An increasingly complex society with rapid technological progress such as the rise of artificial intelligence, challenges us to fundamentally rethink the way we work. But what will future working concepts, environments, and systems look like?

Uli Weinberg gathers a diverse group of speakers at this panel discussion in the d.circus to learn from the perspective of Reiner Hoffmann, President of the German Trade Union Confederation; Kim Dabbs, Director of Applied Research & Consulting at Steelcase; Nancy Birkhölzer, CEO of innovation agency IXDS; and author Steven Hill. In their debate, the panelists discuss major trends shaping the future of work.

Shape the process, explore new forms of organizational design and test them internally

“We have the capacity to shape the process in a changing world of labor” – Reiner Hoffmann

From a trade union perspective there are three elements that enable us to shape the future of work. For Rainer Hoffmann education and qualification will be the key. People need to be prepared for new types of work in a context of emerging technologies. They will need a different set of skills such as highly-tuned empathy and being able to collaborate across disciplines. However, a central question is whether organizations will be able to give employees enough space to participate in the process of a changing labor market. Working times have to be adapted much more during a person’s lifetime, suggests Reiner Hoffmann. Thus, new types of working time regulation are necessary to put citizens in the center and give them sovereignty over their time.

“As we start to explore what the future of work is, we need to try that in our organization first.” – Kim Dabbs

“Apply a proven user-centered innovation process to organizational design” – Nancy Birkhölzer

To stay innovative and enable business competitiveness in the digital age, organizations also have to evaluate their own organizational design. Nancy Birkhölzer emboldens organizations to embrace New Work principles to maximize their impact for their desired purpose through continuous learning and improvement. As a New Work pioneer, her company IXDS also prototypes and tests new forms of organizational design within their own team and encourages other organizations to do the same.

And just like IXDS, furniture manufacturer Steelcase explores and tests new forms of organizational design on themselves. Together with employees, leaders at Steelcase co-create what the future could look like for their working environment. In this process, everyone is a learner as well as a teacher.

Purpose and impact are key elements for future working environments

“We need to connect people in their passion with a purpose-driven economy understanding what the work is for and why we are doing it”- Kim Dabbs

Both Kim Dabbs and Nancy Birkhölzer highlight a purpose-driven economy as a critical model for the future of work. People should be enabled to find out which impact they want to make with their work. Then they need to find other people who believe in the same purpose, form any kind of organization or collective, and work to pursue it together. However, a big open question is how to measure impact and everyone’s contribution to it. And what will incentives for people who work for a specific purpose look like? Will we stick to financial incentives or can we also find ways to incentivize societal and environmental impact?

Rethink societal structures

For author Steven Hill it is clear that we face big challenges in society regarding the transformation of labor markets going forward. He gives the example of a fast-growing section of our economy that impacts existing social and welfare systems: Online labor brokerages such as Upwork from Silicon Valley. Upwork is a global freelancing platform where businesses and independent professionals connect and collaborate remotely. The problem with this and similar platforms is that companies hire workers scattered across the globe and don’t pay for their social or health insurance. “As more and more workers work this way, it will undermine the welfare system”, Steven Hill underlines. The employer in this case does not pay taxes and it is not clear whether the worker pays taxes. Therefore, “we need to establish a portable safety net for these workers”, says Steven Hill.

The discussion illustrates key challenges companies and trade unions but also society and politics face regarding the future of work. Although many ideas and answers to these challenges are already being developed, many problems still need to be solved. And according to the panel the Design Thinking mindset is a great approach to tackling these problems.