The Future of Work APAC Conference – Chair’s Opening Session

 Title:

The Future of Work

Conference Chair: 

Dr Caroline Burns, Founder and Managing Director, Workplace Revolution

Event: 

APAC Future of Work Conference 2024

Date:

15-16 October 2024

Chair’s opening session:

The world of work is at an inflection point.

Amid economic headwinds and tighter constraints, every leader I speak with is searching for ways to make their organisation more productive.

And as new technologies like Generative AI explode, it’s clear the global workstyle experiment that began in 2020 isn’t over—in fact, it may be just beginning.

This moment demands swift but smart action to set us on a path toward a better future of work.

But before going any further, I want to take you time-traveling to remind you how we got here, back more than 100 years to the industrial era when work was a rigidly structured activity, something linear and regimented.

And even as work evolved during the 20th century, when management guru Peter Drucker popularized the concept of “knowledge worker”, this mental model of work persisted.

Now in the post-smartphone, post covid era of digital-first work and artificial intelligence, work complexity has grown exponentially and innovative than at any time in history.

Knowledge workers are far more distributed and we’re able to work more flexibly than ever before.

In other words, work today looks very different than it did 100 years ago and even that it did 10 years ago—and so we must reevaluate what really drives productivity and how best to measure success as the future of work evolves.

But what is the future of work?  Are we there yet?

Is it skills or capabilities or mindsets or an ability to learn and adapt?

Is it AI?

I believe the future of work is the stuff that makes us human.

According to the World Economic Forum, cognitive skills including analytical thinking and creativity are most in-demand. Right behind these are 3 important attitudinal elements centred on self-efficacy, which is our confidence in being able to achieve a goal or complete something.

These are:

1. resilience, flexibility and agility;
2. motivation and self-awareness; and
3. curiosity and lifelong learning

What we used to call “character”

But after more than a century of eliminating character and human messiness from work, we’ve forgotten how to do this.

And that’s why we are here today.  Because more than half of global leaders say that skills gaps and difficulties attracting talent are the key barriers to transformation.

As influential leaders and experts, do we understand how these challenges affect the resilience and future success of our business?

….how to fill them?

…. and how long this might take?

Have we established and properly resourced a plan of action for the next year, 3 and 5 years?

These are the questions we are all asking ourselves.

And over the next 2 days our expert speakers and panellists will share their insights, experience and research to give you the edge in navigating the future of work.

More information on the conference agenda and delegates can be found here.