The Future of the Workplace

Emcees of Innovation: The Rise of a New Discipline

There is no doubt that collaboration, or the romanticized ideal thereof, is intrinsic to the success of the modern organization. The idea makes logical sense; people working together should produce more than the contribution of any individual. And collaboration is not just an ideal, it is a functional necessity; people need to work together across geographies. However, in reality, the dynamics and tools of working together are often stumbling blocks.

Today, without easy and open communication, ideas can erode, and resources are wasted. Skilled specialists are being asked to take time away from their core capabilities in order to wrangle video-conferencing units. This can cause personal and professional difficulties, the detritus of which is dealt with by current HR and IT capabilities. We don’t need collaboration; we need fluent collaborators.

The Future:

As we come out of the recession we hang onto the dream that partnership will make a more productive and efficient workplace, the landscape of which is changing. Enter Gen Y flexing their technological and relationship-building muscles. They will appear to be excellent collaborators-they have the functional skills (see hours spent on Facebook). However, in a friction-filled committee setting, they are neither experienced nor self-directed enough in their fields to know what to do next. A backlash against the inefficiencies of collaboration is seeded.

Specialization regains popularity in the workplace, and along with it a new field of specialists is born- “Project Emcees”. These skilled middlemen help multidisciplinary teams communicate and understand each other, across the globe to facilitate progress towards common goals. This new function represents a paradigm shift in the way we work. Once again, employees in the workforce will be encouraged to do what they do best including Gen Y, who is poised to lead this emerging field and its supporting industries. The new workplace can have it all with collaborators helping specialists become more than the sum of their parts.

This new professional field will have social, technological, and market implications. Emphasis on the specialization of skills will return identity and pride in the workplace. Architectures and technologies will be reevaluated and designed for seamless group sharing. New corporate metrics and reward systems will be established for highly collaborative teams. The workplace that makes room for collaboration facilitators early will have a competitive edge by allowing for the connections that drive innovation and growth.



-Team Death Squad