. M-Commerce: A term that describes commerce through mobile technology. The shop is in your pocket or hand all the time. It is predicted that 45 % of the total E-commerce will be conducted through BI Intelligence “E-Commerce Briefing� by the year 2020. Omnicustomers: A term referring to the description of the important relation to the customer and the customer journey that proceeds through a large number of physical as well as digital channels. It starts with research and can if its correctly handled been deepened over time.
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Onboarding: Refers to the introduction process of a newly employed employee. Showrooming: Sometimes we want to experience a product before we buy it. To observe the product in a physical shop and then buying it online later on provides good opportunities of finding the best price, and getting it delivered to the door. Self-Leadership: Entails letting employees to lead their own work and take responsibility within a predefined framework, as opposed to being led by a manager or superior. It requires a higher degree of responsibility on prioritising one’s work and to motivate oneself. Self-Governing Organisation: An organisation with fully developed self-leadership, where the employees collectively develop and manage the organisation Webrooming: The terms refers to a behaviour that entails searching for information about products online, so as later to buy them in a physical shop. According to Postnord, the share of consumers increased from 31 % in 2015 to 45 % in 2016.
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ŠHammer & Hanborg October 2019 Design: Kikki HÜgberg kikki@kikkihogberg.se Illustrations: Malin Wigren, wigrenfrojd.com Mustasch Ad-firm, mustasch.se Photographer’s names given adjacent to each photo.
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